Giuliani takes campaign to London

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign is going global.

In London today to address a conservative US-British think tank and raise campaign money from Americans abroad, the former New York City mayor picked up support from a pair of foreign policy advisers to former prime minister Margaret Thatcher -- Robert Conquest, a historian and expert on Russia; and Nile Gardiner, who was a foreign policy researcher for the "Iron Lady." Both will advise Giuliani's campaign for the Republican nomination, the campaign announced.

Giuliani was observing bipartisanship during the London trip, meeting with luminaries of both Thatcher's Conservative Party and the Labor Party, which has been in power for more than a decade.

After meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Giuliani said the close ties between the US and United Kingdom should and will continue.

"It is a special relationship that has been forged over many, many years of common objectives, common values," Giuliani said, in remarks provided by his campaign. "Tested by war. Tested by terrorism. And the two countries are as close as they’ve ever been and I think the prospect of their remaining even closer is what’ll be the future."

An Anglophile who counts Winston Churchill among his role models and in 2002 received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth for his exploits after the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Giuliani met early today with Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair. In the evening, Giuliani is scheduled to meet Thatcher and deliver the inaugural Margaret Thatcher Atlantic Bridge lecture before returning to the US.