Trump isn’t going anywhere. It’s time for ‘Europe First’ | Martin Kettle

With America no longer a reliable ally, Britain must hug its natural partners close if it wants to defend its interests

Few things about British political culture are as characteristic and as demeaning as the collective cringe before the United States. The cringe takes many forms. It ranges from the inflated preoccupation with the “special” relationship at the very summit of British government to the risible lack of self-awareness that leads many Westminster spear-carriers to cultivate Mastermind levels of knowledge about TV series such as The West Wing and House of Cards.

These impulses do not merely acknowledge the US’s importance. They bend the knee to it. Deep down, they seem to express a post-imperial British craving for some of the US’s reflected greatness. You might even say that, mentally at least, Britain already is a vassal state, only not of the European Union but of the US.

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