Britain’s debate about the EU is not just about Europe – it is also about the US. For the fiercest eurosceptics – who want Britain to leave the EU – the US is the promised land across the ocean. They have long insisted that it is a mistake for Britain to tie itself to a sclerotic Europe with an alien political culture. Instead the UK should look to the English-speaking world and, above all, to its “special relationship” with America.
The anti-Europeans’ heroine is Margaret Thatcher. It was Lady Thatcher who said “no, no, no” to ever-closer union in Europe – but “yes, yes, yes” to the US of President Ronald Reagan. The picture of Ronnie and Maggie, tootling around together in a golf buggy, is a powerful, nostalgia-filled image of the “special relationship” at its warmest.
The sceptics have always hoped that, if and when Britain chooses to leave the EU, it could hop back into the American golf-buggy and drive off into the sunset. So for the US government to say that, on the contrary, it is desperate for Britain to stay inside the EU is more than a setback for the eurosceptics – it is a humiliation.