{"id":80220,"date":"2025-02-16T07:32:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T07:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=80220"},"modified":"2025-02-16T08:07:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T08:07:54","slug":"this-is-a-bad-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/02\/16\/this-is-a-bad-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"This is a bad relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I know the 2003 film Love Actually has not lasted well, for all sorts of reasons. There are definite issues that can be raised about it. But, as a matter of fact, a lot of people watched it, and if you\u2019re into political economy (and if you read this blog, then you are going to have some problems denying that) then one scene stands out. That\u2019s the one where Hugh Grant, playing the UK prime minister, challenges the visiting US President on his use of the term \u2018special relationship\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>For those who want a cinematic reminder, this is it:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Love Actually - Prime Minister&#039;s speech\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D6ouyeycWk8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For those who prefer a transcript, try this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I love that word relationship. Covers all manner of sins, doesn\u2019t it? I fear that this has become a bad relationship. A relationship based on the President taking exactly what he wants and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to, um, Britain.<\/p>\n<p>We may be a small country, but we\u2019re a great one too. The country of Shakespeare, Churchill, The Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter, David Beckham\u2019s right foot, and David Beckham\u2019s left foot, come to that.<\/p>\n<p>And a friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. And since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward, I will be prepared to be much stronger. And the President should be prepared for that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One line most especially stands out:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And a friend who bullies us is no longer a friend.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The US is now bullying us.<\/p>\n<p>It is treating us with contempt.<\/p>\n<p>We do not share values.<\/p>\n<p>There is little or no common ground.<\/p>\n<p>They are no longer a friend.<\/p>\n<p>When will Keir Starmer acknowledge that?<\/p>\n<p>When will he say we cannot be the friend of fascists?<\/p>\n<p>When will he say we are looking for a new path?<\/p>\n<p>When will he say, quite simply, that the relationship is over?<\/p>\n<p>If he doesn\u2019t he will fail us all.<\/p>\n<p>But it will take courage to do the right thing. It always does. Does he have that courage? On this issue he will get no second chances. There is no compromise to be had with fascism. Will he compromise, or won\u2019t he? That is the question. It is the way we will discover who the man really is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know the 2003 film Love Actually has not lasted well, for all sorts of reasons. There are definite issues that can be raised about<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/02\/16\/this-is-a-bad-relationship\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[215,16,203,118,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-age-of-aggression","category-ethics","category-fascism","category-labour","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80220"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80235,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80220\/revisions\/80235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}