History UsefulNotes / WithEuropeButNotOfIt

''Series/TopGear'' often takes jokes about UsefulNotes/WorldWarII to RefugeInAudacity levels. Then again, they like German people (and, of course, cars), including Sabine Schmidt from the German version of the show. She [[spoiler:won]] the race, because she [[spoiler:took the lounger.]]

* "Pardon my French" will always carry a slight jab to the French (one reason [[AcceptableTargets why they are used]] and not, say, the Germans) as though what one has just uttered should not normally issue from the mouth of a 'civilised' Brit.

Then, when relations apparently could not get any worse, they did, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Britain, [[UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar having a certain history with Russia in Ukraine]], was one of many nations to step up in support of Ukraine, being one of the quickest to declare support and provide tangible military aid in a surprisingly swift and competent display from the usually feckless PM Boris Johnson. While the cynics accurately observed that it was a very good (if very temporary) way of avoiding troubles at home, Johnson's hawkish approach was widely popular in Britain, feted in Ukraine, and deeply resented in Russia. His successors, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak respectively, have maintained a similarly hawkish line.

Then, when relations apparently could not get any worse, they did, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Britain, [[UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar having a certain history with Russia in Ukraine]], was one of many nations to step up in support of Ukraine, being one of the quickest to declare support and provide tangible military aid in a surprisingly swift and competent display from the usually feckless PM Boris Johnson. While the cynics accurately observed that it was a very good (if very temporary) way of avoiding troubles at home, Johnson's hawkish approach was widely popular in Britain, feted in Ukraine, and deeply resented in Russia. His successor, Liz Truss, maintains a similarly hawkish line - or, presumably, will once she's driven the economy off a clif.

The UK was of course highly affected by both World Wars, with German aerial bombings during both, doing a great deal of damage to a number of cities, including Coventry, a beautiful cathedral town that was completely flattened during the Blitz. While it was rebuilt, 1950's architecture (cheap, square and concrete themed) has meant that it's never been quite the same again. Some have seen the British led firebombing of Dresden (a similarly beautiful and historic town) as direct retaliation, something not helped by the famous remark of 'Bomber' Harris, head of Bomber Command, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge "They have sown the wind, now they shall reap the whirlwind."]] This, naturally colours Anglo-German relations. The Germans are [[NeverLiveItDown trying to live down their actions]] in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and consequently object when the war is referred to in British advertising (as in the case of a beer being described as "downed all over Kent, just like the Luftwaffe"[[note]]That the beer in question is called "Spitfire" probably doesn't help...[[/note]]).

The United Kingdom was, and still is, a valuable power projection place for the United States, considering it "an unsinkable aircraft carrier" (''The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier'' was the name of a 1984 investigative work into US bases in the UK). This is probably the reason why Britain is called Airstrip One in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. Europeans sometimes accuse Britain of being America's lapdog, a feeling that many Brits share - especially with regard to the Iraq war, which many accuse Britain of entering just to keep on America's good side. Popular perception has improved considerably following the election and re-election of the notably less interventionist Barack Obama.

The relationship hasn't always been so bright, however, even when Australia was under British Dominionship: anti-Empire sentiments existed since at least [[UsefulNotes/{{EurekaRebellion}} 1854]], and even before then there were certain resentments against newer British settlers from those who were born in the colonies. Other events along the way (the execution of Breaker Morant, the failure of the Gallipoli landings, and Churchill's perceived abandonment of Australia to the Japanese while Australian soldiers were still required to fight in North Africa) certainly didn't help this. Despite this, the two nations share a very close bond. Although Australia has long had a relatively enthusiastic Republican movement, that is more a result of strongly-held democratic ideals rather than anti-British sentiment.

Well, as told time and again in Wiki/ThisVeryWiki, the Portuguese and the Brits have [[BindingAncientTreaty the oldest politico-military alliance still binding on Planet Earth]], formalized in 1386.

* ''Eurotrash'', a magazine show presented to the British by two UpToEleven French presenters, reinforced these stereotypes by looking for archetypical examples of the rest of Europe's weird, wacky or just plain tacky/sleazy culutural phenomena. no stone was left unturned or its underside unscraped to discover the craziest things Europe had to offer.

This is not to say, however, that there haven't been spats. The first major one came in 1580, caused by the afformentioned Spaniards and their damn Iberianist ideals of domination plus them also wanting England for themselves, which split Portugal and England until 1640, when Portugal regained her independence. (There was an English attempt at liberating Portugal in 1589, plus there were Portuguese ships and sailors in the Invincible Armada.) The other was during the UsefulNotes/NapoleonicWars. Although Brits ''did'' contribute to the liberation of Portugal - three times! -, they did a lot of pillaging on the countryside and established a repressive Regency under a British marshall until the King came back from Brazil. The third one was the 1890 ultimatum, which was considered the old allies' biggest betrayal, when Britain stole Portugal's colonies between modern-day Angola and Mozambique.

Still, there is something in an alliance that survived all that plus UsefulNotes/TheReformation, when England went Protestant while Portugal remained Catholic.

Diplomatic relations have been colder than a Siberian winter for a while, particularly following the spy movie style assassination of of Alexander Litvinenko, a defector from the FSB to [=MI6=], in 2006 [[note]] a radioactive isotope created in a nuclear reactor was slipped into his pot of tea at the Ritz. That's the sort of thing that would excluded from a Bond film on the grounds that it was unrealistic [[/note]] -- the UK wants a Russian suspect for questioning, but the Russians refuse on grounds that their constitution prohibits extradition of their own citizens. They are, [[BlatantLies supposedly,]] willing to try said suspect locally, but claim the British haven't provided enough evidence. The British take this with a pinch of salt, especially since the man in question has gone on to be elected to the Russian Duma, and relations have been very cold ever since, arguably even worse than US-Russia relations. Following the conclusion into the inquiry into Litvinenko's death in January 2016 which not only affirmed that it was an assassination but pointed the finger with some considerable certainty at Vladimir Putin being behind it, relations have apparently not deteriorated only because, according to the Russian Ambassador, they couldn't get any worse. The Russians, in a staggering display of hypocrisy, are complaining that the trial wasn't open enough. The ongoing conflict in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} and ongoing sanctions against Russia over this are not helping matters.

The English have fought at least 20 wars against the French since the Norman Conquest, one of which lasted for ''[[UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar 116 years]]'', 79 of which were an actual state of war. Before the Germans started seriously arming in the lead-up to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, the enemy in "invasion fiction" was the French. The earlier attempts to build a Channel Tunnel failed because of fears of the French.

They also share ''another'' (considerably more controversial) unsinkable aircraft carrier, Diego Garcia, in the British Indian Ocean Territory.[[note]]In short, the US Air Force needed a major airbase in the Indian Ocean, and wanted one where there was no native population to worry about. Britain decided to provide such a base to their closest ally, but didn't actually possess any suitable island that was uninhabited. So they ''made'' Diego Garcia uninhabited by [[FinalSolution forcibly removing the native population]]. To this day, they refuse to let the natives come back.[[/note]]

They also share ''another'' (considerably more controversial) unsinkable aircraft carrier, Diego Garcia, in the British Indian Ocean Territory.

* ''WebVideo/RobAger'': Rob Ager is a very Euroskeptic person, also vocally supporting a political party with those ideas.