Usage of the word “pond” to mean ocean was common enough in the 17th century to feature in a book written in 1612, giving rise to “across the pond” becoming shorthand for the other side of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Although similar sayings are applied to other journeys and seas, UK media only uses the phrase for crossings between Britain and the United States, myopically ignoring the fact North Americans might use it for any journeys to and from Europe. This reflects politicians in the UK attaching more value to a much vaunted “special relationship” between Britain and the United States, than the other way around.
While undoubtedly important for cultural and historical reasons, including a long-standing military alliance and history of sharing intelligence, this relationship was always destined to become increasingly one-sided -- and questioned -- as the UK’s economy becomes less and less globally significant.
For all the incessant policy proclamations and uncertainty generated by the return of President Trump to the White House, the people, politics, and global power of the United States have long had the ability to simultaneously attract, astonish, and alienate people all around the world.
A land of immigrants, yet one which is also mostly insular in its politics and outlook. Constitutional checks and balances checkmated by vested interests. A wealthy nation where hundreds of thousands of people go bankrupt each year because of medical bills. A “land of liberty” that locks up nearly two million people, by far the highest per capita rate in the world. The reasons are myriad and are deep-rooted enough to perplex even its own citizens.
The sheer size of the economy and military of the US makes its politics impossible to ignore. Every country needs to navigate the risks posed by threatened tariff wars, not least nations like Bangladesh which are hugely reliant on global trade and remittances.
For the UK, the challenge is perhaps of a different order of magnitude: Thanks to its reservoir of soft power and international influence (themselves a legacy of the hard power that captured an empire for Britain), much of its ruling class has come of age comforted by tales of the UK being able to “punch above its weight” on the world stage. A viewpoint deepened by the thought of being “special” in its relationship with the United States, a notion made easier no doubt by thinking of the ocean as a pond.
Whilst never entirely mythical, the special relationship always had limits. Famously, in 1956 President Eisenhower pulled the rug away from the UK’s post imperial pretensions by making Britain and France abandon their invasion of Egypt.
On returning to power in 1958, France’s WWII leader Charles de Gaulle took Suez as another reason to ensure France built and maintained its undersea nuclear deterrent to be operated independently of American missiles and software. Britain (which took the opposite approach in the 1960s) ought not to have been surprised when De Gaulle vetoed its first application to join the EU (EEC) in 1963, by declaring “Non” in front of television cameras.
In 2025, with many European leaders worrying that Trump is making the US a less reliable ally in their support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, de Gaulle’s views are getting renewed attention. This is undoubtedly good news … for the defense industry.
For families of the hundreds of thousands killed and injured over the last three years with little prospect of a military conclusion in sight, the outlook is not so rosy, at least so long as Vladimir Putin remains in power in Russia.
In truth, US pressure on its Nato allies to increase defense spending pre-dates Trump as does its tendency towards isolationism, which was already being ratcheted up by President Biden’s own boosting of domestic manufacturing. Although Europe’s GDP is big enough to help Ukraine outspend Russia, present probabilities still point towards a bloody stalemate. As the centre of the world’s economic gravity reverts decisively towards China and the opposite end of the Eurasian landmass, realpolitik might yet override other ambitions.
All at sea amid this backdrop lies a stagnant UK undermined by decades of under-investment and worsening inequality, which different governments have seemed unable or unwilling to reverse. A process only made worse by its political class’s collective mishandling of Brexit. Plum pickings for corporate lobbyists demanding weaker regulations and bigger tax breaks.
The Labour government under Keir Starmer is so far visibly failing to reset this picture, to the advantage of the deeply right-wing anti-migrant Reform party led by Nigel Farage. With a lot of help from friendly media barons, the privately educated commodities trader with a long history of making overtly racist and xenophobic remarks, is somehow topping opinion polls by continuing to leverage the Brexit vote to project himself as a ‘’man of the people,” a promise even more hollow and vain than anything presented by Boris Johnson.
The UK is facing turbulent times. The risk of its electorate falling prey to either a fascist party or (another) deeply right-wing populist variant, is at a new high. In the absence of Starmer being seen to both return a feel-good factor andchallenge rather than appease divisive rhetoric, he might only succeed in enabling the far right.
With four years to go before the next election must be called, time favours the incumbent and gives room for Farage’s forceful personality to add to his track record of alienating colleagues within his own party.
But the clock is ticking.
For now, Starmer’s spin doctors must turn to the thin gruel of his administration being more competent than their trainwreck Tory predecessors at agreeing some symbolic (albeit far from game changing) international agreements, such as with the EU and India this year.
As this track record also includes inviting Donald Trump for a state visit at a time when more economically confident Commonwealth counterparts and their ilk in Australia and Canada are winning elections (bigly) thanks to their public’s distaste for the US leader, the relative economic weakness and political dysfunction of the UK is plain for all to see.
The forecast remains choppy seas ahead for Airstrip One.
Niaz Alam is London Bureau Chief, Dhaka Tribune.
