What’s in an English-Speaking Union for the US?

Abstract

During the first weekend of July 2000, a group of US Republican senators arrived in the UK to talk about possible British membership of the North American Free Trade Agreement. A number of contacts had been made over the years between British Conservatives and US Republicans with this in mind. The quickening of the pace represented by the delegation led by Phil Gramm, a senior highranking senator, was doubly important. They came during the throes of a presidential election when Republicans confidently expected Governor George W. Bush to win as a Republican. They spoke for the majority of Republicans in the Senate and Congress. They shared a common vision with British Conservatives of the type of world they wished to create. It was doubly exciting for British Conservatives as it offered an alternative to the model of ever-increasing European integration, bigger and dearer government from Brussels, and less and less control over our own destiny that has been dominating British foreign policy for so long.