A brief history of the last 70 years of 🇩🇪 - 🇬🇧 relations. Short 🧵/1.
Many Germans, including much of the diplomatic establishment, felt like this about 🇬🇧. Often despite considerable provocation, especially in the English tabloids. /2.
Some, usually only in private, but then quite vehemently, had a different perspective on 🇬🇧.
But still, with 🇺🇸 in charge, even those 🇩🇪 sceptics felt able to work extremely closely with 🇬🇧. /3.
The 🇩🇪 enthusiasts for all things 🇬🇧 probably needed to drink a calming cup of Fortnum & Mason Darjeeling from their Union Jack mugs.
The less trusting contingent perhaps needed to lighten up a bit.
A realistic 🇩🇪 perspective on 🇬🇧 was always closer to 👇 /4.
And that’s the way it often worked out in practice. Which was great. Or, more accurately: fine.
What we’ve been seeing, with increasing intensity over the last 18 months &, even more worryingly, since autumn 2020, is 👇.
By no means only from 🇩🇪, of course. /5.
What’s happening now - let’s date it from @DavidGHFrost in @Telegraph on 7 March, questioning friendly 🇪🇺-🇬🇧relations (on which @GermanAmbUK commented) & now vaccines - is an implosion of 🇩🇪 trust in the basic credibility of 🇬🇧. Resulting in a feeling of👇/6.
None of this is at all funny. /7.
Other than 🇺🇸, 🇩🇪’s been 🇬🇧’s closest ally for 70 years.
A little understood point in 🇬🇧.
The mutual advantage, through various ups & downs, has been huge.
Both sides now urgently need to reassess what this flag stands for. And join hands again.
Before it’s too late. /8. End
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(a) following UK, German & wider EU reporting today is genuinely terrifying. Unless the UK can find a way to reintegrate itself into one of the two mission critical components of the Euro-Atlantic alliance - the EU - & the EU to accept it, .../2.
... we’re in serious trouble.
This isn’t about Bridlington Bangers to Belfast, or other such trivialising tropes used by some UK ministers.
And, if I were @SecBlinken’s chief of staff, I’d have this dossier, with options for US intervention, on his desk today; /3.
.@robertshrimsley makes an important point👇 about the potential, unintended consequences of getting drawn into confected battles over flags, or for that matter songs at the Proms, statues & much else.
... which, left unchallenged, leads to circumstances in which challenge is no longer possible. More precisely, no longer permissible. Or safe. Safe for example to call for “freedom of speech [&] religion & protection of the individual citizen from [...] arbitrary action”./3.
No police force can command the confidence of the public, or the country’s democratic representatives, in the face of such appalling events. As the leader of the force in question, I fully accept that my position is untenable. /2.
I have submitted my resignation to the Home Secretary & have informed the Mayor of London.
The Deputy Commissioner will take over my duties on an acting basis until a successor is found. /3.
Statement not issued by the Prime Minister, @BorisJohnson:
Resignation of Home Secretary
As soon as I saw the shocking images from Clapham Common yesterday evening I called the Home Secretary for an overnight report on what had occurred. /1.
I reviewed the material this morning. There is no excuse for the police actions captured in the photos & videos I have seen.
Everyone will understand that I must not prejudge potential cases against individual officers directly involved. /2.
However, the failure of leadership revealed by the evidence presented to me is so profound & disturbing that the Home Secretary has asked for the resignation of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
And I have asked the Home Secretary to resign. /3.