Time to end the special relationship?

  • Poll
  • 158 Views
  • Last Post 03 December 2017
1. End it
5 vote
2. Suspend it
2 vote
3. Continue as normal
1 vote
pap posted this 01 December 2017

So Trump has been an especially large orange prick this week, prompting an article in the Guardian asking if it's time to end the special relationship.

It's not a new question.   As I tweet here, I think it's at least 20 years stale.  I also think it's far too unidirectional.   I know we've got a Trumped thread already, but this is a wider, more long-standing issue.

What do we reckon, Sotonians?

trump usa
14 Comments
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Cobham Saint posted this 01 December 2017

You should have added another option: "What special relationship?"

I'm fairly sure the yanks have played along with our delusion since the end of WW2 as it suited them.

Corroboration? Well, my old man had links to the US military across Europe for over 20 years and his view is that we were being used for their own strategic aims. Only his view but one from experience of working closely with their military personnel.

lifeintheslowlane posted this 01 December 2017

From what I can see is GB lost WW2. The US stacked our allegiance and asked for it all back whilst rebuilding the Germany economy.

It was a bitter pill to swallow...the "Special Relationship" was a one-way street where we were riding into the oncoming traffic.

Fuck 'em.

Fatso posted this 01 December 2017

I think Cobham has hit the nail on the head...... the special relationship is a figment of our imagination. 

CB Saint posted this 01 December 2017

In our special relationship I get the feeling we never get a go at being the giver.

Nottarf Krap posted this 02 December 2017 - Last edited 02 December 2017

Originally posted by CB Saint

In our special relationship I get the feeling we never get a go at being the giver.

 Fifteen years ago George Galloway, yes him, succinctly summed up the 'special relationship.

"I'm in favour of us having a special relationship with the USA. I just don't want us to have the kind that Miss Lewinsky had with President Clinton. One sided, undignified, immoral and with the junior partner always on their knees"  Hansard.

Absolutely nails it.

PhilippineSaint posted this 02 December 2017

What exactly is this (special relationship) are there any rules as I cant see them. We should just treat them like any other old colony, most of them appear to end up with despot's in charge so Trump is falling into that catogory.

lifeintheslowlane posted this 02 December 2017

Originally posted by PhilippineSaint

What exactly is this (special relationship) are there any rules as I cant see them. We should just treat them like any other old colony, most of them appear to end up with despot's in charge so Trump is falling into that catogory.

 He's not in charge...he's only there for as long as the NRA want him there. 

saintbletch posted this 02 December 2017

IF there still was a special relationship before Trump it isn't there now.

Our Prime Minister issues a polite but formal rebuke for him amplifying the voice of a movement that spreads and stirs up race and religious hatred and intolerance on our shores, and Donald Trump takes her out at the knees by humiliating her and, by extension, our country on fucking Twitter.

That's special alright, but not in a good way. 

Rust Cohle posted this 02 December 2017

It's more of a special needs relationship right now.

Barry Sanchez posted this 02 December 2017

Of course the Yanks used us as a conduit in Europe but that is the way of the World, the Angloshere isn't dead just yet, if we stop the relationship we're alone, the EU is Germany and France and everyone else in it is treated as a 2nd class citizen, bollocks to that.

The relationship probably work 75% in their favour but again that 25% is pretty powerful, who would you rather allign yourself with?

They'd sell us down the river but so would any nation and they'll quite rightly always place self interest first.

Trump is just passing through like all of them, the mandarins, bureaucrats and civil servants will stay and remain and they'll the ones who steer, guide and make policy, the "special" one sided relationship isn't going anywhere as we both need each other, us alot more than them but they still need us, not as much but they still do.

Sadoldgit posted this 02 December 2017

We have long been the 51st state of the USA.  McDonalds where ever you go. Mostly American films at the movies and most of the best stuff on tv comes from across the pond. We have been strung along like the sad mistress who will never get to marry her rich and powerful benefactor. No bad thing to tell the orange one to do one, but once we are out of Europe that will make us even more of a wallflower.

Nottarf Krap posted this 02 December 2017

Originally posted by Barry Sanchez

Of course the Yanks used us as a conduit in Europe but that is the way of the World, the Angloshere isn't dead just yet, if we stop the relationship we're alone, the EU is Germany and France and everyone else in it is treated as a 2nd class citizen, bollocks to that.

The relationship probably work 75% in their favour but again that 25% is pretty powerful, who would you rather allign yourself with?

They'd sell us down the river but so would any nation and they'll quite rightly always place self interest first.

Trump is just passing through like all of them, the mandarins, bureaucrats and civil servants will stay and remain and they'll the ones who steer, guide and make policy, the "special" one sided relationship isn't going anywhere as we both need each other, us alot more than them but they still need us, not as much but they still do.

 They only need us for hanging on to their coat tails, supporting them and giving some kind of legitimacy for their non stop illegal warmongering around the globe. That is the reality of the special relationship, us knowing our place. It degrades and humiliates us as a nation.

Barry Sanchez posted this 02 December 2017

Originally posted by Nottarf Krap

Originally posted by Barry Sanchez

Of course the Yanks used us as a conduit in Europe but that is the way of the World, the Angloshere isn't dead just yet, if we stop the relationship we're alone, the EU is Germany and France and everyone else in it is treated as a 2nd class citizen, bollocks to that.

The relationship probably work 75% in their favour but again that 25% is pretty powerful, who would you rather allign yourself with?

They'd sell us down the river but so would any nation and they'll quite rightly always place self interest first.

Trump is just passing through like all of them, the mandarins, bureaucrats and civil servants will stay and remain and they'll the ones who steer, guide and make policy, the "special" one sided relationship isn't going anywhere as we both need each other, us alot more than them but they still need us, not as much but they still do.

 They only need us for hanging on to their coat tails, supporting them and giving some kind of legitimacy for their non stop illegal warmongering around the globe. That is the reality of the special relationship, us knowing our place. It degrades and humiliates us as a nation.

 Unless you don't believe Blair genuinely thought he was going to war on a moral crusade? If we stopped the "special"relationship I wouldn't be arsed as more bankers, tax dodgers leeches would leave.

pap posted this 03 December 2017

Originally posted by Nottarf Krap

 They only need us for hanging on to their coat tails, supporting them and giving some kind of legitimacy for their non stop illegal warmongering around the globe. That is the reality of the special relationship, us knowing our place. It degrades and humiliates us as a nation.

 That's about the nub of it.    We live in an Anglo-American bubble, which basically propagandises everyone within, advancing our interests as somehow synonymous with peace and freedom throughout the world.   The reality is that most of the world's problems today are a result of post World War 2 imperialism, with the United States' bloody handprints all over them.

North Korea is the perfect example.   It would not exist without the US military intervention of the 1950s nor the continuing military aid to the south.   Millions killed in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and a decade spent making films sympathetic to those that went to invade.

After the South East Asian debacle, the US loses its appetite for overt military action, so diverts more of its resources into fighting wars by proxy, or unseating governments by subversion, as it did in Chile or Iran.    It gets its appetite back for wars of aggression back in the early 2000s, and we're now in a situation where it's led by an unstable twat that can't take criticism, pumping out propaganda on a daily basis, essentially fulfilling the actual US foreign policy.

Take over the world without it looking like you're taking over the world.

Our people are not stupid.   If your average layman knows what the US is up to, then surely the government knows too, which means that we've had generations of politicians that have just flat out kowtowed to them.    Maybe they're just built that way, or maybe the chances for advancement for people not willing to follow that agenda are not there.    Either way, they've knowingly assisted the US in this objective, often at the expense of those in the UK and elsewhere.

 

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