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Presidents and Prime Ministers I Have Known — And Not Loved
And the beautiful relationship between the UK and US
I have noticed in the course of my lifetime how both the UK and the US has held up a mirror to each other from across the Atlantic. Although, admittedly, as well as by what binds us together. our two countries are also defined by our cultural and sociological differences — such as the US Second Amendment and the influence of the Christian Right. It has been a relationship that has influenced and shaped our cultures and economies while also remaining distinctly separate. Of course, the relationship is unequal. Since the post war era it has meant the UK firmly adapting to our new junior role. The US became, and has remained, the hegemonic superpower, while the British Empire, as written in blood and shame, became a fading memory of Victorian hubris that dare not speak its name. No doubt it is the US that does more of the shaping and influencing since our fall from blinkered grace. (The US have also fallen from being that ‘shining city on the hill’ but they maintain the illusion of clinging on.)
And I guess this relationship between nations is personified by the relationship between presiding presidents and prime ministers.
During the eighties, the political alliance from across the pond suddenly became…
