Pollster Stephan Shakespeare has a depressing but honest post at BritainandAmerica.com in which he concedes that, following Tony Blair’s departure, Britain will be less an ally of America and more involved with Europe:

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has made an unofficial pact with pollsters: you tell me what the public is saying, and I’ll agree. So long as the polls continue to record the unpopularity of America, US policy will find few champions either among any of the three main political parties in Britain. This is the consequence of a failure to lead public opinion. Other polls show that Britons are indeed concerned about losing the ‘War on Terror’, but they haven’t been asked to face up to the consequences of that; in the wake of attempted hijacks, they have said they support a ‘tougher’ policy, but they haven’t been told what that might mean. My own view as a pollster is that politicians should indeed be guided by what the public wants from them, but only if the public have been taken through a proper debate about the realistic alternatives.

The failure of the US Embassy in the UK to make America’s case to the British public has contributed extensively to this disaster. Churchill’s last advice to his people was, “Never allow yourselves to be separated from the Americans.” A public relations catastrophe has let that happen.