VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: What do Americans really think about the UK, Brexit, and the EU?

Summary

Video interview – Republicans Overseas UK – Sarah Elliott

Here are just some of the highlights

On the late HM Queen Elizabeth II

“She’s been the Western World’s Grandmother, exemplifying those time-honoured traits of God, Family & Country- in that order.”

On Brexit and the EU

“If you are for individual freedom and sovereignty and you want more subsidiarity and federalism much like the United States, you will be anti-EU.”

• Republicans have respect and support for Brexit’s principles: independence, sovereignty & freedom.
• The foundation stones of the US Republic itself.
• US citizens don’t really understand EU’s political structures – courts and Schengen.
• Republicans do understand the principle of not ceding sovereignty

On Europe

• Americans like its diversity – it’s culture, food, languages, customs, its local and national traditions
• They do not want EU-style homogeneity

The Biden Administration

• He’s a pro-EU, big government liberal
• Favours the single point of contact: ‘Who do I call in Europe?’

On Liz Truss

“I didn’t think she should have U-turned. I think you have to dig your heels in, you have to fight for it.”

“Maybe could she have done it in a better way? Clearly. But I would have liked to have seen her stick to her guns. I know she’s a real free-marketeer. I’ve worked with her on a US trip, and she wanted to meet with free-market economists, and she wanted to understand how the US was reviving their Rust Belt cities, you know, much like the North of England here.”

Free Trade Deal with the USA?

• There is no sign of a heads of agreement between the two countries
• On this side of the Atlantic she perceives a similar obstruction by our own Civil Service
• The future appears to be free trade deals with individual states, by-passing the federal government
• US/UK relations have always supported freedom of trade between the two nations to each other’s mutual benefit

Northern Ireland

• A perception that the US administration does not fully understand the implications especially from the UK’s point of view
• Biden administration inclined to take the EU/Irish perspective

Putin & Ukraine

For many Americans, “There are too many domestic fires to put out.”

“If Donald Trump had been President there would not be a war in Ukraine.”

• Some Republicans are doubtful about the war with Russia
• The US has had its fingers burned too many times in recent years: $ billions spent in Iraq and Afghanistan culminating in a humiliating withdrawal
• Reluctant to fully engage with Putin in this one
• They have more pressing domestic concerns
• A perception abroad of US/Western weakness

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