USA & UK Vive la difference

Yes, the relation between the USA and the UK is a little puzzling. Although I now spend time in Sarasota during the cold British months, I have visited almost all of the states of the USA and lived for short periods, even over cold Christmas periods, in East Michigan and Seattle. 

With all the problems that are besetting the USA and Britain, I was rather taken aback on my entry to Boston this year to be asked by my immigration department official what I thought of Donald Trump. Momentarily stunned I altered the direction of the conversation. “We have our Boris!”. “I know of his wife” was the answer from the official. “Trump is shaking up the White House”. 

Again, a little puzzled now, I answered, “That is not for me to comment on”. Just in case this was relevant, I opened my old passport containing my visa and poured all my boarding passes for the last eight years on to the counter. Having completed all the official stuff, the officer handed back my stuff and smiling commented, “You sound like a secret service guy to me”. 

Of course, this banter was purely an interrogation  into whether I was a fit person to enter the USA but it did emphasise the feeling of change in the air. 

Boris had the privilege of being born in the USA so, if he doesn’t become Britain’s Prime minister for a while, he could technically stand for President of the USA. I suspect that both Nigel Farage and Donald Trump would welcome that eventuality in six year’s time. 

The USA is VERY DIFFERENT from England. The voltage is different so our kettle takes twice as long to boil here in Sarasota than it does in Cambridge England. People drive on the right hand side of the road in the USA. We still drive on the left. Some people in the USA collect all sorts of guns although most others do not have any. Gardening is probably a hobby in which many English people indulge. English people drink tea whilst coffee is still a drink of the USA.  I can travel free on buses in England but I must wait until I am 80 before getting free pass in Sarasota. But gradually, many of the habits of one nation are creeping into the other. 

I am old enough to appreciate the fact that the USA saved a WW2 Europe which Britain would have been forced to leave to the Russians. And WW2 would never even have happened if President Wilson had been able to apply his 14 points at the end of WW1. Even with the protests of Maynard Keynes, who later helped rescue the US economy, the French imposed impossible conditions on Germany.

Many people judge the USA by the actions of people in Washington DC. But, when DC charged Britain the reparations for WW2, the PEOPLE of the USA sent us food parcels – a gesture I will never forget.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/11938214/When-food-parcels-from-the-US-brought-delight-to-British-families.html

Three years ago, we lived in a Cambridge apartment where the person renting above us was a pilot patrolling the borders of the Baltic borders, a feature of NATO not appreciated by the EU. But the US defence forces stationed in England during the last 73 years tell me in Sarasota that they enjoyed their stay despite protests over the “nukes”. But 70 years ago, their sacrifice was truly appreciated. 9,000 of them are remembered or buried in a Cambridge cemetery

https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/europe/cambridge-american-cemetery#.W_KWWS3MxCM

There are many other examples of good relations between the USA and Britain despite the fact that we only finished paying the WW2 reparations of today’s equivalence of about 850 billion pounds in December 2006. Britain’s final payment was 45.5 million pounds.

Many people are puzzled at the extreme goodwill that exists between Britain and the USA. The overseas activities of the USA have not always been in accord with the feelings of the people of Britain but Britain has always been in the coalition of the “willing”. 

There seems to be a difference between the antics of DC and the rest of the USA. Some people in the States say that “there is too much government” but states such as Texas have never gone to the extent of Scotland’s referendum on whether to stay in the”united” kingdom of Britain. It is illegal anyway. People in these different areas of the USA have retained their individuality but have never made serious threats to leave the union. 

So it looks as though we cannot judge the people of the USA by the activities of DC. On the other hand, Donald Trump has obviously struck a chord with working people who, like us in Britain, are puzzled why almost everything they buy is manufactured in the Far East, most of it coming from China. The USA even imports coal. The rational reason for Trump’s accession to the Presidency was probably people’s dissatisfaction with the policies of DC. 

All this does nothing to prevent the people of the USA, outside DC, from being the most friendly in the world. 

I returned to England a few years ago after an absence of 13 years. I had been living in Australia, Firenze, Crete, Jerusalem, Vienna, and Venezia. My first port of call was Sheffield. I can remember walking in a straight line across a square and hearing “Sorry”, “Sorry”, “Sorry” from either side as I made my way across. We English are overwhelmingly polite. 

But there is a code. We English do not always say outright exactly what we need to say. In the USA, people are equally polite but thereafter will converse almost without any limitation and often with breathtaking openness. Very un-English! 

But, in the end, we are all very similar. People in the USA may be more forthcoming than we English but underneath it all, we all share similar feelings about life. 

Carpe Diem