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Down with the Special Relationship.

Wessexman said:
The entry or the whole thing?
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the entry. I did read the first one though about subs and that was ok.

the entry about the special relationship I found to be a little disconcerting, as I have always been led to believe a special relationship does and will always persist between the US and GB, kind of mother v. rebellious teenager. I guess for that analogy to work GB has to show unconditional love as the US continues to make an ass of itself for a few more centuries, then we'll mellow out and start giving y'all some grandkids.
 
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Edmash thanks m8,i would say this to Peter Hitchens i would not trust him and he does not like the Brits after we Blessed him in the womb.

thats the thanks we get after we built your country from nothing.

kind regards to the true blue of the USA.

mikeey
 
I cannot believe how Hitchens thinks Brits gets poorly treated.

Americans ****ing love England, more than any other country. If there was a cereal called Union Jacks it'd be bigger than frosted flakes.

Not to mention the fact that every time some royal comes here everyone goes gaga, and I can guarantee nobody else in the world gets that kind of treatment. You'd forget we kicked out the monarchy.
 

He is mostly pissed off about the American-Fenian relationship I think. A lot of rightwing Brits are.
 
Joby said:
I cannot believe how Hitchens thinks Brits gets poorly treated--
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I think it's because many of our politicians have spoken about the "Special Relationship" that is supposed to exist. It hasn't really since Winston Churchill but that was through his sheer force of will.

Basically it's because Britain is still trying to find its place in the world - we no longer have an empire, we don't wish to be subsumed into a European Superstate and the old empire / commonwealth has looked to itself while we ignored it to try and "pal up" with America.

What Peter Hitchens talks about in his blog is basically what BBC reporters were talking about 5 years ago on Newsnight - even at the height of Bush and Blair seemingly re-creating a new "Special Relationship." Personally I think Bush and Blair had a special relationship (no sexual innuendo implied) however that didn't extend to the governments or the agents working with each other.

America owes us nothing, America has its own interests as we do - we as a nation need to focus on British interests and being prepared to say "no" when US interests and UK interests conflict and we also need to forge our own way in the world. That doesn't mean thumbing our noses up at the US - but we certainly shouldn't allow our politicians to continue to try to fool us that somehow what the UK thinks or does is of any more concern to the US than what any other nation thinks or does. The "special relationship" is over and done with, maybe there will be times when US and UK interests genuinely match and we will work together again, but for now we need to find our own feet and our own way forward.
 
Agreed. This relationship is one sided, i think it's time to start looking at only UK's interest - stronger ties with Europe for one.
 
Laila said:
Agreed. This relationship is one sided, i think it's time to start looking at only UK's interest - stronger ties with Europe for one.
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There is little in our interest there if you mean the EU.

Liberal rhetoric on Iraq and Bush aside, the US has been as good an ally to us as Europe. We simply shouldn't look only to them.
 
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Laila said:
--snip-- it's time to start looking at only UK's interest - stronger ties with Europe for one.
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The current relationship with Europe has dangerous possibilities. Much of Europe seems bent on unification and ever closer integration - it's best we leave them to their "experiment."

What I meant was GB looking more and more to itself and finding partners who are more in tune with us. Originally the EU was about a market - that core idea has been overwhelmed by a social experiment that could swallow us and take away our identity if we are not careful.

Some of our old colonies (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and some parts of Africa etc) have been ignored too long although we have more in common with them than we think. We originally became great through trade and industry (and abusing our position in Empire) and we should be looking again at trade and keeping our independence.

I'm not yet for walking away from the EU however I don't think our politicians really realise the depths of public mistrust or fear of losing our sovereignty that runs through many Brits.
 
thats the thanks we get after we built your country from nothing.
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lol

stronger ties with Europe for one.
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You mean get more involved with the EU or just relations with Europe generally ?
 
kaya'08 said:
You mean get more involved with the EU or just relations with Europe generally ?
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Stronger relationship and perhaps in future join it.
I don't think UK should keep banging on about US when we have European allies that are much more closer. A united Europe has the potential to be a superpower if it wished eliminating the need for us to suck up to US.
 
Laila said:
-- A united Europe --
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The interesting thing about the united Europe idea is (IMO) that regionalism became more and more of a movement under the EU. Different areas and regions realised they could pull down huge EU development funds for their regions if they could demonstrate a need. Mostly Spain, France and Greece in the past it's also spread since to the UK.

Anyhow - I struggle to see how a united Europe could ever come together as there are far too many disparate needs and requirements including the need to keep certain local traditions and dalects going - look at the simple choice of choosing a unified and unifying language. Common sense tells us English is the most widespread language (not the most spoken - that would be Han Chinese I think) but as nobody wanted to allow the English that kudos they invented "Esperanto."

It was a market, it should work as a market and it should go back to being a market. I don't see the sense in anything else.
 
Stronger relationship and perhaps in future join it.
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We are in the union. Just not "part" of it

I don't think UK should keep banging on about US when we have European allies that are much more closer. A united Europe has the potential to be a superpower if it wished eliminating the need for us to suck up to US
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Haha get real. The prospect may sound attracting but you can honestly say you would give up your country so it can be annexed to a greater Europe, is it really realistic? Oh boy i feel a new hitler era coming.
 
kaya'08 said:
We are in the union. Just not "part" of it
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I'd rather we have more say.
Sucking up to a country half way across the world when our friendship with European nations is not as good seems ridiculous.
 
Laila said:
I'd rather we have more say.
Sucking up to a country half way across the world when our friendship with European nations is not as good seems ridiculous.
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It depends if we have to give up sovereignty to do such. We don't have to join some nightmare European psuedo-state to have a better relationship towards France or Germany and if they demand such then we don't need such a relationship.
 
Wessexman, hitler managed to motivate a battered, tired, crippled German state and turn it into a maritime super power. Thats definetly excellent, because not only did he do that, but he persuaded everybody his sick, twisted ideology was right, and even persuaded millions to die fighting for his movement, that ideaology. But persuading about 27 countries of seperate nationality to give up there boarders, sovieregn, and there own soil for a unified Europe with one army is completely stupid, unrealistic, and please, not even worth mentioning. Its a ****ed up MZ fantasy.

This dumb arse special relationship crap ended long ago, but people still think it exists because our leaders dont have the balls to turn there own thinking caps on instead of being brainless and just doing everything our dear ally says. We should increase European relations, we should increase global relations, too. The future powers will be in central asia, if we dont make ties now, we'll miss out.
Increasing European relations have nothing to do with the EU, being an ally of a European country does not concern the union and never did. Switzerland has fantastic relations with the EU member states, and Norway. Is it one? No. We shouldnt, therefore, be getting more involved with the union, but instead work our way back out while extending and solidifying our relations with EU states.
 
Yes we should work on relations with European states but I don't see why we shouldn't try and do the same with the US. I don't see why either is better.
 
Peter Hitchens is a miserable bitter man.He doesent like a single country on the globe including the UK.I almost have a freudian view of him he is obvously extremely jealous of his brothers success and recognition among his peers.
 
Wessexman said:
Yes we should work on relations with European states but I don't see why we shouldn't try and do the same with the US. I don't see why either is better.
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Well my argument is why do we spend so much time trying to make best friends with the Americans when really our diplomatic ties should be more focused in Europe? That meaning, we should do our best to further our American ties but should spend less energy on them and more energy with the European states and elsewhere.
America is important to us no doubt so i would never say we shouldnt work on our relations with them, but we should try and pay others more attention too. It would be good for the UK.
 
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