Au Revoir, Come Back When You Want To Appreciate Us, Our History and Our Culture More.
Sorry to go over all Monty Python Life of Brian but as they said ’the Romans are bastards/they’ve taken everything we’ve got/as if it were their right/ and we’ve got nothing in return’
For “Romans” read Americans and Trumpians. The United Kingdom in now getting heartily fed up with its bastard child since 1776 – the United States. Donald J Trump has fractured whatever is left of the ‘special relationship’ and, frankly, we are glad. We are European not North American. Let’s make America Isolated Again.
Over there, Over here..
We do have some cause to thank our American brothers and sisters. They helped us out – late – to win two World Wars. Sent us materiel, soldiers and lives. Europe, though, understands wars on their land. America does not. The US left a legacy – NATO to provide an umbrella against the Soviet menace. Plenty of money but then they were (and are) the richest country in the alliance. It is called mutual aid.
The relics of US military hegemony can still be found in the UK. Look at East Anglia with its large USAF bases at Lakenheath and Mildenhall. I was in a hotel in Lavenham, in Suffolk, last year and entire rooms were dedicated to US Airmen past and present. We are (or were) a land-based aircraft carrier for the US. Greenham Common in Berkshire and Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire was where they parked their Cruise missiles. Today they are put to more productive uses-Upper Heyford is now a large, much needed, housing estate. We have done without them and we could do without the still extant US bases in our country. ’RAF Croughton’ still exists in Northamptonshire as an electronic spy base. American.
Trump ‘I am Scottish’
Donald Trump claims Scotland as his ancestral home through his mother. He owns two golf courses – what else? The one in Aberdeen Scotland was built despite local opposition, the other Turnberry Ayrshire is a jewel in the Crown – an Open Championship course. We could easily repatriate both of them with little effect.
Music rocks ashore. TV too.
The US has brought us some cultural riches and much cultural garbage as well. Those US airmen brought rock and roll and black music with them. That begat the Beatles and much of British pop music. But, we managed to Anglicize it, temper it and sell it back to the Americans.
The US brought us electronic baggage too. Much of early British television was simply American cast offs sold cheaply to a new entrant . I remember I love Lucy, Dr Kildare, Perry Mason all in prime time and more when growing up. Fortunately, British TV grew up too and started to tell British stories to a British audience to much effect. We now sell series or formats for series to the Americans. Our television is simply more thoughtful. That is down to tighter regulation. You won’t find Fox News or Breitbart here and our political culture is much richer for that.
Hours of bad television corrupted our shared English language. That has not been a gain. Today, you would be hard pressed to find Americanisms in English apart from in the obtuse world of management consultancy.
What ‘special relationship’?
So what are we left with? A ’special relationship’ that exists mainly in the imaginations of British politicians. Donald Trump is undermining it and ripping it up day after day. A tariff war on British luxury cars such as Jaguar and Land Rovers – both brands popular in the USA – is not a way to secure any Anglo American entente.
What the Trumpians fail to understand is the sheer sense of the tragic history of Europeans. If you lived in Alsace-Lorraine, Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia or Poland, who were subject to the Nazi jackboot, you know what invasion means.
Trump needs to understand that of Ukraine and the ‘coalition of the willing’ (led by the UK ,France and Germany) aiming to defend it. It is for Europeans and Ukrainians to fight for their land, not for Vladimir Putin to land grab or Trump to asset grab her mineral wealth.
In short, thank you very much Uncle Sam for all you have done for the UK and Europe for 250 years but it may be time for us to look after ourselves and not kowtow to you. Au revoir, come back when you want to appreciate us, our history and our culture more .
By the by, we sold you the Monty Python series. Enjoy it.
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