Brown: the special relationship has never been stronger

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Looks more to me like a Special Clinging Relationship.

Does our PM not realise how undignified it appears for him to be so desperate for attention from Obama.

"Where was the 'Special Relationship' over the Falkland Islands?" Now there you are wrong. Once the fighting started the US administration was four square behind us. They let us use NATO AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles which were much better than the UK owned ones and provided us with masses of intelligence. They even offered us an aircraft carrier in case one of ours got hit.

When we are independently strong the US stands with us.

We do have a couple of unique relationships with the US which allow our relationship to be termed as special. Our nuclear cooperation is unique, the US does not share nuclear weapon secrets with anyone else and our intelligence relationship is also uniquely close. But they stand because they are of use to both sides (UK scientists find cheap ways of doing things with nuclear weapons the US miss).

We don't need to pander to the US to maintain them and beyond those we have a shared outlook that makes us close and Brown's attempts to get close to Obama I think harm out relationship. Better to put some distance so the American's come to us when they find they need us rather than constantly following them lapdog like.

There appears to be no limits to Brown's capacity for self delusion; every day he moves further away from reality. I dare say his conference performance will be the usual mixture of bombast, hubris, saving the world and, now he is back in Britain, blame the American's fault.

It is so sad to see a Labour leader like this.

The intonation of his voice and his body language are of someone who simply spouting the words for the media. There is no feeling of commitement or sincerity in what he is saying. He sounds and looks like a failure.

How can we hope to improve our current dreadful performance with the British people with a leader like this?

Read Martin Kettle in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/24/labour-revival-fantasy-toast?showallcomments=true

Very true.

What is ironic about the whole "special relationship" business is that America's own destiny looks set to parallel that of Great Britain post-empire, i.e., the United States now faces a future of managed decline and incremental loss of influence on the world stage. Whether this is a god thing or a bad thing is a topic for another threat.

Arf.

He reminds me of a man talking about the great relationship he has with his wife, when everyone in the pub knows she's been having an affair for the last two years. It's almost pathetic in the true sense of the word.

Was his meeting with Obama a kitchen cabinet meeting then?

Godon really doesnt realsie that he has now reached a point that when he says anything at all we automatically assume he's lying. Credibility spent. It's time to go.

Agreed.

Harold WIlson may have had his faults, but he did a good job of keeping us out of Vietnam despite us owning the US millions. I'm not aware that it particularly damaged any "relationship" in the 1970s. Of course this Labour government couldn 't wait to do the opposite.

Hi Mike

With all that work would you say its value for money like the Eu ?

ricki

I don't know if I would go that far. They do some good work. But it has no teeth and is ineffective in dealing with rogue states - not helped when powerful nations are selective in their interventions

Hi Labourlist

The Un is a sham , Its after oil , If not why no action on burma ? or zimbarbwe?

Its funny we have all the bodies like the Un or the Eu and we send millions of pounds there and we still have the same problems ?

ricki

There is no special relationship - why do british politicians (of both parties maintain this fantasy?

Interesting body language. He spends the first half of the clip slowly shaking is head when he is speaking about his 'meetings' with Obama and the second half nodding his head when he talks about less direct things.

is this person completely incapable of telling the truth? "I've just had two meetings with president obama" (ITN not sky) NO YOU DID NOT you bumped into him twice. big difference. and this is the person who said he was going to do away with spin, what a joke.
for the record, obama totally and utterly snubbed you and I don't blame him

Over on the 'Blether with Brian' blog at the BBC a Democrat voting American has posted:

"......there were some who thought that President Obama's return of the bust of Churchill from the White House was rude. I don't know why he did that.

The comment by a member of his administration prior to the visit of GB to Washington some SIX MONTHS ago that, “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.” Caught a fair amount of attention."

It seems on this basis that Gordon is a tad deluded over the special relationship now we have paid off the billion's of dollar debt the USA left us with after World War 2. The US got what it wanted, the decline and break up of the English Empire which is the correct term for the 'British Empire' according to the 1707 Act of Union.

The average voter couldn't care less what Gordon gets up to away from UK shores - they want to see Gordon in action here, making a difference and putting the record straight. Instead we have to suffer middling no-mark ministers giving press conferences about things they either don't believe, don't understand or don't care about. Surely legislation should be brought in to prevent Yvette Cooper from ever speaking to the media again? Every time that woman opens her mouth it means Cameron and Gideon are excused from public stupidity for another week.

Completely agree with you, but I would go further. If you look at history there is absolutely no evidence of a Special Relationship at all.

Where was the 'Special Relationship' in World War II, when the Americans early in the war saw it as great profit making opportunity via Lend Lease? They bled us absolutely white, even though we were fighting for very survival. In fact, Americans were very antipathetic to Britain during the early stages of both the first and second World wars.

Where was the 'Special Relationship' over the Suez crisis, where they forced us to abandon the action by speculating against the pound?

Where was the 'Special Relationship' over the Falkland Islands, where they put enormous pressure on us to reach a peaceful settlement, because they were fearful of a left-wing coup in Argentina if the Junta fell from power?

Where was the 'Special Relationship' when they invaded Grenada, a Commonwealth country, without even informing us?

Where was the 'Special Relationship' during the years of IRA atrocities, or when they gave Gerry Adams a visa and allowed him to raise funds on his trips to the United States?

I am not arguing the moral rights and wrongs of any of these points, just that it plainly shows that America has never cut us any special slack at all.

The 'Special Relationship' is the invention of our pathetically immature elite - more Tory than Labour it must be said - with its vastly inflated sense of entitlement: it cannot imagine a world where it does not sit at the top tables of power and influence, so invents this rubbish and humiliates and prostitutes the rest of the country in the process.

Magnet? He's a belt-fed disaster machine-gun opening fire on anything that moves.

Him being awarded World Statesman of the Year is one rung below Kissinger getting the Nobel Peace prize on the WTF? ladder.

I note that Obama wasn't in the interview.

ANYWAY

Breaking news seems to be that book launch tonight will royally screw the conference agenda. If not that then Labour supporter Max Clifford is interviewing a recently sacked tongan cleaner who its alledged said she never showed Baroness Scotland any documents.

Oh dear. Brown is like a magnet for bad news

If Brown says there is no rift between the UK and US we can be pretty certain there is.

I really do not like this stupid term "special relationship". Of course we should and do have great relations with the US...with all the history of helping each other it would be ridiculous to expect otherwise. But there will always matters of disagreement, those matters we should be discussing. But it should not really be personal. Remember your true friends offer constructive comments and criticisms because we care about each other. I wouldn't presume to discuss, say North Korea in the same way I would the US. We should debate with them and we should be able to agree to disagree at times as what is right for the UK isn't necessarily right for us and vice versa.

Nonetheless they our friends in the main as whatever the difficulties and differences when times have been seriously tough we have and should continue to help each other.

All this nonsense about the purported "special relationship" that exists between the UK and the USA (which term was invented by Winston Churchill) is kind of embarrassing. It is reminiscent of an unhealthy relationship that might exist between a puny child, who sticks close to his bigger and tougher brother, from which vantage point he can shout louder and appear more important than he actually because of his sibling's power and protection. Many British Prime Ministers, most especially Tony Blair, have sucked up to some of the most unworthy and unsavoury American Presidents in history, believing that by doing so they will be able to punch above their weight on the international stage in what is virtually a diplomatic or ambassadorial role on behalf of the United States. Blair most certainly believed that Might trumped Right and we are living with the consequences of the sycophancy he displayed towards the dreadful Presidency and corrupt regime nominally headed by George W. Bush to this day.

It would be better to forget the chimeric "special relationship" with the USA seeking to go our own way and do right in the world even if by doing so we frustrate of infuriate our transatlantic cousins. Great Britain is a sovereign state in its own right and should not seek to become the fifty-first pseudo-state of the Union. America should be a friend and an ally not a ruler and a master upon whose good will everything supposedly depends.

what goes around comes around, as the saying goes.

When it became clear that George Bush was on his way out, Brown was less keen to be seen with him

Likewise, Obama knows Brown's days are numbered........


Newly elected Presidents and P.M's don't want to be associated with failure - and why should they?

Quelling? During the first half of the video he didn't look like he believed what he was saying either.

This is the sort of "special relationship" you have with your cellmate, 'Hatchet' Dave.