It was good to hear President Bush confirm yesterday what many of us have considered an abiding truth in a treacherous world, that Britain and America maintain a special relationship. Gordon Brown, the new prime minister, in Camp David for his first visit with Mr. Bush, leaned on the words of that warrior for democracy Winston Churchill in expressing that we have come to be this close because of our “joint inheritance of liberty, a belief in opportunity for all, a belief in the dignity of every human being.”

There is no better time than now, as we seek to help Iraq advance in the Middle East ideas we consider essential, to be reminded of the belief we share with the British, that democracy is for everyone and that all people, wherever they are born, are equal and deserving of the freedoms we cherish. It is a strange turn that the whole war debate has taken, with the universality of the democratic ideal often denied by those who seem to consider democracy too good for some people or too difficult to transplant.

Mr. Bush certainly marked the point yesterday, saying, as he has so often, that “Freedom is universal. Freedom is a gift to each man, woman and child on the face of the Earth.” We may have fought for our liberty from British colonial rule, but we continue to owe the foundation of our thought and the inspiration of our free government to the land of the Magna Carta, Churchill, Thatcher, Blair, and, now, Brown.

That heritage has brought us to fight side by side with Britain in two world wars and during the long years of the Cold War in the last century, and in this new millennium in what Mr. Brown yesterday described as a “generation-long battle” against violence inspired by radical Islam. One of the comforting things about working alongside the British on great ventures such as this is that, though tactical issues may be disputed, there is no need for argument. As the president put it, “Any time you share values the way we share values, it makes it easy to have strategic conversations.”

It is encouraging to discover that the new prime minister is every bit as devoted to being our partner as was his predecessor. A fair amount of speculative nonsense has been written about how, to ensure a future electoral victory, Mr. Brown would be sure to distance himself from Mr. Bush and from Mr. Blair’s commitment to bringing democracy to Iraq. The naysayers were proven wrong, as they have been so often. There may be many differences between the characters of Messrs. Brown and Blair, but the message yesterday was be not misled that the two men thought differently, too, about Britain’s role in the world.

On the contrary, Mr. Brown showed yesterday that he is every bit as devoted as Mr. Blair to “the special relationship” between Britain and America, as befits a man who has spent so many summers relaxing with Americans on the beaches of Cape Cod. It was reassuring to hear the president acknowledge, even if it will irritate the French, that “the special relationship” between our two countries, is as deep and as warm as ever. It is worth remarking that the simplicity of the president’s words reveals his clear understanding of the fundamental thoughts which underpin our free society.

The president spelled out one of the main ties that bind us to the British: our common belief that those of us who enjoy freedom owe an obligation to those who live under tyranny to try to help them alter their state. “There’s no doubt in my mind those of us who live under free societies have an obligation to work together to promote it,” the president said. “And the man I listened to shares that same sense of morality and that same sense of obligation not to free others, but to create the conditions so others can realize the blessings of freedom.” It is that shared feeling of obligation and willingness to roll up their sleeves and help that separates Britain from the rest of our other European allies. The special relationship is not something to be taken lightly.