Gordon Brown will arrive at the White House today bearing a present for President Obama: a desk ornament carved from the antique oak timbers of HMS Gannet, a ship Britain used to suppress the slave trade in the 19th century.
Gannet was a sister ship to HMS Resolute, which provided the wood for the desk given to President Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880. The desk remains in the Oval Office as a testament to the length and depth of the relationship between the two countries.
The wooden ornament replaces the last gift from Britain to adorn the Oval Office: a bronze bust of Winston Churchill, the war-time leader who was idolised by President Bush.
Although the Government offered to extend the loan of the