But It Is Mine

Tim Stanley, at least semi-official biographer of Pat Buchanan, ought now to re-join the Labour Party: 

Barack Obama’s joint press conference has set off my eczema. 

First it made me angry, then it made me sad. All our pretentions to power and independence and it comes down to this: America telling Britain it can’t do what it wants to do.

And the Prime Minister nodding along – just so very happy to be standing next to a real life president. Pathetic. Embarrassing. Humiliating.

Obama’s killer line was that if the UK left the EU then it would go to the “back of the queue” in trade deals. The back of the queue. The. Back. Of. The. Queue. 

We are supposed to enjoy a special relationship with the United States – a relationship forged in war and united by a shared commitment to democratic capitalism.

Yet when we consider doing something the President disagrees with intellectually, what does he do to us? Threaten to send us to the back of the queue. 

If I was Prime Minister, I’d have said: “But Mr President, haven’t you heard? We like queuing in this country.” 

One great irony in all of this: it’s the artificial nature of the special relationship that encouraged many older British statesmen to seek an accord with Europe. 

Ted Heath saw the EEC as a counterbalance to the United States. 

But Europe proved too sclerotic and eccentric to be a serious power on the world stage and its pretentions were mocked by Yugoslavia, Ukraine and now the Syrian crisis. 

So Britain finds itself trapped between two worlds. The admirably self-serving America of Barack Obama and the dotty, arcane egocentrism of Europe.

What are we? A bridge. A bloody bridge. We used to travel the world building those. Now we’ve become one. 

And if we don’t like it, the US and the EU say that they’ll blow us up. 

Calm down Tim, calm down. Many Brits will be disgusted with the president’s remarks – many won’t take the threat seriously. 

Many will also note that his term is coming to an end. President Ted Cruz will, I’m sure, do a deal with us.

But there’s no denying that Remainers can claim that Obama has shot Leave’s fox.

For years they have claimed that we could leave EU and trade freely with the world. Obama has thrown up a roadblock: the US, he said, would not be keen. 

This poses a serious problem to the Eurosceptic cause.

For the future, Britons have to rethink their relationships with everyone. This isn’t a common Eurosceptic point-of-view [you need to get out more], but it is mine.

The only way Britain is ever going to assert itself on the world stage is if it actually chooses to do so. Leadership is lacking because a common sense of national purpose is lacking.

Frankly, I think Corbyn’s internationalist socialism is a better model than the one we have right now.

Either way, tomorrow is St George’s Day (a Syrian born saint – Britain has always been multicultural at heart) and the anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

We don’t have to give up the fight for independence yet. Even if we are just a “happy few”.