Leaked diplomatic cables from the American embassy in London show how senior Tory figures including William Hague, now Foreign Secretary, and Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, bent over backwards to promise they would run a “pro-American regime” if they came to power.
They also shed light on Britain's “paranoia” over its so-called “special relationship” with America, a topic that apparently became a butt of jokes in American diplomatic circles. “Excessive” speculation in Britain over the future of the “special relationship” after Barack Obama became President prompted one senior American diplomat to note that such anxiety “would often be humorous if it were not so corrosive”.
Churchill bust
The “paranoia” was so deep, according to the WikiLeaks documents published by The Guardian on Saturday, that when a bust of Winston Churchill that the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, had presented to the then U.S. President George W. Bush was removed from the Oval office after Mr. Obama's inauguration it was seen in London as a snub.
A cable in February 2009 from the U.S. deputy chief of mission Richard LeBaron said: “More than one [U.K.] senior official asked embassy officers whether President Obama meant to send a signal in his inaugural address about U.S.-U.K. relations by quoting Washington during the revolutionary war, while the removal of the Churchill bust from the Oval office consumed much U.K. newsprint. This period of excessive U.K. speculation about the relationship is more paranoid than usual. This over-reading would often be humorous, if it were not so corrosive.”
