A good short.

For years we have spoken of our "special relationship" with the Americans. For years we have deluded ourselves that because we share a common language, we are brothers.
In fact the Americans are naturally, Americans first and last.
Their history, prior to their emergence from the seclusion, which the distance from Europe and their large landmass  encouraged was, prior to the 1st World War, one of isolationism. The trauma of the 1st World War and its catastrophic toll on the financial stability of the Old World plus the blood letting, particularly of European males meant that one of the global fulcrums of finance had become unstable and as any marketeer will tell you, 'instability' is an opportunity to make money and consolidate power. Wall Street saw the opportunity and up until the financial crash in 1933 were busy destabilising the Sterling Area.
The 2nd World War produced another golden opportunity, not only to put the final nail in Sterling's coffin but to 'mentor' the two warmongering protagonists, Germany and Japan, who both under American occupation, were compliant to American designs.
We on the other hand were largely left to sink or swim. Yes they provided us with 'loans' which unlike Germany and Japan had to be repaid and we were forced to give up lands or mortgage them as collateral.

Even their entry into the war in 1941 was touch and go with a large block of the American public opinion wishing to stay out of the European conflict. Churchill's pleadings and Roosevelt eye to future pickings, eventually brought them in but only after they had held us hostage before agreeing to supply us with armaments and ships which, as it turned out were old, part redundant vessels rusting away on the Florida Keys.

The reason I bring this up is, listening yesterday to Barrack Obama and his warning that if we didn't remain in the EU "we would go to the back of the queue when it came to renegotiating trade treaties" was hardly the response from a brother or even a most favoured nation.
I think it is time we also grew up and recognised that the "relationship" means nothing. We have to see ourselves as just another European country, a nation state with a flag and an anthem, no more important to the Americans than the Netherlands or Spain, no more important to Wall Street than the opportunity for a good old "short".