No 'special relationship' between Britain and US: MPs

[Pete]

No 'special relationship' between Britain and US: MPs

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

"Talk of a "special relationship" between Britain and the United States should be dropped, a House of Commons committee said Sunday, adding the Iraq war carried important lessons for Anglo-US ties.

The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee said Britain should be "more willing to say no" to the United States and warned that London will probably not be able to influence Washington as much in future............."

Used to be we could be pretty sure of England an Israel. Our "Friends List" is getting shorter.

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by Pete

No 'special relationship' between Britain and US: MPs

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

"Talk of a "special relationship" between Britain and the United States should be dropped, a House of Commons committee said Sunday, adding the Iraq war carried important lessons for Anglo-US ties.

The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee said Britain should be "more willing to say no" to the United States and warned that London will probably not be able to influence Washington as much in future............."

Used to be we could be pretty sure of England an Israel. Our "Friends List" is getting shorter.

Seems the argument is twofold, internal and external. The decline in UK military and economic prominence as well as U.S. political attitudes toward Europe. My impression is that the current regime wants everyone to sit in the back seat and shut up.

Apparently the U.S. is looking East for friends. so is saying "No" such a bad thing?

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

.... Apparently the U.S. is looking East for friends. so is saying "No" such a bad thing?.......

Depends on what is asked. If walking down the same path it's nice to help your friend over a rough spot or two.

If you take different paths and too big a mountain gets between you it's hard to throw your friend a rope if he slides over the edge of a cliff.

Keeping in sight of each other is not such a bad thing.

[mojaveman]

The U.S. and the UK have always experienced difficulties. It could be that the only thing we really share with the them is a common language.

[newbie]

The decline in UK military and economic prominence

Actually, from what I have read, London has become, arguably, the financial center of the world. the UK, is , on the whole, much more stable than the U.S. and certainly much better off compared to the E.U. with the exception of possibly Germany. My point is, the UK is an absolutely essential ally, we need them. Just look at how much the SAS helped us in our hunt for criminals in Iraq, and continues to help in Afghanistan. We have alienated them a bit, and though I supported many aspects of Bushes foreign policy, he certainly succeeded in alienating us from many of our historical Allies. Whether or not that was inevitable is up for debate, but in my opinion we should do everything in our power to strengthen our relationship with the UK. They are a very/ most important ally. my un-needed 2 cents.

[Expatriate]

Just sounds like more of the Labor party's increasingly militantly left rhetoric which they're spouting before the general election in May. They're really in dire straits and so seem to have fallen back on their usual talk of class division etc etc etc. Obviously the US is an anathema to the hard-left therefore its unsurprising that Labor are now trying to be seen to be distancing themselves from America.

The announcement is just mirroring their other tactics in other areas - the smear section of their campaign is focused on the fact that David Cameron went to Eton & Oxford and any talk of policy seems to be based on the premise of 'Thatcher screwed Britain far worse than we've done' (The fact that they've now been in power for 13 years and are still trying to blame the Tories for everything seems to have passed Labor by...)

They've gotten even more anti-military of late, I noticed in the Times on Saturday there was a small article detailing that the government has now restricted all travel for military officers to standard class regardless of rank or other concerns (Transportation of classified documents was one highlighted in the article), whilst civil servants and MPs are still able to claim for first class travel regardless.

Newbie - not sure where you're reading that the British economy is doing better than the rest of Europe (Greece aside), everything in the media over here has been on how the bank bailout and stimulus stuff that Britain did has only served to lengthen its depression in comparison to equivalent G7 economies. Plus its really embroiled in a load of strikes at the moment, BA cabin crew through the 'Unite' union, and now National Rail staff also.

Anyway really this seems to me to be just campaign-speak with little substance behind it. Barring a political miracle for Labor, they just arent even going to be in power any more come May, to be making these proclamations seems a tad presumptuous.