After what appears to have been some internal wrangling, the Commons foreign affairs select committee has produced a powerful report dismissing as redundant the use of the phrase “special relationship” to describe Britain’s relationship with the United States. It condemns the cliché’s use by media outlets and politicians and says that the UK should be “less deferential” in its approach to the US.
From the report:
The use of the phrase “the special relationship” in its historical sense, to describe the totality of the ever-evolving UK-US relationship, is potentially misleading, and we recommend that its use should be avoided.
The overuse of the phrase by some politicians and many in the media serves simultaneously to devalue its meaning and to raise unrealistic expectations about the benefits the relationship can deliver to the UK.
This, of course, is quite right, and puts into stark words the truth that has dared not speak its name in recent years: that if we ever did have a “special relationship” with mutual benefits — and surely we did when Winston Churchill coined the phrase — we do not now. This was comprehensively proved during the build-up to the Iraq invasion, when the UK subcontracted its foreign policy from Whitehall to Washington, only to be defied in its desire for a second UN resolution sanctioning intervention.
Furthermore, the personalities involved — take John Major and Bill Clinton — often disprove the cherished phrase, especially when Labour is in office at the same time as the Republicans, or the Tories at the same time as the Democrats.
This will be proved to be the case more than ever if David Cameron does indeed become prime minister, as almost everyone expects him to, during the Obama administration. After all, the two have diametrically opposed values.
“Special relationship”: RIP.
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