Do we need to kick into touch this outdated and totally one sided alliance?
Are we really anything special to our American cousins?
Or is it just a load of useless claptrap from a rose tinted earlier age?
Come on all you people out there show me ANY examples of a positive nature to continue this relationship.

The trouble is, we might resent 'em, but we can't do without 'em - especially if we don't want to embrace Europe.

Well just maybe, that may well be true up to a point, but just what are we made of, scared little Englanders or a nation of brave men and women?
Time to take a risk and find out.
Find out just what we are made of and see if we still are that courageous fighting Island race that lit up the world in times gone past.

As individuals Americans are very nice people but I find their policies dictated by their political/military elite and imposed on the rest of the world deeply disturbing.
Their ruthless corporations and business leaders leave a bad taste in my mouth too.
Why can't we live and let live?
The Western world is supposed to be based on the teaching of Jesus Christ, so what has happened to make our world such a dangerous place to live in today?

The "special relationship" between Britain and America refers to nothing more than intelligence sharing stemming from the end of WWII and during the cold war. I don't know why people seem interpret this to have a more personal meaning. From a political point of view American leaders will do what is best for them and British leaders will do the same. Politicians work on self-interest and greed, not friendship and trust.

I think Tome Raider completely underestimates the degree of the "special relationship"

There is far more to it than swapping intelligence during the war and the cold war, from the Diego Garcia giveaway to the War in Iraq, nuclear missiles, support for the "Washington Consensus",etc. And that is not to mention the sort of semi-official connections, a whole variety of funded organisations for the mixing of political/business elites from the two sides of the Atlantic, something that has certainly had a baleful influence on the Labour Party over recent decades. Obviously there are exceptions to this, for instance Harold Wilson support for the Americans in Vietnam stopped short of military involvement. But overall the influence - on official and semi-official levels - has been stronger between Britain and the U.S. than anyother country in Europe I can think of.

it goes back to churchill and roosevelt . it was more necessary for winston than for franklin though. AMERICAN HELP WAS NEEDED . SO IT SEEMS .

The Help needed during WW2 was bought at an usurous cost, we lost a multitude of bases abroad, our future relations with the empire was dictated to us and we mortgaged ourselves for the next forty years to pay off the debt, even now we are effectively an occupied country, Eisenhower showed the true power of the almighty dollar when he bancrupted us during the Suez crisis......Is this a special relationship or is it the status of a satallite nation?

Just a very small subservient nation.
Pathetic really.

Whilst I am pro American and happy to be allied with them I see nothing of a so called special relationship, the Americans never mention it only the brit media. Since the Thatch/Reagan era ended this country has not been an equal partner but more of a lap dog to them.

I agree with you Gt Pattison, a lap dog indeed, a controlled one to boot. I wonder if they have "their" men at the helm of our Security and Secret services?
Just a thought, those underground bombings, look a little closer at the events and complete lack of good quality photos of the bombers on the day in question. Then take your mind back to the complete lack of surveilence film/photos from the Pentagon building on 911 and the almost complete lack of debris from the 300 tonnes of the Boeing passenger plane and where were the 220 heavy duty passenger seats and the two massive engines? Remembering that this building was one of the most heavily monitored buildings in the world. Hundreds of surveilence cameras.
It was said that most of the plane "vapourised" due to the force of the impact. Well that contradicts the laws of physics, but hey what the heck, this IS America we are talking about.

Those half dozen or so Arabs with a some laptops in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan masterminding the 911 event, outwitting the most capable nation in the world, America and of course outwitting the most ruthless intelligence outfit too, Mossad. Now that I find very hard to believe.
Unless of course all those Arabs had much higher I.Q.'s than those Americans and Israelis.
You can decide for yourselves if that really is the true reason for 911's success.

Professor, do you really think a few arabs with a lap top managed to hit the pentagon, home of the worlds real masters of terror and the worlds most powerful armed forces? Shame on you if you do.

It's unnerving that someones obvious desire for a renewed rival-empire, a return to the C18th, is being argued for on such vacuous grounds. The only substantive issue in this discussion is your own ego. Try attaching it to something else. Consider leaving your union jack at home and maybe try listening to something else instead of Queen. Ever heard of human security? You might want to check it out. There is more than just a national security perspective in terms of foreign policy.

Does anyone read anything anymore?

Liammons I said it tongue in cheek, of course much more powerful vested interests were involved. One being the Israelis who must be laughing all the way to the bank for getting 43 nations to fight their war with the Arabs and Muslims at no cost for themslves. In fact they are doing quite nicely being bankrolled by the Americans to help fight "The War On Terror" too! Nice when you can get it.........

Don't use that vile little Union Jack flag, just the Red + White ENGLISH Flag. The British, just what is that and to whom does it apply, certainly not to the Welsh, N.Irish or the Scottish. We are English in this nation of ours, not British.
Time to reclaim our parliament from the Celtic nations, who have their own centres of power. Time for us English to make Westminster an ENGLISH parliament and to stop those Celtic countries sending their MP's to vote in OUR parliament and interferring in the running of our country, England. We cannot vote in their parliamentary centres so why should they vote in ours?
We do live in a democracy don't we, or does that not apply to the English?
Just commonsense and fair play to me that the English should have their own parliament, enough said.

In what academic discipline are you a Professor, and at which University?

Your use of English; your spelling; and your appalling grammar, lead me to suspect that you are no more than a charlatan.

Your criticism of the "special relationship" would be considerably more cogent if it were expressed with considerably less hysteria.