Unreciprocated Love

Peter Hitchens writes about anti-British sentiment in the USA something I've written about before albeit more tongue in cheek than Hitchens' column, he even quotes the same buffoonish Chicago mayor of the 1920s that I mentioned- Bill Thompson.

Of course the fact that we both have to cite a figure from the 1920s to bolster the case for US anglophobia does suggest that current examples are thin on the ground despite President Obama's posturing over the oil spill.

Whilst the political posturing of US politicians such as President Obama over the BP oil leak is undignified the fact remains that they are attacking BP because BP is in the wrong not because it is British.

However whilst the President probably has nothing against us it, his rather undiplomatic blundering does illustrate another point- he isn't much interested in the world outside the United States. For all the talk of how his background meant that he would be exceptionally astute in dealing with the outside world, his outlook is intensely insular. There is nothing in the way he sees the world that consists of anything beyond the standard positions of the company he has mixed in for his adult life. To the extent he has any interest in the outside world it extends only to the impact it has on US domestic politics.

He's Just Not That Into You.

Last January I wrote a not entirely serious post about whether Obama was a closet Anglophobe. When you look at what has happened since then- returning the bust of Winston Churchill, giving Gordon Brown those somewhat insulting presents, disavowing the "special relationship" and now refusing to back Britain's position in the Falklands- I think it's fair to say that he certainly is not an Anglophile.

There is no reason why a foreign head of state should favour us over other countries of course (except for being allies of the US), but his seeming indifference to this country ought to make some of the Obama worshippers over here pause for thought. There is nothing more cringe inducing than seeing a political man crush going unreciprocated.

Anglophobia Resurgent?

In this age of competitive victimhood we in Britain ought to make more fuss about Anglophobia, let us yearn to throw off the shackles of this repression! So I shall kick off the movement to jump on the oppression bandwagon.

In the 1920s and 30s there was a popular anti-British movement in the United States, there were even plans for war drawn up. This contemporary report from Time magazine highlights some aspects of the phenomena:

The eagles of journalism, they fly high. Last Sunday, William Randolph Hearst's birds took a vicious peck at Ginn & Co., publishers, Nicholas Murray Butler, Edward W. Bok and his prizewinning Charles H. Levermore, Andrew Carnegie, "prostituted college professors" and "international bankers." And while they pecked, they made the U. S. eagle scream.

Ginn & Co. is probably the largest and most famous of all text-book publishers. It publishes, among others, Muzzy's American History. Mr. Hearst's feature article charged that Ginn & Co. has joined with various peace foundations in a conspiracy backed by hundreds of millions of dollars to denationalize America, to spread British propaganda by false history-books, to prepare the way for Anglo- American Union.

The epicentre of the anglophobe outbreak was arguably Chicago where William Hale Thompson, mayor from 1015-1923 and 1927-1931, promised to take every pro-British book in the Chicago Public Library and burn them.

80 years on, there is a Chicago politician is in the White House. Thankfully there is no evidence that he follows in Thompson's footsteps. However there was speculation in the Guardian a couple of days ago that Barack Obama might be an anglophobe:

Then there's the X factor: is it possible Obama has personal reasons for keeping the British at bay? He is known to be no fan of the British empire. His father's family directly experienced British colonial rule in Kenya; and his paternal grandfather was reportedly imprisoned and tortured during the Mau Mau uprising.

I'd be inclined to dismiss this as space filling nonsense except now I see that a columnist in Mother Jones, a mainstream magazine of the US left, is proposing that the USA invade Britain's overseas territories:

The Obama administration could tell the Caymans—now fifth in the world in bank deposits—to repeal its bank secrecy laws or be invaded; since the island nation's total armed forces consists of about 300 police officers, it shouldn't be hard for technicians and auditors, accompanied by a few Marines, to fly in and seize all the records. Bermuda, which relies on the Royal Navy for its military, could be next, and so on. Long before we get to Switzerland and Luxembourg, their governments should have gotten the message.

This doesn't appear to be satirical.

(Via Reason's Hit & Run)