Brown and Obama

It must have come as a great relief to ‘special relationship’ watchers in the UK that Barack Obama chose Gordon Brown as the first European leader to ring when he assumed office (albeit well after his calls to leaders on other continents). The news that Obama’s Kenyan grandfather had been tortured by the British during the Kenyan Mau Mau uprising during the 1950s had sent them into paroxysms of worry that the US might dump Britain as its special European friend, in favour of the less loaded embrace of France or Germany.

Yet the vast majority of Americans feel no special connection to Britain at all, something that can come as a bit of a shock to us Brits on our first visit to the US. Far from viewing us as long lost relatives, most of them have no idea where Britain is or what the difference is between Britain and England and some even fail to make the connection between ‘England’ and ‘English’. “Your English is almost perfect,” one friendly San Franciscan told me. “What language do you speak back home?” Others think that language is the only thing that connects the two countries.

For a start most Americans aren’t descended from Britons – Ireland, Poland, Germany, Mexico – name pretty much any other country in fact. Many don’t have English as their first language. According to the US Census Bureau, Spanish was the first language of 34 million Americans, roughly 11% of the US population in 2008.

Culturally the countries differ in many ways too. Leaving aside the Americans’ egregious refusal to use boiling water to make tea, one of the most shocking differences to NHS-coddled Brits is their individualism. Because the United States is theoretically at least an equal opportunity country, many feel that because they’ve done OK, it’s right to leave people who haven’t and who don’t have healthcare, can’t afford food or can’t pay for heating to die/starve/freeze because it must be their own fault. “I don’t want my taxes to pay for someone else’s healthcare,” is a common refrain.

So when Americans do think about the British, what image do they have? Austin Powers has a lot to answer for – we’re really just a bit of a joke. For special think ‘special needs’ rather than ‘extra good’. We are a nation of small people in a period setting, with bad teeth (every single person I asked mentioned bad teeth as a British characteristic), drinking bad beer, eating bad food and worshiping the monarchy. Laying aside the question of whether there is a British beer that’s worse than Budweiser, we appear to have some special public image problems. “You’re bad vacationers because you drink too much and you don’t sample local culture,” says Kim from Massachusetts. “Oh and you drink too much.”

“I’ve never, ever seen people put away the beer and wine like the English,” agrees Nancy from Massachusetts.

We’re snobs too. “My impression is that the vast majority of Yanks like the British overall,” says PJ from Minnesota, whose heritage is Irish. “However, if you’re snobby or sit around and talk about how everything in America sucks (my sister-in-law is English and does this) people will really take a hating to you fast!”

“You guys are pretentious,” adds Dana from Delaware.

“I don’t feel any connection other than we speak the same language,” says Allie from Florida. Kim on the other hand says there is a special relationship, “mainly because US and Britain share cultural heritage and language.”

The term ‘special relationship’ originally was used by Winston Churchill in 1946 to describe military co-operation between the two countries and it still describes the primary and currently most controversial link. Within days of taking office Obama asked Britain to supply an extra 4,000 troops for a planned American surge in Afghanistan. Britain already has approximately 8,600 troops in Afghanistan, according to the Daily Telegraph. Tony Blair’s support for George W. Bush’s adventure in Iraq contributed greatly to his unpopularity in the UK.

So you’d think the Americans would at least be grateful for that. Not a bit of it. For many, nothing Britain can do will pay back the debt they feel we owe them for joining our side in World War 2. For others, our support is plain ridiculous. Nancy says, “I do think we have a special relationship in that the British Government seems to generally have a crush on the US Government. To use a harsh word - I think of them as our lapdog.”

Unfortunately for those who think we’d be better concentrating on European relationships, the election of Obama, possibly currently the most popular man in the Western world, is unlikely to change that. While Gordon Brown is unlikely to exactly emulate Blair who was known as Bush’s poodle, the Obamas are still reportedly looking for a dog for the White House and what could be more special than a nearly blind, bad tempered Scotty dog called Gordon?

By Jane Adams