14 Years of the UK Annoying Europe (Especially France)
Brexit is in the rear-view mirror, but its long-run effects make the Tories vulnerable.
Salut?
Photographer: CHRISTIAN HARTMANN/AFPThis is part of a series on what 14 years of Tory rule have delivered for the economy, society and Britain’s standing in the world. The challenges awaiting the next government are numerous.
How times change. In 2010, new UK Prime Minister David Cameron signed an ambitious defense treaty with France’s Nicolas Sarkozy. London and Paris — one battered by financial crisis, the other shoring up the euro — pledged to join forces on everything from high-intensity warfare to aircraft carriers. Despite disagreements over the Iraq War, how to run an economy and basically 1,000 years of history, here were two European Union members forging a special relationship.