British diplomats and Anglo-American types in Washington have a near-superstitious prohibition on uttering the words ‘Special Relationship’ to describe relations between Britain and America, lest the specialness itself vanish like a phantom at cock-crow.

Americans may say they love our accents (I have been accused of sounding ‘like Princess Di’) but the more thoughtful ones resent and rather dislike us as a nation and people, as friends of mine...

Far too many people—many of them academics, many politicians—continue to jabber about a supposed ‘special relationship’ between our two countries.I used to think that no such thing existed. Recently, I have become convinced that it...