Given his hatred of all things British, the fact he’s half British must eat at him everyday.
Love it.
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What are you guys even mad about? He’s right. He should be putting pressure on us to not screw around with Ireland. I’m pretty sure Ireland is more eager to claim him as an Irishman than some guy who was born in Clapham with an Irish dad and a London accent, it seemed like they absolutely loved him
Special relationship in action – imagine a sitting British PM referring to Americans as “the yanks”. He won’t play plastic if they need us for one of their special operations though.
This should result in a diplomatic slap on the knuckles but it won’t; the sooner we stop kowtowing to America the better.
How dare Biden come over here and suggest that the bunch of shysters that passes for the UK government these days don’t do exactly what they have repeatedly threatened to do and break the agreement they made with the EU over NI.
We’re British you know, we hardly ever break international treaties.
He likes Ireland, good for him. I also like Ireland.
He thinks our government might fuck around. I also think our government might fuck around.
Is this really that shocking?
Maybe when you spend 4-5 years insulting neighbours, threatening to walk away from deals and break contracts etc, then some leaders might not trust you as much as they might have done previously.
This guy is so strange. He acts like he has lived in Cork for 70 years or something
The United States sometimes acts unilaterally, disregarding the concerns and interests of other nations. This approach can strain diplomatic relations, diminish international cooperation, and breed resentment among allies and adversaries alike… and the current President exhibits a selective approach to promoting human rights and democracy.
Amazing how this subreddit will normally be the first to tell you everything wrong with the UK, that we’re a failed state and that the government fails to stick to international treaties or diplomacy anymore (brexit, refugees, human rights some of which we created.)
But someone with a different accent comes along and says the exact same thing and suddenly everyones a huffing and puffing mini-flag waving crumpet eating nationalist. How dare he say what I was saying 4 days ago on the internet! Know your place colony subject!
Tbf he has a point. Brits do screw around. They screwed around brexit and now we all live in this shithole that that lovely idea created.
I love how this subreddit forgets Irish history.
If brexit were handled worse, we really would have civil unrest here. Even with how well (relatively speaking) brexit has accommodated Northern Ireland, there have still been riots due to the customs border.
Northern Ireland didn’t vote for brexit, I remind you.
Man this comment really triggered the flag-waving mouth-breathers.
I do think it’s worth distancing ourselves from the Americans. They don’t respect us, and would happily throw us under the bus at the first opportunity.
Wow it takes one jibe from a sitting US president for r/unitedkingdom to turn into r/badunitedkingdom
For the record, I absolutely agree that our government has behaved badly throughout the Brexit process, particularly regarding Northern Ireland. That isn’t controversial at all, and I’m sure the Americans have said as much privately.
But I also think that such language from a sitting US president is highly undiplomatic & borderline Trumpian. I would be embarrassed if Sunak spoke like this so freely about our allies – regardless of the circumstances. Even Boris restrained himself more than Biden.
Also, there’s no better way to unite the British public against something than having an American president lecture & interfere. We saw that with Obama during the Brexit referendum.
If only we had half the backbone the French do when it comes to dealing with the Yanks, and telling them to fuck off when they overstep their mark.
He’s literally the 1% Irish American meme come to life
Well in fairness, it is well acknowledged that the UK gov has repeatedly acted in extremely bad faith over Brexit and with regards the Good Friday Agreement, consistently either breaking, or threatening to break, international agreements it has signed only months earlier. This should not be news to anyone on this sub.
Brexit was launched with almost no regard for the effect it would have on Northern Ireland, and indeed if this was a Union of equals, no part of the Union would be dragged out of the EU against their will, but that is *exactly* what happened. In a one person one vote referendum, only English votes really count simply due to population size. Scotland and NI didn’t want it, but tough shit eh? This is “screwing around” and quite frankly it is undemocratic and anyone who saw themselves as a unionist should have noted how flippant Westminster was with that idea. Note that, in contrast, the EU will allow any member, of any size, to veto a major change to its own arrangements, and we have seen this many times in the past of course. An interesting contrast and one worthy of examination.
So why are people surprised? Brexit has been a total shitshow, with those advocating it being as careless with the UK economy and industry as much as they are with peace in Ireland. Brexit has been such a dramatic and resounding success that the political party who went “all in” on it, are now on the verge of being electorally smashed to oblivion.
All those promises of a vastly improved economic situation for the UK after Brexit sound laughably hollow now, if not downright embarrassing, given what we have witnessed since 2016. The biggest collapse in living standards in living memory, a permanent collapse in the value of the pound (which is partly why all those doctors are pissing off to Australia), and investment in the UK grinding to an almost complete halt. And the hilarious spectacle of a UK PM enthusiastically telling citizens of NI what a brilliant deal they have by getting to stay in the single market.
So I think Biden is justified in saying what he said. The UK has been screwing around and behaving like an aimless basketcase for the last seven years and being flippant over a peace agreement that is one of the wonders of the modern world. This is acute to me as I grew up during the Troubles and my youth was punctuated with hearing huge bombs go off near my house, then the ensuing news report with the grim casualty count. Thousands of people who would otherwise be dead are now alive because of the GFA, and this is risked… for what?
Risked for the obviously regressive concept that is Brexit, sold on blatantly obvious lies, in a winner-takes-all-free-for-all referendum where every rule was broken, and where the biggest funder of the movement was spending half of his lunches being wined and dined by Russian “diplomats” offering him all sorts of financial incentives to keep doing what he was doing. Oh and he only remembered about all these meets after they were exposed by journalists! He must have just had a foggy Chardonnay-head and forgotten they happened! I too always forget being offered gold mine opportunities by Russian “businessmen”. Can’t imagine why the Russians would possibly want Brexit, no sirree!
One wonders if the invasion of Ukraine would ever even have happened if not for the perceived lack of Western unity most exemplified by the Brexit vote. It’s not the primary reason but clearly it’s part of the story.
But anyway….
There has been a lot of “screwing around” over the past few years and it shouldn’t be a surprise to have a very close friend state that simple truth. And those who think it isn’t a “special relationship” haven’t witnessed just how close our military and intelligence partnership is. It is unique and special, but sometimes friends see us more clearly than we want to see ourselves, and sometimes we should listen carefully, especially if they are telling us something we don’t really want to hear.
It’s fashionable for the US political and cultural elite to hammer the UK. I read NY Times online and they are weirdly obsessed with criticising the UK. On the other hand every article about Japan and South Korea, for example, is glowingly positive
He’s not even Irish, the last of bidens descendent from the uk were english
Number 1 American pastime is to larp as an irish person
I have no problem with what Biden has said.
His statement and expectations are correct and based on recent events.
As an American, I must say I have been perplexed that there’s clearly been an unwillingness to accept the fact United States of America will side with Ireland when it comes to this matter. From day one even we’ve been very consistent. Dark Brandon has said nothing. New in this article has not been reiterated 100 times at this point at all levels of the government.
To be fair, for the last couple of years the British government has been fingering the Good Friday Agreement like a blister they secretly hope will pop. Instead of the hard-won compromise that has kept car bombings off the ten o’clock news.
A cynic might say that the Tories would love for it to kick off again because they’re running out of dead cats.
This entire sub just casually forgetting that the US (in the form of the Clinton administration) was a rather large part of the Good Friday Agreement and that the US has a vested interest in it remaining un-fuckery-ed.
The Good Friday Agreement that the Tory government have played fast and loose with since 2016
This is what the UK needs honestly.
– We have very poor political opposition at home.
– The public have elected the same party that run the country into the ground like what, two or three times now? Plus Brexit?
– “The Brits” *WERE* messing around in Ireland. We had Brexit deals that were going to contradict the Good Friday agreement, as well as other arguments with the EU. Are people going to ignore the fact that Biden wants to stop us doing something our government were doing *literally a few months ago*?
There is no way to counter those in charge effectively. The public are too divided and too gullible to collectively make change. Perhaps some up front embarrassment on the international stage will force their hand in some instances.
Biden makes a silly joke and all the comments are saying how unbecoming it is of him as a president as if our recent prime ministers have been nothing but kind
Imagine casting doubts over how an unstable Tory government with a history of lies and deceit will handle an old colony they have traditionally meddled with and fucked around. What a bastard.
28 comments
Given his hatred of all things British, the fact he’s half British must eat at him everyday.
Love it.
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What are you guys even mad about? He’s right. He should be putting pressure on us to not screw around with Ireland. I’m pretty sure Ireland is more eager to claim him as an Irishman than some guy who was born in Clapham with an Irish dad and a London accent, it seemed like they absolutely loved him
Special relationship in action – imagine a sitting British PM referring to Americans as “the yanks”. He won’t play plastic if they need us for one of their special operations though.
This should result in a diplomatic slap on the knuckles but it won’t; the sooner we stop kowtowing to America the better.
How dare Biden come over here and suggest that the bunch of shysters that passes for the UK government these days don’t do exactly what they have repeatedly threatened to do and break the agreement they made with the EU over NI.
We’re British you know, we hardly ever break international treaties.
He likes Ireland, good for him. I also like Ireland.
He thinks our government might fuck around. I also think our government might fuck around.
Is this really that shocking?
Maybe when you spend 4-5 years insulting neighbours, threatening to walk away from deals and break contracts etc, then some leaders might not trust you as much as they might have done previously.
This guy is so strange. He acts like he has lived in Cork for 70 years or something
The United States sometimes acts unilaterally, disregarding the concerns and interests of other nations. This approach can strain diplomatic relations, diminish international cooperation, and breed resentment among allies and adversaries alike… and the current President exhibits a selective approach to promoting human rights and democracy.
[Are the Brits at it again?](https://arethebritsatitagain.org/)
Amazing how this subreddit will normally be the first to tell you everything wrong with the UK, that we’re a failed state and that the government fails to stick to international treaties or diplomacy anymore (brexit, refugees, human rights some of which we created.)
But someone with a different accent comes along and says the exact same thing and suddenly everyones a huffing and puffing mini-flag waving crumpet eating nationalist. How dare he say what I was saying 4 days ago on the internet! Know your place colony subject!
Tbf he has a point. Brits do screw around. They screwed around brexit and now we all live in this shithole that that lovely idea created.
I love how this subreddit forgets Irish history.
If brexit were handled worse, we really would have civil unrest here. Even with how well (relatively speaking) brexit has accommodated Northern Ireland, there have still been riots due to the customs border.
Northern Ireland didn’t vote for brexit, I remind you.
Man this comment really triggered the flag-waving mouth-breathers.
I do think it’s worth distancing ourselves from the Americans. They don’t respect us, and would happily throw us under the bus at the first opportunity.
Wow it takes one jibe from a sitting US president for r/unitedkingdom to turn into r/badunitedkingdom
For the record, I absolutely agree that our government has behaved badly throughout the Brexit process, particularly regarding Northern Ireland. That isn’t controversial at all, and I’m sure the Americans have said as much privately.
But I also think that such language from a sitting US president is highly undiplomatic & borderline Trumpian. I would be embarrassed if Sunak spoke like this so freely about our allies – regardless of the circumstances. Even Boris restrained himself more than Biden.
Also, there’s no better way to unite the British public against something than having an American president lecture & interfere. We saw that with Obama during the Brexit referendum.
If only we had half the backbone the French do when it comes to dealing with the Yanks, and telling them to fuck off when they overstep their mark.
He’s literally the 1% Irish American meme come to life
Well in fairness, it is well acknowledged that the UK gov has repeatedly acted in extremely bad faith over Brexit and with regards the Good Friday Agreement, consistently either breaking, or threatening to break, international agreements it has signed only months earlier. This should not be news to anyone on this sub.
Brexit was launched with almost no regard for the effect it would have on Northern Ireland, and indeed if this was a Union of equals, no part of the Union would be dragged out of the EU against their will, but that is *exactly* what happened. In a one person one vote referendum, only English votes really count simply due to population size. Scotland and NI didn’t want it, but tough shit eh? This is “screwing around” and quite frankly it is undemocratic and anyone who saw themselves as a unionist should have noted how flippant Westminster was with that idea. Note that, in contrast, the EU will allow any member, of any size, to veto a major change to its own arrangements, and we have seen this many times in the past of course. An interesting contrast and one worthy of examination.
So why are people surprised? Brexit has been a total shitshow, with those advocating it being as careless with the UK economy and industry as much as they are with peace in Ireland. Brexit has been such a dramatic and resounding success that the political party who went “all in” on it, are now on the verge of being electorally smashed to oblivion.
All those promises of a vastly improved economic situation for the UK after Brexit sound laughably hollow now, if not downright embarrassing, given what we have witnessed since 2016. The biggest collapse in living standards in living memory, a permanent collapse in the value of the pound (which is partly why all those doctors are pissing off to Australia), and investment in the UK grinding to an almost complete halt. And the hilarious spectacle of a UK PM enthusiastically telling citizens of NI what a brilliant deal they have by getting to stay in the single market.
So I think Biden is justified in saying what he said. The UK has been screwing around and behaving like an aimless basketcase for the last seven years and being flippant over a peace agreement that is one of the wonders of the modern world. This is acute to me as I grew up during the Troubles and my youth was punctuated with hearing huge bombs go off near my house, then the ensuing news report with the grim casualty count. Thousands of people who would otherwise be dead are now alive because of the GFA, and this is risked… for what?
Risked for the obviously regressive concept that is Brexit, sold on blatantly obvious lies, in a winner-takes-all-free-for-all referendum where every rule was broken, and where the biggest funder of the movement was spending half of his lunches being wined and dined by Russian “diplomats” offering him all sorts of financial incentives to keep doing what he was doing. Oh and he only remembered about all these meets after they were exposed by journalists! He must have just had a foggy Chardonnay-head and forgotten they happened! I too always forget being offered gold mine opportunities by Russian “businessmen”. Can’t imagine why the Russians would possibly want Brexit, no sirree!
One wonders if the invasion of Ukraine would ever even have happened if not for the perceived lack of Western unity most exemplified by the Brexit vote. It’s not the primary reason but clearly it’s part of the story.
But anyway….
There has been a lot of “screwing around” over the past few years and it shouldn’t be a surprise to have a very close friend state that simple truth. And those who think it isn’t a “special relationship” haven’t witnessed just how close our military and intelligence partnership is. It is unique and special, but sometimes friends see us more clearly than we want to see ourselves, and sometimes we should listen carefully, especially if they are telling us something we don’t really want to hear.
It’s fashionable for the US political and cultural elite to hammer the UK. I read NY Times online and they are weirdly obsessed with criticising the UK. On the other hand every article about Japan and South Korea, for example, is glowingly positive
He’s not even Irish, the last of bidens descendent from the uk were english
Number 1 American pastime is to larp as an irish person
I have no problem with what Biden has said.
His statement and expectations are correct and based on recent events.
As an American, I must say I have been perplexed that there’s clearly been an unwillingness to accept the fact United States of America will side with Ireland when it comes to this matter. From day one even we’ve been very consistent. Dark Brandon has said nothing. New in this article has not been reiterated 100 times at this point at all levels of the government.
To be fair, for the last couple of years the British government has been fingering the Good Friday Agreement like a blister they secretly hope will pop. Instead of the hard-won compromise that has kept car bombings off the ten o’clock news.
A cynic might say that the Tories would love for it to kick off again because they’re running out of dead cats.
This entire sub just casually forgetting that the US (in the form of the Clinton administration) was a rather large part of the Good Friday Agreement and that the US has a vested interest in it remaining un-fuckery-ed.
The Good Friday Agreement that the Tory government have played fast and loose with since 2016
This is what the UK needs honestly.
– We have very poor political opposition at home.
– The public have elected the same party that run the country into the ground like what, two or three times now? Plus Brexit?
– “The Brits” *WERE* messing around in Ireland. We had Brexit deals that were going to contradict the Good Friday agreement, as well as other arguments with the EU. Are people going to ignore the fact that Biden wants to stop us doing something our government were doing *literally a few months ago*?
There is no way to counter those in charge effectively. The public are too divided and too gullible to collectively make change. Perhaps some up front embarrassment on the international stage will force their hand in some instances.
Biden makes a silly joke and all the comments are saying how unbecoming it is of him as a president as if our recent prime ministers have been nothing but kind
Imagine casting doubts over how an unstable Tory government with a history of lies and deceit will handle an old colony they have traditionally meddled with and fucked around. What a bastard.