Toby Harnden

let's not generalize the silly utterances of a single american into a bushian weltanschaung, shall we...? the respect for blair and the british military in DC is high, not low and there is - indeed - genuine conern that the oxbridge chatterati have all gone wobbly before the hooded face of radical islam...but, buck up, there is, indeed, a special relationship and it ain't a canine one...

to me, the most revealing thing about mr harnden's laughable discovery is that he bothers to go out of the way to listen to -ohmigosh -anatol lieven!....helium is an inadequate element to describe the unbearbale lightness of his thought...too bad the telegraph's man in washington finds it so appealing

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Interestingly, in June 2004 Mr Myers had this to say at a Kissinger Chair seminar "Senior analyst for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the U.S. Department of State, Kendall Myers said that the Anglo-American relationship is very strong, but it faces significant challenges within Tony Blair's party."

You could argue that he has changed his mind since 2004 except that he claims today that the poodle factor goes all the way back to the forties.

Someone simply isn't telling the truth here, and I don't think we have enough information to say who it is, yet.

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Why does this not surprise me?!. Those with long memories of the Cold war during the 1970s and 1980s might like to compare and contrast our relationship with the USA with the relationship that Cuba then had with the USSR - the former was a 'client state of the latter'. Cuba fought wars of 'liberation' on behalf of the USSR in many African countries such as Angola at the behest of their benefactors!

What drives home the reality of this unedifying one-sided relationship is the site and sound a grovelling and fawning British Prime Minister,relayed to a smrking world via a carelessly switched on live microphone who has to request permission from a US President to send a peace envoy to the middle East ony to be rebuffed by a Ceasar casually dismissing one of his provincial Governors. No one is going to talk to Britain or take it seriously since why should anyone talk to the 'Butchers Block' when they can talk directly to the Butcher! Why talk to the monkey when you can talk to the Organ Grinder. We are a complete diplomatic laughing-stock in a field in which we once excelled and the only person who fails to grasp what the rest of the country realised long ago is the Prime Minister himself.

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Most Americans, of which I am one, have the greatest admiration of Britain and Tony Blair. We are the junior partners, in my opinion. Brits in the Midwest, or Yankees in London feel quite at home. Our language and culture are so, so close. We are as likely to get our news from the BBC as an American source. Implications of disrespect upset me. I don't agree with it, and neither do most Americans.

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I would the Prime Minister was duped, misled as it were along with the rest of the American public. To imply the Prime Minister would send his boys into harms way deliberately...is abit macabre.

Who was it that said: " 'A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend.' " I think it would be delightful if it a was Prime Minister that said that to a American President. Especially the sitting one.

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Dear sirs,
At last, an honest man has spoken, and from the other side of the pond. As a matter of history, has anyone noticed that each incoming prime minister rushes across the watery divide to meet the president of the United States. It really is about time that this nonsense stopped. If America is holding our nuclear triggers, as confirmed by Tony Benn frequently, that is sufficient cause for concern and should be corrected immediately. As for being the poodle of America, we deserve better. Our troops are universally respected overseas and used cynically by successive prime ministers to support the so called special relationship. It was reported, rather quietly that Great Britain's final payment for the lend lease arrangement cooked up between the two war time presidents, was finalised in December 2005. If America wishes to embark on maintaining its cheap fuel policy to sustain her economic growth, perhaps our politicians should realise that they should do so without getting some respectability from the British engaging in their ambitions.
I would suggest that the special relationship is the mutual respect that the two nations have for each other, not the political relationship that is so transparently used to further political advancement and always at huge cost to our nation. The American gentleman is to be applauded for an honest appraisal and to hell with the miserable minions that we elect to govern our people.

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An interesting and worrying article but paragraph one seems to have been invaded by typing gremlins. As it stands it makes no sense. Who said what to whom?

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The BS pile is getting bigger. An Academic critisizing the Government? A Government official critisizing the Government? What is so refreshing about that? Seems numbingly typical to me. And you consider Academics independent thinkers? They are so predictable and monolithic.
And when is this Bush/Blair/Poodle baloney going to end? I think Blair went into Iraq because He thought it was the right thing to do, as did other Leaders of the Coalition. Of course, that decision or handling of is debatable but this poodle concept is continually perpetuated to humiliate Britain, demonize the US and divide the two.
Why would Britain do anything solely for America? What could Britain want from America that it didn't already have? And who does Britain blame for Her past wars?
Actually, Britain may get something from us after all if Militant Islamists overtake Europe.

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We the British public know how humiliated Blair was with the "Yo Blair" comment more akin to welcoming the shoe-shine boy employed at the White House.
In more itmitate climes I can hear Bush say:
"Yo Blair I'm bored suck my thumb!"

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This Myers guy is an absolute idiot, regardless is position in the State Department. Yes, I'm sure there is a bit of patronization on our [US] part when the UK tries to "steer us" in a liberal-European direction, but that's just the way it is -- we're not liberal Europeans.

But to portray the US-UK relationship as other than "special" is to trivialize our cultural, historical, and popular roots. There is no other country as closely identified by Americans as "kindred" as the UK. We're cousins. Any Brit who comes to the States for a holiday recognizes that the treatment they receive is nothing less than special.

British Prime Ministers, Blair included, are no poodles. The fact that President Bush used the American vernacular of "Yo, Blair", is completely in tune. That wasn't the greeting of a superior to a subordinate -- it was the greeting of friends. That's how we do it in the States.

You can say what you want about the UK's relationship with the US -- 80% of Brits apparently want a less cozy relationship with us; that's fine. Family dynamics are ever-changing. But don't lose sight of the fact that Americans will always, repeat always, be there for their cousins when called upon. We were there by your side twice last century. Where were France and Germany?

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The British electorate have only themselves to blame, for voting in a lunatic not once but three times.

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I am neither a high-ranking official, a policy wonk, an academic, or any such thing -- just an ordinary, private American citizen, who has been fortunate enough to travel throughout England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. One would have to be blind not notice the "special relationship" that exists among those countries, emerging from our shared cultural and institutional roots, shared language, and -- on a deep level -- shared values.

That's not to say our interests always coincide, but it's at our own peril that we lose sight of the "special relationship" within the Anglosphere.

England is the source of our commonalities, and they're pretty damned good!

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Well, what do we expect. Rampant anti-Europeanism is easy to fuel in the UK. Some French or German politician is against something and we automatically support it.
The "special" relationship may have existed for Churchill, certainly the amazing Reagan/Thatcher years and the fall of communism should not be forgotten. But Blair/Bush, nothing but a man whistling for his dog. When will Britain realise that it is part of Europe and stop trying to be a "big player" by hanging on to the USA's coat tails?

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Why would we want "payback" for doing the "right thing" have we (Brits) and our forces sunk so low then that we require bones from the table?

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Hi folks,

First of all, no one in the US has ever even heard of this bozo, Kendall Myers.

That "Mr Myers's comments...will cause a storm of controversy in Britain" is absurd. Clearly Myers has a chip on not one but both shoulders. He speaks for no one but himself, and perhaps a democrat or two he is trying desperately to impress.

It is a well known fact, and it's been like this for generations, that the US State Department is inhabited largely by people who deeply believe fluff-bunny really exists.

Apparently, Myers is also from the world of academia. Career State Department civil servant hack and career academic hack, what a combination. Talk about a guy with an utterly detached perspective...

Myers should be fired immediately. He should also be forced to try and back up his pathetic claims in the court of US public opinion, though a US Court would be better. I want to find out who his suitors are and what is on that lot's agenda.

Frankly, he is not worth wasting any more time over here, so deluded and bizarre he comes across as.

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To say that this "not fit for purpose" government is led by a poodle is to insult poodles. At least a poodle is useful, if only as an ornament.

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I find it rich that American commentators continue to castigate the UK and Europe regarding the need to ''get real'' and confront Islam.

The simple fact is that the problems that the UK and Europe now face from radical Muslim's are in very large part a result of the agression shown by the UK/US in the ill fated attack on Iraq.

Time and time again surveys of young Muslims in this country bear out the fact that they feel under threat because of the adventures of Bush and Blair. However much we argue against this point of view, it is sincerely felt by them.

So now as a result of the failed UK/US mission, we in this country and the rest of ''Old Europe'' have to pick up the pieces and try to rebuild stability between the non and Muslim commumities.

The sooner the UK Government reacts appropriately to the fact that ''the special relationship'' will always be a one way street the better fo us.

Stuart Turner

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Of course Myers was foolish, he gave a talk at SAIS without checking who was in the audience and was, unfortunately, rather frank, when he should have been murky.

However, there is truth in what he says. There is a "special relationship" between the UK and the United States, but it is not as "special" as the UK would like to believe. It certainly is not as "special" as the relationship between say Israel and the United States (which pretty well amounts to the United States saying "how high" when AIPAC says jump.) Indeed, it is not as special as say the relationship between the Federal Government and say Haliburton, Boeing or Lockheed-Martin.

In reality, the problem for the UK in the US is a bit like the Pope in the old Soviet Union (as Stalin famously asked "How many Divisions has the Pope?") -- Tony Blair can deliver no votes on the Hill or in the electoral college, so most of the time, he does not matter. One the other hand, AIPAC can deliver votes on the Hill, as well as seats in Congress and even the Presidency; they may be a creepy organisation, but through them and their allies, Israel has real influence. Similarly, until recently, the Irish could deliver votes in large numbers; they still have huge influence.

Blair's failure was to not understand the old Washington cliche -- "if you want a friend, get a dog." He did not extract any "quids" for his "pros," any hard promises to be enforced (which would need to be public) any lock on the Israel lobby -- and when it came down to it the Uk got shafted, on the Middle East peace plan, on planning the war and aftermath, on contrcats (which went to Haliburton et al), on engines for the Joint Strike Fighter (no Rolls Royce). Sheesh, after being screwed, what did he do, demote Jack Straw for pissing the Americans off -- he should have told Bush "I said to Jack 'attaboy' and would you blame me."

One problem here is that no one in the UK seems to understand the importance of "payback." Frankly, what the UK should do is some loud payback -- cancel the JSF purchases and buy French, be loudly uncooperative on a few things, and then quietly say the price of being friends is Bolton gone at the UN, etc. That is not to say copy Chirac -- he goes too far in that there is no price payable to keep the French onside; but the UK needs to be known to seek bloody veangence against say the Feith's of the world as the price of loyalty, to demand that Feith and his buddies be exiled (governor of the Marianas) as the price for UK support. Blair simply lacks the shear nastiness to make what would be a normal demand in DC.

So if Blair wants to retrieve the situation, he should go to Bush with a little list -- I want these guys out; I want these promises delivered, etc. etc. Then a hint of what a no-special relationship might be like for the US. At the end of the day, losing it with the UK would be more expensive than Israel.

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My Prime Minister is a poodle.

Enough said.


We wear the T-shirt in tribute.

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Churchill was not totally naive about the 'Special Relationship' after all he said:
"One can always rely on the Americans to do the right thing - after they have tried every conceivable alternative."

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It matters little that no one knows this guys; the fact theat he work deep in the American political system adds weight to his comments.

Whilst there is a cultural "special" relationship I personally do not see one in goverment or within the commercial sphere - the UK is just another market to the US.

I also agree that being English (or Scottish/Welsh) doesn't deliver any vots on Capitol Hill - even though many americans have english ancestry - but that the loss of support from the UK would be a far greater blow to the US than with Israel. As an aside, I still find in interesting that Israel spys on the US and sells US sensitive technology to China and always gets away with it.

Let the UK start to forge a new relationship with the US but stop acting as its Janissaries.

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Remember Suez !

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I strongly object to the characterisations of Blair as a Poodle. My mother kept poodles. I am thus quite familiar with their temperament: They tend to be strong-headed, belligerent at times, and difficult to train. They snap and bite on occasion and run off when let off the lead. Some are impossible to house train. They do, however, make reasonably good watchdogs, as they yap and bark when a stranger approaches, and hold their ground as best they can. They may look cuddly, but they do not have a temperament to match.

My border collie displays much more Blairian traits: He is affable, obedient, cheerful, and only wants to serve. He can be trusted not to run off when I'm not about and only needs to be told once if some aspect of his behaviour requires permanent adjustment. He fearlessly attacks shadows and flies and other perceived threats while greeting strangers that walk up the driveway with a wagging tail. Yet he hurries back to the house if a neighbour's dog bares it's teeth. His least endearing quality is his insistent hand-licking, which my wife claims is unsanitary, and makes others wonder how far our special relationship actually extends in private.

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