Europe

[Furunculus]

the yanks are now getting their knickers in a twist over the Conservatives place in the ECR:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...in-Europe.html

Conservative Party facing US pressure over links with far-right parties in Europe
The Conservative Party is facing pressure from the Obama administration over its European policy and links with far-right parties from Latvia and Poland.

Published: 7:00AM BST 21 Oct 2009

William Hague, the Shadow Home Secretary, is to meet the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in Washington on Wednesday amid outrage from the American Jewish community about the alleged antisemitic and neo-Nazi views of the Tory's European allies.

There is also concern in the US that David Cameron's Euroscepticism could damage the influence a Conservative government would have over events in the EU.

According to The Guardian newspaper, Mrs Clinton is facing calls from influential Jewish groups to challenge the Conservative Party's decision to enter a European parliament coalition with a Latvian party, some of whose members attend memorials for Latvian units of Hitler's Waffen-SS, and a Polish politician who has questioned the need to apologise for an anti-Jewish pogrom during the second world war.

Mr Cameron has ordered the Tories to leave the mainstream European People's party and form a new Eurosceptic caucus, the European Conservatives and Reformists, with mainly east European rightwingers, including Michal Kaminski, of Poland's Law and Justice party, and Roberts Zile's Latvian party, For Fatherland and Freedom.

"I think Churchill would turn in his grave. It is an insult to the tradition of this great party," George Schwab, president of the New York-based National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a Holocaust survivor from Latvia, told The Guardian.

A Conservative Party spokesman said Mr Hague would discuss Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran and the Balkans, during the meeting with Mrs Clinton.

The Obama administration wants the British Government, its closest ally in Europe, at the heart of policy-making on the continent alongside Germany and France.

An American official, asked about the consequences for the US and about the far-right links, said: "I do not see any upsides in the new grouping. I can only see downsides. In life it is normally best to do things when they have an upside."

gee, sounds like confirmation of my earlier statement that the US wants a strong federated partner, and wants the UK firmly on the inside to ensure that strong partner is both:
1) strong
2) anglophile
as a friend of america; "tough nuts!"