“However, thanks to the economic crisis, there is a real and depressing possibility that the outcome may be different this time. True, most of America’s potential friends are in a poor condition thanks to the economic climate. But Britain, with its wrecked public finances and unbalanced economy, is in an atrocious position. It will take decades of hard work, narrowly focused on the restoration of national prosperity, before we can step forward as an attractive ally once more. What a legacy for that great global show-off Tony Blair: the seeds of this decline were sown during his premiership.
All this depresses the life out of an Atlanticist such as me, who is immensely proud of the good that has come from the alliance between our two countries. Yet, we may be entering a period when the UK’s concerns will be a good deal more prosaic. In the hard years ahead there will be little time, energy and money left over for British global grandstanding.”
This is a surprising and refreshing piece of realism coming from a British commentator. What we need to do now is consider the alternatives now that Atlanticism and “British global grandstanding” are over.
Iain Martin
7th March, 2009
When an American leader is preparing to meet his British counterpart it is said that an official usually offers one final piece of advice: “don’t forget to mention the special relationship.”
We Brits are seen as so needy that we will have a national, collective nervous breakdown unless we hear the magic words. In reality, the phrase has become a joke: the Americans know it, we know it and I suspect that they know we know it. Hillary Clinton could not disguise a knowing smirk when she used the words.
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In These New Times 