A common language with the US makes many of the political and business elite focus on the U.S. It also makes them less inclined to put the effort in to engage with Europe politically and culturally.
That in turn helped to fan the flames of Euroscepticism that in turn led to Brexit.
It’s no accident that the focus of trade deals post Brexit has been with English speaking countries of the former Empire.
The reason british people don't learn languages is that it is not economically beneficial for them to do so. But otherwise, I don't think it is the case that in Europe everybody is enlightened and aware of each other's national politics and culture and Britain uniquely is somehow ignorant of other countries.
I’ve worked in Brussels and whilst English is spoken an awful lot communication is still not as straightforward as working in the US.
People who talked about Brexit were talking about East Asia and the Commonwealth countries, not the US only. I can't really think immediately of anyone with strong links to the US in the current govt (the only minister in recent memory was Liam Fox, and he hasn't been in govt for close to a decade iirc).
- Brits are famously monolingual compared to the rest of Europe.
- How many senior British politicians speak a European foreign language fluently - Johnson perhaps - I can think of perhaps one or two others.
- Lots of key members of the Eurosceptic movement have deep links to the US. Hannan, Farage, Fox (he was the Brexit Trade Minister in 2019 btw so not close to decade).
- The 'Britannia Unchained' group of Kwarteng, Truss etc all looked strongly to the US.
I speak from experience in UK business and in Brussels.
It's not the only factor certainly but it's contributed.
I don't know, I haven't tried to talk to any of them in a language that isn't English. Again, your supposition that this must be true is based on what? It must be...you heard this thing about Brits...
Right and two of the people you mention have never served in British parliament. Hannan has links to the US...and is the same person advocating heavily for a Swiss deal with EU...that couldn't be right though? You said he had "links". He wasn't the Brexit Trade Minister (that is a fictional position).
Truss and Kwarteng didn't look "strongly" to the US...I have no idea where this is coming from. Do you just not like the US so you think this other group of people you don't like must be allied to them? Truss was Trade Minister and did deals with the Commonwealth, there was no real focus on the US at all (because of Biden). Britannia Unchained is famous in the UK for being particularly adulatory towards East Asia, not the US.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
Just because you're not an MP doesn't mean you can't have huge influence - Farage obviously being the most prominent example.
Brexit Trade Minister - my typo should have been Post Brexit Trade Minister - but he was clearly in Govt in 2019 contrary to your claim.
I live in the UK and I am struggling to think of more than 1 or 2 British born people I know personally that speak anything other than English with any fluency.
Well if I lack the authority to comment on my own education, please feel free to share your greater understanding of the years and hours my classmates and I devoted to learning a second language. Perhaps you can even convince me my A* GCSE made me fluent and not utterly incompetent in it!
That pretty much describes my foreign language education (learning French in England, 1970s/1980s).
https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/at-a-glanc...
(We don't yet have the results for the 2022 census)
Also the figures on that page include people born abroad. I know a few people who can speak 5+ languages. But they weren't born in the UK.
Boris Johnson was born in New York.
> he went to Stanford, and his wife's family has a house there
The craziest part is that I believe this actually makes sense to you. How sad.
If I have a house in France and went to a French University does that mean I have strong connections with France. Of course. Likewise with the US.