Just over two years ago, Barack Obama delivered a calculated insult to Britain. He returned the Epstein bust of Sir Winston Churchill that had been loaned to America by the British government as a token of solidarity following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Churchill had pride of place in the Oval Office between 2001 and 2009, a symbol of the tight-knit transatlantic relationship that had flourished under Tony Blair and George W. Bush. The rejection of the greatest Anglo-American in modern history in favour of a bust of Abraham Lincoln therefore seemed to mark a profound moment. It signalled the intent of a new and iconoclastic American regime to loosen the diplomatic, cultural and political ties between Britain and America; to distance itself from a country tainted by colonialism and class.
After the Brokeback Mountain epic that was the Blair-Bush years, it seemed as though the Obama administration was determined to throw a pail of cold water on the Special Relationship.
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