Ever heard of the great land of USUK?

It’s a country made up of the US and the UK as equal partners, in a Daphne Du Maurier novel of 1972. The issue of US-UK relations persists in other forms.

As the US election roadshow rolls on to a climax, the rest of the world has put in its tuppence-worth of opinion, with various ‘butt-out-its-our-election’ comments on public forums. Fair enough, but if we finance ignorami believe the media, it was sub-prime lending in the US that affected other housing markets. China has lent trillions to the US and has a right to be worried. Now the banks have imploded and inflation is soaring. From Joe Ordinary to governments, the mutters have got louder. So what’s new?

Dissatisfaction reiterates longstanding concerns and fears about the world influence of the US. I say viva the hamburger and more besides, but the disquiet persists, from po-faced horror over American slang to more solid concerns about British PMs behaving as George Bush’s ‘poodle’. Half of it is hysteria and xenophobia, though there are well-founded concerns, not least world peace and planetary survival becoming the remit of Sarah Palin.

The novelist Daphne du Maurier (of ‘Rebecca’ fame) wrote a book called ‘Rule Britannia’ that was partly premised on anti-US paranoia. A young girl wakes up one day to find US soldiers in the fields of Cornwall. (Arghhh! Martians!) The UK has merged with the US to form the new land of USUK, as its best bet to stave off bankruptcy. In theory it’s an equal partnership, but…. The novel explored how this political scenario affected personal relationships.

I read it as a teenager and was suitably impressed by its plausibility. I can’t help but wonder what I’d think now (and what Daphne D would). In fact it’s a matter of no invasion required. Globalisation and the internet has pre-empted such a merger - and it’s pretty good on balance. My sympathy for previous generations who didn’t have the privilege to chat with reps of other cultures.

Amusing though is the idea that the US and UK could ever have merged to form an equal partnership. It seems to wildly overestimate the UK’s post-colonial importance, even back in 1972 (and maybe underestimate the takeover power of so many things American). If/when the UK joins the US it won’t be USUK, though the UK could feasibly become an extra US state. Or (given that living here I always have the sense that I’m living in Toytown), perhaps the UK would make a good Disneyland-style theme park. Come to think of it, the novelist Julian Barnes wrote a very funny book about Britain going the historical theme park, called ‘England, England’. Well, that’s one way of maintaining regional identity.