Will Britain's 'special relationship' with the US ever end?
Personally, I really hope it does.
Sure, there are close military and intelligence sharing ties (five eyes, yada yada yada), and yes, British pilots train on the F35 in America, but that’s only because we actually use the F35, and do you know what, we didn’t have to. We cold have made our own, arguably (Typhoon), or we could have bought elsewhere (the Rafale is sexy as hell, which is reason enough to have it on the strength).
Plenty enough other countries also have their own relationships with the US, and I’d argue that Israel has a much better and more beneficial one with them than us, any day of the week.
Quite why we’re so obsessed with calling it special as well, I find somewhat humiliating and demeaning. It really does pint us as a needy, clearly weaker partner, desperate for validation by being thrown crumbs of affection, and magnifying it into something to really cherish.
And should the US administration ever find itself headed by a power-mad narcissist who doesn’t give a shit about anyone, but himself and loves lording it over everyone else, that really will play into his hands, and not help us at all.
Hmm, surely that would never happen. Yeah, once Trump came along it became very clear just how transitory the whole thing really was. If only we actually realised that.
So yes, I’d sure like it to end, but will it?
Sadly, probably not, and we’ve got Britain’s crazy, idiotic, mixed up history and national psyche to thank for that. Yes, it is absolutely our fault we’re constantly prostituting ourselves at the coat tails of every US administration.
Starmer tried to stand up to them, and look what happened to him.
So, back in the day, British Empire, top dog, superpower.
World War 1 ends, and Britain’s still a superpower, but with serious debts and manpower shortages, America is awakening, her economy becoming massive. Society is slowly changing in Britain, but through centuries of class based subservience and monarchy, change on that front is damn slow.
World War 2 ends, and Britain’s a major world power, just, but damn near bankrupt. The empire coughs out of existence, and Britain’s influence drops, pretty much like a stone. Suez, the dumbest thing Britain ever does until Iraq and then brexit, really highlights the stark power difference between Britain and the US. They're bigger, stronger and more powerful than us, and it showed.
Understandably, a lot of Brits didn’t like it. They hankered for the past, for the empire, for the (past) days when they were top dogs.
Right wing British politicians milk that sentiment for all it’s worth, and it lands on fertile ground, because most of Britain (well, England at least) is right wing and conservative with a small c, and they fall for that shit every time.
So the end result is that millions of Brits are still seduced by the old image of the empire, of being top dog, a major world player, the centre of the universe, all that shit, and if we can do anything to bolster the illusion, we will.
Which then means sucking up to the US, kissing their arse and by virtue of being a definitely junior partner, at least basking in the sunshine of their power and appearing somehow how stringer as a result.
Imagine a school bully. His mates stronger because they’re mates with him, but nothing on their own. And that’s basically the transaction of the special relationship, and that, for me is why it needs to end.
But that’s also why it likely never will, because it’ll take a fundamental shift in British culture and politics, and while that might happen over time, it sure as shit won’t be in my lifetime, and anyway, we’ll probably all be carried off by climate change long before then.
Charlie Scudsen, An American President
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