Get out of the EU? Of course. Dump the USA? Definitely!
THE time has come for Britain to declare independence from the USA. If our two countries do, in fact, have a ‘special relationship’, it is now an especially bad one. Our internal affairs are none of Washington’s business. Many people rightly denounced Barack Obama’s crude attempt to influence the EU referendum by saying we would be at ‘the back of the queue’ for an American trade deal if we voted to leave.
The same people must logically also denounce Donald Trump’s gross and ill-mannered intervention in our private affairs on Friday, which he then pretended, totally unconvincingly, not to have meant.
Both Presidents may well have been speaking something like the truth, though in fact trade and investment between us and the USA are pretty healthy in any case, mainly thanks to our similar laws and languages.
But it is our affair, not theirs. The two Presidents should have known better, and so should whoever in Britain advised them to poke their noses into our affairs.
The Obama interference backfired so badly that it probably swung the vote to Leave. Mr Trump’s meddling, especially his mischievous endorsement of ‘Boris’ Johnson (his real name is Al), may possibly help save Mrs May from her own Tory Party.
What do I think about it all? As one of the most longstanding campaigners for a British departure from the EU, I am in neardespair at the way an honest, patriotic cause has been hijacked by frantic free-traders, miniTrumps who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, and have no real interest in this country at all.
I want to preserve our liberties, unique laws and form of government, our Christian culture, our beautiful, flexible language, our unrivalled landscape, the irreplaceable gifts of a thousand years free from invasion. I want my maps measured in yards and miles and my groceries in pounds and ounces; and I hope in the end to be laid in 6ft of British earth, not two blasted metres. But I couldn’t care less about our supposed freedom to import GM foods and chlorinewashed chicken from the USA.
In fact, I strongly suspect that people who think this is the most important issue are as much of a threat to my kind of Britain as the EU is. What’s more, I cannot see that creepy obeisance to the USA is any better than crawling to Brussels. It does not matter what kind of President the USA has.
FRANKLIN Roosevelt stripped us of wealth and empire. Truman broke promises to share nuclear technology with us. Eisenhower humiliated us at Suez. LBJ loathed us for refusing to join his mad adventure in Vietnam. Reagan wanted us to sell out the Falklands to Argentina. Clinton actually made us sell out to the IRA. George W.Bush made us his lapdog. Obama was pretty openly our enemy.
In most cases, they were not personally hostile to Britain. Some of them actually quite liked us. But in US politics, if you can offer the President’s party neither votes nor money, you don’t count.
Trump cares little about this country. His arrogant rudeness towards us suits some domestic game he is playing, for he is the most brilliant politician since Princess Diana – not especially intelligent or knowledgeable, but cunning beyond belief. He knew what he was doing when he said what he said, and you may be sure it was for his benefit, not ours.