British conservatives once looked down on the American right. Now they're riding on Maga's coat-tails | Kojo Koram

"The US's clear military and economic dominance of the postwar world gave it an obvious claim to seniority; however, there was also a strong strain within English conservatism at the time that saw itself as Greeks in this American empire, in the words of former Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan. In other words, even if the Americans were to be the new Romans, extending their dominion over every corner of the globe, without the intellectual, cultural and political guidance of their wise old mother country they would quickly fall into ruin."

"Self-appointed steward of English conservatism Enoch Powell, who in the 1950s and 1960s was seen as a prime-minister-in-waiting, before his fall into ignominy with the rivers of blood speech, openly disparaged the American project and considered it a great tragedy that Britain had ceded global control to its jumped-up former colony. Powell especially loathed the US for the role it played in encouraging self-determination across the world and thereby accelerating the collapse of the British empire."

"As Christopher Hitchens would later describe, the post-imperial UK positioned itself as tutor to its young progeny and, in doing so, assumed the prefix of Anglo in Anglo-American reflected a subtle primacy of standing."

Following World War II, the Anglo-American relationship emerged with both nations claiming seniority despite American military and economic dominance. British conservatives adopted two contrasting positions: one faction, exemplified by Harold Macmillan, saw Britain as the intellectual and cultural guide to American imperial power, positioning themselves as Greeks advising new Romans. This perspective assumed Anglo-American reflected British primacy. Conversely, figures like Enoch Powell and the Suez group conservatives openly opposed American ascendancy, viewing it as tragic that Britain had surrendered global control to its former colony. Powell particularly resented American encouragement of self-determination, which accelerated British imperial collapse. Some conservatives even envisioned potential conflict between the nations as desirable.

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