Taking the strain (BBC) {Bush/Blair 'special relationship'}

[eppur_se_muova]

A POINT OF VIEW
By David Cannadine

How long can Britain maintain its "special relationship" with the US, asks historian David Cannadine, who takes over A Point of View from Professor Lisa Jardine for the summer.

George Bush and Tony Blair have been seeing quite a lot of each other lately. Most recently in Washington to talk about the Middle East.

Before that it was St Petersburg and there's been a great deal of media muttering about their overheard exchange.

But it's not clear by which of their unguarded remarks the commentators have been more outraged: the British prime minister's apparent cravenness, or the American president's simplistic view of world affairs, or his less than elegant way with words.

The last of these criticisms can be easily disposed of. International conferences may - or may not - be decorous conversations, but there's abundant evidence that the vocabularies of world leaders are fully stocked with choice epithets which they don't hesitate to use when they feel the necessity arises.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5230612.stm

Probably more interesting to Brits than Yanks; questions whether UK can remain closer to US, or must move closer to EU.

[npincus]

1. What if Blair had said "Yo, Bush!" at the G-8 Summit?

Our little megalomaniacal, supremely arrogant President would have been pissed at being addressed in a condescending, disrespectful manner.