Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen!
History is
more than the path left by the past.
It influences the present and can shape the future. We met today, in Westminster Hall, a
building begun nine hundred years ago.
When the Vikings were visiting the shores of what would become the United States. Even it
was Columbus who would subsequently demonstrate the politician ought, of
arriving late but claiming all the credit.
This whole has witnessed grim trails on the sentencing to death of a king, coronation banquets, ceremonial addresses, and the coffins of those receiving the
last respects of our people. Few places reach so far into the hearth of our
nation. Yet, until today, no American President has stood on these steps to
address our country's parliament. It is my honour Mr. President to welcome you
as our friend and as a statesman.
Statesmen-ship is the cement which seals our shared idealism as
nations. It makes meaning-full the unity of
and ambition, passion for freedom an abhorrence of injustice, that is the core
of our close alliance. It is fallen to
you to tackle economic turbulence at home, to protect the health of those
without wealth and to seek that precious balance between security which is too
often threatened and human rights which is too often denied. History is not the
burton of any one man or woman alone, but some are called to meet a special
share of its challenges. Its a duty that
you discharged with a dignity, determination and distinction that are widely
admired. Abraham Lincoln once observed that nearly all man can stand adversity
but if you want to test the man’s character, give him power. Ladies and
gentlemen the President of The United States of America, Barak Obama.