When the personal becomes policy

It started with the bust of Churchill and then the bizarre iPod gift - and little things here and there.

We know President Obama has significant grand-daddy issues with the UK - but his selfish redirection of national policy away from the UK is endangering a center support for our nation's global intests.

Don't get me wrong, I love France and the French ... but this is simply not just an insult to the Brits - but not in line with any facts since the late 1700s.

Barack Obama has declared that France is America’s greatest ally, undermining Britain’s Special Relationship with the U.S.

The President risked offending British troops in Afghanistan by saying that French president Nicolas Sarkozy is a ‘stronger friend’ than David Cameron.

The remarks, during a White House appearance with Mr Sarkozy, will reinforce the widely-held view in British diplomatic circles that Mr Obama has less interest in the Special Relationship than any other recent American leader.

Mr Obama said: 'We don’t have a stronger friend and stronger ally than Nicolas Sarkozy, and the French people.'

The President needs to get over his blood-feud.

Heck, my blood line has more of a beef with the UK than his does; review Tyrone's Rebellion, Jacobite Rebellion, and the Catholic purges in the UK. Yep, I come from the losing end of all of them.

That was then, this is now - and we have no better friend than the British people, in spite of ourselves. He needs to stop.

Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre For Freedom at the Heritage Foundation think-tank, said: 'Quite what the French have done to merit this kind of high praise from the U.S. President is difficult to fathom.

'And if the White House means what it says this represents an extraordinary sea change in foreign policy.'Dr Gardiner, a former aide to Lady Thatcher, added: 'To suggest that Paris and not London is Washington’s strongest partner is simply ludicrous.

'Such a remark is not only factually wrong but insulting to Britain, not least coming just a few years after the French knifed Washington in the back over the war in Iraq.'

They deserve better. Mr. President - this isn't about you.