FOREIGN visits are a great way to burnish a politician's statesmanlike credentials, especially for a presidential hopeful. So the headlines in today's British press are not what Mitt Romney ordered. "Romneyshambles" quips The Independent. "Who invited party-pooper Romney?" asks the conservative, and generally pro-American, Daily Mail. And The Sun, as always, is the pithiest; "Mitt the Twit" is its headline. Mr Romney's mistake was in the classic mould for all politicians; deliver one message tailored for the home audience, before being more diplomatic overseas. Questioned by Brian Williams over whether the Olympic games would be a success, he said

You know, it's hard to know just how well it will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging.

To be fair, most Britons would have similar doubts. But that's not to say they like to hear some foreign politician expressing them. It's a bit like going to a dinner party and complaining loudly about the decor and the cooking. Perhaps Mr Romney thought Britons wouldn't notice. But over here in "old Europe", we have the television. The internet, even!

The remarks were perhaps designed to highlight Mr Romey's own success as the organiser of the Salt Lake City winter Olympics in 2002. But the patronising tone did nothing to endear him to the Conservative Party over here. David Cameron tartly remarked

We are holding an Olympic games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course, it's easier if you hold an Olympic games in the middle of nowhere.

Boris Johnson, mayor of London, mocked the American, telling a Hyde Park crowd

There's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we're ready. Are we ready?

Sadly for Mr Romney, that was not his only gaffe. He appeared to forget the name of Ed Miliband, calling him "Mr Leader" and said he had looked out of the

backside of Downing Street

at the beach volleyball court. Again, the latter can be put down to the vagaries of the English idiom and there are plenty of Britons who might forget the name of the Labour leader, who is popularly claimed to look like Wallace (from the Wallace and Gromit animation) or Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean character.

Still, not a great start to the tour. The most biting remarks came from anonymous officials. The Daily Mail quotes one mandarin as saying

What a car crash. We are speechless.

while the unkindest cut of all came from a "diplomatic source" in The Times:

It is worse than Sarah Palin in terms of basic diplomacy.

Update: It may be a good job that the British press hasn't read Mr Romney's book, "No Apology". Foreign Policypoints out that the book contains a section that says