It's official: Britain has surrendered its sovereignty to the US. Its military is dependent on the US (both its nuclear weapons and cruise missiles are under indirect US control), it could not expel US bases on its territory even if it wanted to (and contrary to popular belief, the RAF has nothing to do with bases like "RAF Fairford"), and now the government has sided a one-sided treaty allowing the US to extradite British nationals without the need to produce prima facie evidence:
Blunkett agreed that the UK would extradite Britons to the US in future, without any need to produce prima facie evidence that they are guilty of anything. But the US refused to do the same with their own citizens. The Home Office press release concealed this fact - out of shame, presumably. Why did the US refuse? According to the Home Office, the fourth amendment of the US constitution says citizens of US states cannot be arrested without "probable cause". The irony appears to have been lost on David Blunkett, as he gave away yet more of Britain's sovereignty. If we really were the 51st state, as anti-Americans imply, we would probably have more protection against Washington than we do today.

So the US and Britain seem to be more like China and Hong Kong; i.e., one country with two systems. Real power rests in Washington, while Britain has sufficient autonomy to offer its nationals different lifestyle choices (gun control, nationalised healthcare, no capital punishment) within its territory.

Posted by: Michael S. | http://beebo.org | Fri Jul 18 04:31:30 2003

Becoming more and more true as time goes on: you can either live under US domestic policy, or US foreign policy...

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