Enoch Powell, the FT and parapolitics

Enoch Powell was a High Tory as well as a racist. There's his infamous and career-ending “Rivers of Blood" speech but there's also the sharp understanding that Great Britain had, really, lost World War Two to the Americans, with the British Empire subsumed within the Pax Americana. (Empires often take over other empires as semi-going concerns- the Brits had done it with the Portuguese. But I digress...)

Powell also said something along the lines that British Foreign Policy (now) consisted of doing what the Americans wanted, before being asked.

And we have this in today's (15 Jan 2008) FT.

“The defence secretary, John Hutton, is to attack the commitment of the UK's EU allies to the war in Afghanistan, saying Europe can no longer continue “freeloading” on the back of US military security.”

And since we all know Obama wants an extra 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, I think we can see what signal HMG is trying to send him...

If you really want the skinny on “the Special Relationship”, and the mechanics of how the Americans have ensured a biddable British elite, then you need to look at “parapolitics”. And one of the best places to start for that is Lobster Magazine, issue 56 of which is reviewed here.