By Nile Gardiner
Harry Cole, news editor of the Guido Fawkes' blog, was interviewed earlier this week on BBC Three’s Free Speech show. Asked about the Falklands issue by host Rick Edwards, Harry blasted President Obama’s refusal to recognise the Falklands referendum, describing him as “a hypocrite and a coward.” After all, as Cole pointed out, it doesn’t look good when the leader of the free world can’t even bring himself to support the right to self-determination, the very principle upon which the United States itself is founded. For background, watch this train wreck of a press conference by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland following the referendum result, which showed that 99.8 percent of Falkand Islanders wish the Falklands to remain a British Overseas Territory.
What is most striking about Cole’s interview is the loud applause which comes from a large section of the audience of mostly young Brits. There was no booing or hissing of his forthright attack on Barack Obama, which you might expect from a BBC-assembled crowd – quite the opposite in fact. There appears to be a growing realisation among the wider British public that President Obama really doesn’t like Britain very much, and that his knife in the back over the Falklands, and his hectoring, lecturing tone on Europe, isn’t very helpful for British interests. As I’ve noted in previous pieces, Barack Obama is the most anti-British US president in modern times. When even a BBC audience turns against the insulting policies of the White House, the Obama administration should understand that it has a real problem on its hands when it comes to relations with America’s closest ally. |