There is no special relationship between the United States and Britain, a House of Commons select committee said March 28. The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee concluded that the term is “potentially misleading, and we recommend that its use should be avoided.”

“The UK must continue to position itself closely alongside the U.S. but there is a need to be less deferential and more willing to say no where our interests diverge,” said the committee’s chairman, Mike Gapes.

The committee said it was simply mirroring the attitude U.S. President Barack Obama had taken since coming into power.

“The UK’s relationship should be principally driven by the UK’s national interests within individual policy areas,” it said. “It needs to be characterized by a hard-headed political approach to the relationship and a realistic sense of the UK’s limits. The foreign-policy approach we are advocating is in many ways similar to the more pragmatic tone President Obama has adopted towards the UK.”

In the future the UK needs to be “more willing to say no,” it concluded.

Britain has been a staunch ally of the U.S. for decades. However, repeated snubs from the new administration led the committee to conclude that Britain is considered just one of many U.S. allies—with nothing special in the relationship at all.

Right at the start of his presidency, Obama insulted Britain by sending back a bust of Winston Churchill, and giving Prime Minister Gordon Brown a gift of 100 dvds that don’t even play on British dvd players.

The latest snub is America’s refusal to back Britain’s right to the Falkland Islands, instead backing Argentina’s calls for negotiation at the United Nations. This is despite the fact that Argentina’s claim on the Falklands is about as strong as Russia’s claim to Alaska. The Falkland Islands never had an indigenous population. Its current inhabitants came from Britain. The last thing they want is to be ruled by Argentina. Argentina’s only claim is that it had a colony on the island a few hundred years ago.

No wonder Britain has concluded that there is no special relationship. This is a trend the Trumpet has been predicting for years. For more information on the future of this relationship, see our article “The Tie That Binds America, Britain and Israel.”