US and UK - an ideological parting?

There is an interesting article in the Washington Post entilted: Between the U.S. and Britain, an ideological parting: “Now we have Brown-Obama, who barely speak to each other. And even though in Gordon Brown and Barack Obama we once again have two “center-left” candidates in charge, a distinct lack of harmony characterizes transatlantic political debates. Our health-care conversations, for example, are totally different. This became apparent last year when Republicans held up the British health-care system as an example of the nightmare that might await America if Obama’s health-care proposals were passed. British conservatives—who had been bashing their centralized system for years—immediately rallied to its defense. David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader who is angling to become prime minister in this spring’s election, has even promised to “ring-fence” health care so that it is not affected by future budget cuts.”