Regime Change

[Draggingtree]

Chronicles : Regime Change

View all posts from this blog

 

By:Ralph Berry | September 06, 2016

 

Speculation is mounting that Theresa May, emulating Richard Nixon’s epoch-making visit to China, may be planning a visit to Washington with a view to laying the foundations for a trade deal between the UK and US. She has already been to China for the G20 meeting in Hangzhou, where Xi Linping has told her that China is open to a trade deal with Britain. No such overtures have been received from the US; on the contrary. Barack Obama had said in April that a Brexit vote would mean that Britain went "to the back of the queue" for a deal with America. Since then Britain has indeed voted for Brexit, and President Obama, possibly piqued at the outcome, has repeated his disapproval. The "back of the queue" is still the designated place for the UK. Since China is signaling that the front of the queue is on offer, this is a strange moment in Anglo-American relations.

 

Strange, but not unforeseeable. President Obama has never been a fervent admirer of Britain. His Kenyan father’s anti-colonial record is well known, as is his dismissal of the Churchill bust from the Oval Office.