Why is the British media unhappy with Biden's Irish visit?

saabsaab

It seems that elements of the british media is unhappy with Biden's visit here and his comments. Why?

One example I am told there are others..

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/12/joe-biden-has-gravely-insulted-britain/

L1011

Because the bulk of the British media is so far down its own little, British exceptionalism, right wing rabbithole that they will take offence at anything.

FrancieBrady

I think it’s because they realise the limb they have put themselves out on.

Sunak had to have been the most awkward PM in a meeting ever.

Sam Russell

The British media have history with this. Look at the way Punch covered Irish issues in Victorian times. It was extremely offensive and racist depicting Irish subjects as brutish ugly ignorant oafs, carrying a stick or club - and deliberately offensive.

It has never changed.

Pauliedragon

I think too Sunak was expecting a full on meeting with Biden but all he got was a coffee and a quick chat where as we got the whole deal with the Oireachtas speach and the state dinner. There's a bit of jealousy going on I think like schoolyard stuff. "Why are you friends with them I thought I was your friend why didn't you come to my house" type stuff.

FrancieBrady

Kelvin completely losing the run of himself.

https://twitter.com/kelvmackenzie/status/1646803293283254278

Dank Janniels

I reckon it was and still is policy not to portray Ireland in a positive light as it might count as promoting nationalism. Like I think it was when Pope Francis came afew years ago there was a clip on BBC news headlines that went "The pope begins a 3day visit to (pause) ENGLAND!!" despite Ireland showing on the screen!

There fishing for clicks & likes & viewer’s. Nothing more

VinLieger

Have to say the brexity types outrage over Biden has felt like a lovely warm bath the last few days. They are just waking up to the realisation that theyve thrown away the "special relationship" and cannot grapple how we have obtained and are able to wield so much soft power without their involvement or permission. The lack of ability to have any internal retrospection over why all this is happening and they are being ignored is like the icing on the cake.

Guildenstern

And I thought it was us that did the begrudgery!!

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120478698#Comment_120478698

Well there may be a reason that is the case. As in it goes down well in certain circles?

Montage of Feck

Sky seem to being giving very comprehensive coverage without any negativity.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120478647#Comment_120478647

Well the king has invited Biden to the UK, so there can be the address to parliament, state dinner etc then.

But the reason for the current animosity is Brexit.

Just like the Brexit media were surprised and frustrated about how much attention the EU were paying to little Ireland in the negotiations, they are seeing the same from the US.

Even before Biden became president the bi-patrisian House Ways and Means committee told the UK that there would be no trade deal without guarantees about NI.

Then Biden comes along, probably the most Irish president of all time, even more than the Kennedys, because he is so familiar with his Irish background.

And no one from Brexit Britain saw that coming, and they are angry because they are being sidelined instead of being center stage.

But that's what Brexit did, it was the start of the slow sidelining of Britain in the western world.

Carol25

The reaction of the right wing British press is quite funny overall; such jealousy and envy while they try and insult Biden and the Irish to boot. But on a more serious note, we need the ‘special relationship’ to be strong and intact against a growing alliance against China, Russia, the Saudis and God knows who else. The West needs to be unified in its approach and the Sunak meeting in the north didn’t inspire that confidence.

Sam Russell

The Sunak thing was bizarre.

They could not have a proper meeting of the NI parties without including MLMcD, but she is from Ireland, and so it would be bad not to include Leo, and if the NI SoS was included then that would require Meehole, and that would drive Jeffrey nuts.

So a cup of cold coffee for Sunak and no croissant at the small café table while he waited and waited while Joe worked the room. Then they both sat with nothing to say to each other.

What a humiliation for someone who thought they had a 'special relationship'.

The next day, the rain stopped and the sun bathed the whole Aras in glorious technicolour. Could not be a greater contrast.

FrancieBrady

This one is just fabulous really. The juvenile 'he's my friend, not your's!' foot stomping. 😁

Sam Russell

Written by the director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation.

Hmmm - there is a message there somewhere.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480157#Comment_120480157

He kind of sums it up when he talks about the EU and Brexit.

The harsh reality for the Brits is that places like the US will look more towards the EU and less towards the UK when dealing with issues and policies related to the continent of Europe, relationships with Russia, relationships Turkey etc

And they find that hard to take.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480128#Comment_120480128

What really galls the British now is the fact the "Great" is long gone in the term "Great Britain", both in name and influence. While British power has been on the wane for several years now, Brexit was the final nail in the coffin. How dare the President of the USA treat Britain as a mere side show, and Ireland as the main event.

Furze99

Don't know what their beef is, it was never envisaged as a trip to Britain. It was Biden's trip to Ireland.

Was surprised though to see how Gerry Adams managed to shoehorn himself into proceedings a fair bit. We haven't really heard much from Jarry in recent years but clearly still a man of influence.

StevenToast

Outside of a war, Brexit has been the biggest self inflicted wound a country has ever done to itself.....

It will take a long time (if ever) that they will be able to acknowledge that.....

Pathetic stuff out of the usual suspects this week....

I actually warmed to Biden more as a result of it.....

cobham

Biden is not attending the coronation of KC3 but his wife will be there.

10000maniacs

Pity about the poor right wing British press, Tories and commentators who are upset at Bidens visit. Pity about them all. For most of them, this is their default view. Hatred and jealousy for Southern Ireland was always there, just magnified by Brexit.

About Bidens Black and Tans gaffe, if anybody should be offended about this, it's New Zealand. The Black and Tans was a British construct. They need to own it.

Since Brexit, this section of Britain's ruling class has become over sensitive, childish, thin skinned and petty.

Beechwoodspark

The British right wing are in a perma-sulk ever since Brexit.

Best ignored.

Guildenstern

https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2023/0415/1377029-biden-ireland-uk/

Think RTE give a fair reflection here.

Don't be fooled by the media. Most people in GB tend to be very positive and complimentary about Ireland.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480437#Comment_120480437

As Biden quoted the old joke - 'The world can be divided into two groups - Those who are Irish, and those who wish they were!'

Now that would get up the noses of those who disparaged his trip to Ireland.

They know nothing about us and for one moment we had the spotlight and they could not wrap their heads around it , all they’re good for now is cheap labour and property

A Dub in Glasgo

I have a subscription to the UK Times and some of the articles and cartoons were bordering on punch type coverage. The utter distain some of the writers had for Biden and Ireland was unreal

Annascaul

I think the British media is just expressing what the British people want to hear.

The problem is again Brexit, and the Brits wanting a trade deal, or awesome deal between the UK and the US.

However:

Biden favors Ireland and likes his Irish roots

Biden wants peace and the Good Friday agreement and all agreements for peace in NI honored

Biden is catholic and the Biden administration is also certainly not in favor of Brexit and the idea of a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The Brits hate the idea that Biden likes the small Ireland more than their bigger and apparently more glorious country.

The Brits dislike the idea that the US rather invests in Ireland than in Brexit UK.

For the Brits Brexit is the elephant in the room they never want to mention, but keeps holding them back in their own future.

Ireland doesn't have that problem.

Mav11

It seems to me that all of the unhappiness is from Tory supporting publications. The truth hurts perhaps??

amacca

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480621#Comment_120480621

That and clicks.

Strumms

He didn’t take a single chance to put a foot on mainland Britain.

All the way over here, this side of the Atlantic and the British PM gets summoned to over to Belfast for a quick hello and photo op…

circular flexing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480365#Comment_120480365

PUSA has never attend a coronation so it's not a snub. There will be a state visit in the future though.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/lady-jill-biden-king-charles-iiis-coronation-presidents/story?id=98377193

Piskin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120479371#Comment_120479371

Andrew Jackson was the most Irish President followed by Ronald Reagan. The Kennedy's were Wasp wannabes. Obama & Biden were and having a laugh over it as they are only a fraction Irish if at all.

Kermit.de.frog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480530#Comment_120480530

Personally don't get how any Irish person could keep such a subscription following the cartoon during the week. At best you are funding that, at worst endorsing it.

Hermy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483105#Comment_120483105

A fraction alright but a not insignificant 5/8 or 62.5% given that all of his maternal g-g-g-grandparents as well as two of his paternal g-g-g-grandparents are Irish.

Cosmo Kramer

The UK conservative supporting press reaction is purely to try and make the UK look internationally important to it's own people. If they can convince their readers that there has been some major snub to the UK by Biden it will convince them that the UK remains a major player in global geopolitics and it's Biden that's the issue, not themselves.

The reality, of course, is that Britain has thrown away its strategic position as a key link between the US and Europe. Therefore it is no longer of any use to either Europe or the US. Biden didn't snub them, they're just irrelevant to him now, so he dealt with them accordingly. A semi-polite 20 minute photo-op and he then moved on to more important matters. The same way he would deal with the President of Micronesia or wherever.

All he wants from them is to work to maintain peace in the north, and they're not really even capable of that. So he made that point to Sunak and then there was little else to say. No doubt Sunak wants a trade deal or whatever, but he can forget about that, it won't be happening as the UK market is largely irrelevant to the US compared to the bigger guns like the EU.

The bottom line is that the Brits backed the wrong horses in the last 10 years - Brexit and Trump. This is the price they must now pay as a result - complete irrelevance on the world stage.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483294#Comment_120483294

nail on the head there.

pixelburp

There has always been something deeply needy and misplaced in the narrative of "the special relationship" from the UK's point of view. As if they believed they had some additionally intimate connection with America other nations might yearn for. Whereas all it was amounted to a quicker rowing in with whatever geopolitical strategy America has; it was never an equitable partnership - except in the head of the incurably nostaglia within England.

In some respects, the right adjacent press are right to be upset. This was an underline of soemthing they can't admit: brexit self destructed what remained of UK soft power and left them looking like scorned exes, incapable of understanding why what they assumed their Forever Love was traipsing about with a better, newer partner. But why don't they still love me?

Mind you, it does seem like modern Republicans are more inclined towards the UK, and the rhetoric from DenSantis and the like seems like a cosy relationship with the EU wouldn't necessarily continue. Or indeed, Ireland, the north and Ukraine.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483105#Comment_120483105

Andrew Jackson was of Ulster Scots background, what we might call unionists today.

A lot of pre famine Irish immigrants to the US were Ulster Scots

Biden even made reference to them in his Ballina speech.

Obama was definitely taking the piss as he only found out through genealogical research when he was running for president.

The Kennedys as you said were WASP wannabes.

Regan had a great grandfather born in Ireland, same as Biden, but was brought up in an evangelical household.

And this is where Biden is different, not only is he Irish American by ancestry, he was also brought up in an Irish American household, an Irish American environment.

Many Americans use the Irish American label as just that, a label.

When people arrived during the famine it no longer mattered if you were from Cork or Galway or Kerry. What mattered was you were Irish and different from Germans, Italians, Polish etc.

And that just passed down the generations and got watered down.

But not in Biden's case, the link to Ireland was always strong.

He wasn't trying to fit in with the elites like the Kennedys, his Irishness was not just a footnote like Regan, or completely unknown like Obama.

And even though Michael Ring may have encouraged him to say "Mayo for Sam" he still knew what he was talking about.

And this is what ultimately annoys some in the UK.

He has a personal connection with this small nation that they always saw as inferior and happens to be getting in the way of delivering Brexit properly.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483504#Comment_120483504

Agree with this largely.

It is also fascinating to see fun/derision being poked at Biden's Irish identity by those born in Ireland who would have a major hissy fit if you questioned/mocked/derided their British 'identity'.

You are either free to assume an identity or you are not.

tesla_newbie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480157#Comment_120480157

That Niles Gardener is a preposterous idiot , he’s not indicative of any conservative opinion in the UK as his politics doesn’t really have much of a home in Britain

Piskin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483504#Comment_120483504

Andrew Jackson was Irish, called himself Irish Andy. Are you suggesting that Irish Protestants cannot be Irish?

This is Bidens first ever visit to Ireland, never was bothered before, this is a political grift this visit.

Reagand grandfather was Irish, his father was very Irish as he said. Reagan was a protestant through his mother but does that make hi less Irish because he was protestant.?

Mayo for Sam thing was scripted as is all his talk in Ireland, the same with Kennedy on his visit according to Sean Lemass who observed him closely.

Piskin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483247#Comment_120483247

Biden is more English than Irish

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120484717#Comment_120484717

This is far from bidens first visit to Ireland, he was here as a Senator and as VP

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120484166#Comment_120484166

If conservative commentators in the UK are not indicative of conservative / Conservative opinion in the UK, then I'm surprised that Conservative party members and MPs and Lords and the newspapers and other media that they own / write for / board sit / sharehold in, don't instruct the Editors of those entities to retain contributors that DO more accurately reflect the pulse of the conservative thinker and voter.

Short version? He does reflect a cohort of conservative opinion. That large cohort which is regressing all the time, harking after glory days that never actually existed.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120484731#Comment_120484731

Duke of Wellington (Wesley) who was born in Ireland said 'Just because you are born in a stable does not make you a horse'.

Biden self asserts that he is Irish. That makes him Irish by any measure.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120484902#Comment_120484902

There is no real indication he ever actually said that.

Nonetheless, the point is correct. Biden has always considered himself an Irish-American and that's all that matters. Going back through his genealogy for English roots to somehow disprove this is utter stupidity.

Piskin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120484902#Comment_120484902

It was actually who said that about Wellington after Wellington passed Catholic Emancipation

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120484937#Comment_120484937

Can it be proved that these 'English' roots are actually 'English' and not immigrants from elsewhere, perhaps from Ireland.

Piskin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120484737#Comment_120484737

Fair enough I was wrong on that.