Bush inauguration - Conciliatory moves hard to swallow

AS he embarks on a second four-year term as US president, sceptics could be forgiven for taking a jaundiced view of the overnight conversion of George W Bush to the politics of consensus.

In the course of yesterday’s inauguration address, he recited the pithy one-liners his supporters love to hear, emphasising that in a world moving towards liberty, he was determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty.

Liberty is the new catchword as the 58-year-old President emphasises that the survival of freedom in America increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands.