George Bush's childhood bedroom in his restored home in Midland, Texas.
Photograph: Jeff Mitchell/Reuters
Americans have a touching fondness for the the childhood homes of former and serving presidents. Only the other day the US House of Representatives voted to make President Clinton's birthplace in Hope, Akansas a national monument - it was made famous by one of the cornier lines of his first presidential campaign: "I still believe in a place called hope".
Now the second President Bush's birthplace in Midland, Texas, has been honoured, too, even though he actually spent most of his time growing up in posh east coast schools and colleges. His small wooden bedroom went on show this week.
British politicians can only look on in awe. No one seems to want to visit their childhood haunts: when John Major drove through Brixton in the back of a government limo for an election film boosting his man-of-the-people roots, he was mocked for exclaiming "it's still there" when he passed his old flat.
Tony Blair has successfully confused everyone as to where he is actually from - which is Scotland, although the first home he can remember is in a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. Only the other day Mr Blair recalled being bitten by fierce Aussie magpies as he ran in the back garden as a child.
Winston Churchill's early home is open to the public, but only by accident since it is Blenheim Palace near Oxford and tourists were visiting it anyway long before he was born.
Ted Heath came from the Kent coast, but no one seems to visit the spot. And even Margaret Thatcher, the famous daughter of Lincolnshire, is hardly honoured in her own town. Someone did open a museum in the old shop where Alderman Roberts and his daughter served customers, but it has closed down. Apparently it's now home to a holisitc health centre. What would Maggie think?
