George Monbiot wonders why the British right is not getting angry about becoming America’s doormat. He talks about recent news reports saying that British citizens may be extradited to the US, at the request of the US, without any evidence before a court. He then goes on to wonder about recent comments by Geoff Hoon, in which he suggests that the UK military may never fight a war without the US.
So why is it deemed by the right to be patriotic both to oppose the EU and to appease the US? Why has the old reactionary motto “my country, right or wrong” been so smoothly replaced with another one: “their country, right or wrong”? Why does the British right now believe it has a God-given duty to defend someone else’s empire?
American empire, unlike European convergence, is also unequivocally a project of the right; it establishes the political and economic space in which men like Murdoch and Black can work without impediment. But perhaps most importantly, our fake patriots know where real power lies. Having located it, they wish to appease it. For the very reason that the United States is a greater threat to our sovereignty than the European Union, they will not stand up to it.