“That is why, when threatened by the global financial turmoil that started in America and has now spread across the world, we in Britain took action to secure our banks and financial system…*
“You know, it started in America, there was a lot of irresponsible lending taking place.” **
“This problem started in America. They have got to sort it out. The Americans have a responsibility to the rest of the world.” ***
November 2008. 10 Downing St. The prime minister, buoyed by the success of his strategy – blaming the US for the downturn – drafts a policy speech…….
“Let us turn to the troubling issue of smoking-related illness and the huge cost of this born by the National Health Service. This is a problem which began in America when tobacco was grown by Native Americans who subsequently sold this product to white settlers for smoking.
“One issue which keeps me lying awake at nights is that of pollution of the environment, of lakes, seas and forests, which has been imported to these shores via the Americans whose citizen Henry Ford invented the modern motor car.
“Nuisance calls are the bane of modern Britain. Without the invention of the telephone in 1877 – by an American – they would never happen.
“And did I mention the McCormick Reaper, which enabled the rapid harvesting of wheat on the American prairies, leading to the growth of food intolerances which plague coeliacs in modern Britain.
“I can speak with personal experience of the pain of the dentists’ chair, with fillings and root canal surgery a troubling part of today’s lifestyle. This problem has reached our shores from the US, where the electric dental drill was invented in, I believe, the year of 1875.”
“Jazz. Don’t you hate it….
* Times, October 10
** BBC, October 26
*** Sky News, October 1
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey