Free Republic

The Queen refuses to come to London to meet President Barack Obama next month. Instead, accompanied by his security circus, he’ll trundle to Windsor in his bomb-proof, seven-ton limo for lunch. He’s due to stand alongside the PM and urge Britain to stay in the EU. ‘But he’d be well advised not to give a pro-EU sermon over lunch after the row about the Queen supporting Brexit,’ says my source. (Photo) Princess Anne will be at Cheltenham today to present the Gold Cup, sprinkling royal stardust on the festival’s incontinent punters. Unlike Ascot, where the Gold Cup was renamed to

The FCO organizes press conferences like weddings, visitors on one side, hosts on the other, and inevitably the first question that came whistling from the British side of the aisle was about the Falklands’ planned March 10 to 11 referendum. Islanders will be asked, “Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an overseas territory of the United Kingdom?” That they will answer with a resounding “Yes!” is not in doubt. That’s the sort of enthusiasm Brits wanted from Kerry too. Instead they got this: Let me be very clear about our position with respect...

On the face of it, Ms Wintour, 63, may not appear a natural candidate for international diplomacy. Her reportedly aloof and demanding personality has earned her the nickname “Nuclear Wintour” and inspired the waspish character played by Meryl Streep in the film The Devil Wears Prada. But according to Bloomberg News, Mr Obama has placed her on his short list to safeguard transatlantic relations at the Court of St James. It would be hard to find a better connected ambassador in the fields of fashion and entertainment than Ms Wintour, who was awarded an OBE for services to British journalism...

White House admits it did return Winston Churchill bust to Britain Barack Obama's White House has been forced to admit that it did return a bust of Sir Winston Churchill to British diplomats, after describing such claims as "100 per cent false". By Jon Swaine, Washington 7:53PM BST 29 Jul 2012 Aides to Mr Obama were furious after The Daily Telegraph disclosed last week that Mitt Romney planned to restore the Jacob Epstein sculpture to its home under George W Bush from 2001 to 2009. "I'm looking forward to the bust of Winston Churchill being in the Oval Office again,"...

(Krauthammer) It's astonishing. He doubled down. All he had to say is, 'We got it wrong the first time.' The British ambassador, today, said that the bust that's in his residence, the one that was returned when Obama came into office exactly as I had written -- 100% as I had written. So not being able to deny it, he pretends that it never happened and he says the idea that the bust was returned is false. And then he talks about the reason that the bust was returned was because of antipathy. I never talked about antipathy. He should...

One of Barack Obama's first actions upon taking office was the unceremonious rejection of the Winston Churchill bust which had been loaned to our nation as a symbol of friendship and trust after the 9/11 terrorist attack on America. Subsequent actions by Mr. Obama have revealed a deep seated hostility towards our old and valued ally culminating in his un-presidential response to the BP oil spill. In an exclusive interview with the UK Daily Mail Sarah Onyango, the woman Barack Obama calls ‘Granny Sarah' gave some insight into her grandson's anti-British bias. "...Sitting under a mango tree in the garden...

According to tomorrow's New Statesman, Barack Obama was unimpressed by his encounter with David Cameron earlier this year and commented: "What a lightweight!" According to James Macintyre's report, Cameron's attempt to stress his pro-American and Eurosceptic credentials did not meet with Obama's approval. According to Macintyre's diplomatic sources, the Democratic candidate was "distinctly unimpressed" and labelled Cameron a lightweight. Macintyre notes that 48 hours earlier Obama had delivered a speech in Berlin stressing "the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future". Following the meeting with Cameron, Obama apparently asked officials for more information on Tory Euroscepticism. Macintyre...

New report shows England's growing disillusionment with its once greatest ally. British parliamentarians have finally realized that the "special relationship" between London and Washington no longer exists--if it ever did. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has published an unexpectedly lively report urging British diplomats and ministers to be "less deferential" to the U.S. No more groveling, then. Not that it will stop Prime Minister Gordon Brown from being starry-eyed in the presence of President Obama when he visits the U.S. in a few days' time. The committee, whose members are about to disband before the general election campaign,...

The UK government needs to be "less deferential" towards the US and more willing to say no to Washington, a group of MPs have said. The Commons Foreign Affairs committee also said it was wrong to speak of "the special relationship" with the US, as it was fostering other alliances. However, the MPs did agree that the link between the countries was "profound and valuable". The Foreign Office said the two nations share a "unique" bond. The committee said the phrase "the special relationship" did not reflect the "modern" Anglo-American relationship. It was originally coined more than 60 years ago...

Last week the British Embassy announced that British, French and American troops would march with Russian soldiers on Red Square to mark the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Brits said in a statement that the parade may mark the first time British troops have marched in Red Square. The AP helpfully explains that Victory Day is Russia's most important secular holiday. It adds that the Kremlin plans a larger parade than usual this year, with good reason. The Kremlin will be celebrating the addition of the British, French and American troops.

Barack Obama's offhand approach to Gordon Brown's Washington visit last week came about because the president was facing exhaustion over America's economic crisis and is unable to focus on foreign affairs, the Sunday Telegraph has been told. Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been "overwhelmed" by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest. But Washington figures with access to Mr Obama's inner circle explained the slight by saying that those high up in the administration have had little time to deal with international matters,...

Almost 30 years after losing a war over the Falkland Islands, Argentina is once again warning Britain that it still wants back what it calls the Malvinas. Argentina is now angry over a British company's oil exploration off the windswept islands in what it considers its own South Atlantic backyard. Although nominally democratic, the unpopular Kirchner government in Buenos Aires has claimed that the sparsely settled islands are a symbolic matter of Spanish-speaking pride throughout Latin America — and is theirs because the islands once belonged to Spain in the 19th century. In response to all this, the Obama administration...

February 25, 2010 US Refuses To Endorse British Sovereignty in Falklands Oil Dispute Giles Whittell and James Bone Washington refused to endorse British claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands yesterday as the diplomatic row over oil drilling in the South Atlantic intensified in London, Buenos Aires and at the UN. Despite Britain’s close alliance with the US, the Obama Administration is determined not to be drawn into the issue. It has also declined to back Britain’s claim that oil exploration near the islands is sanctioned by international law, saying that the dispute is strictly a bilateral issue. Argentina appealed...

US diplomats add a moat to their expenses at $1bn London embassy The United States has unveiled plans for its new $1 billion high-security embassy in London — the most expensive it has ever built. The proposals were met with relief from both the present embassy’s Mayfair neighbours and the residents and developers of the Battersea wasteland where the vast crystalline cube, surrounded by a moat, will be built. The decision to abandon the former site in Grosvenor Square by 2016 came after a prolonged battle with residents angered by the security measures demanded after the September 11 attacks. More...

THE UNITED States has unveiled plans for its new $1 billion high-security embassy in London - the most expensive it has ever built. The proposals were met with relief from both the present embassy's Mayfair neighbours and the residents and developers of the Battersea wasteland where the vast crystalline cube, surrounded by a moat, will be built. The decision to abandon the former site in Grosvenor Square by 2016 came after a prolonged battle with residents angered by the security measures demanded after the September 11 attacks. More than a hundred residents took out a full-page advertisement in The Times...

The United States announced Tuesday that it has chosen a cutting-edge, energy-efficient design by acclaimed US architecture firm KieranTimberlake for its future embassy in Britain. The building, a towering glass cube covered with a thin sheath of photo-voltaic cells "met the goal of creating a modern, welcoming, timeless, safe and energy-efficient embassy for the 21st century," the State Department said. "The concept holds the greatest potential for developing a truly iconic embassy and is on the leading edge of sustainable design."

Britain is the only European country President Barack Obama can really count on to respond positively to his plea for NATO to provide extra forces for Afghanistan. So why is it, then, that the Obama administration can barely conceal its disdain for a nation that, by its deeds, time and again proves itself to be America's staunchest and most reliable ally? Shortly before Mr. Obama's Afghan policy speech at West Point earlier this month, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Britain was sending another 500 troops to that beleaguered country, bringing the total number of British troops to around 10,000....

At the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, and at the UN Security Council meeting before that, Barack Obama continued his administration's new policy toward Great Britain: declare that the "special relationship" between the U.S. and the U.K. is as strong as ever, and then act as if there is no such relationship at all. The British papers were filled with the news that the president would not grant Prime Minister Gordon Brown a one-on-one meeting. "Mr. Obama had refused five separate requests from the prime minister for a private meeting during his U.S. trip for the UN summit in New York,"...

President Obama and the US Secretary of State fuelled a fierce American backlash against Britain, claiming Abdelbaset Al Megrahi should have been forced to serve out his jail sentence in Scotland – but a senior Whitehall aide said their reaction was ‘disingenuous’. British officials claim Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton were kept informed at all stages of discussions concerning Megrahi’s return. The officials say the Americans spoke out because they were taken aback by the row over Megrahi’s release, not because they did not know it was about to happen. ‘The US was kept fully in touch about everything that...