Scorned on the Fourth of July

A British expat reflects on America's insensitivity to its British residents, taxation without representation and the wonders of the "lucky sperm club."

By Toby Young

Jul 3, 1999 | As a Brit living in America, this isn't my favorite time of year. This weekend I'll be expected to celebrate what, from my point of view, was a catastrophic military defeat. Imagine living in Vietnam and having to smile benevolently every year as millions of Vietnamese hold a huge party to celebrate the fall of Saigon. That's how I feel about Independence Day.

It's always astonished me how little sensitivity Americans display toward their former colonial masters. Nazi Germany was, by any measure, a far more loathsome enemy than the British Empire -- yet most Americans would be hard pressed to identify what V-E Day is, let alone celebrate it. Why can't you extend the same tact and magnanimity to Britain that you display toward Japan? You haven't even bothered to nominate a day to celebrate America's Cold War victory over Russia, yet on July 4 you crow over the defeat of our tiny little island like Yankees fans at the conclusion of another successful World Series.

I'm not asking you to politely refrain from mentioning the War of Independence for fear of offending us -- though that's a courtesy you extend to almost everyone else -- but do you really have to let off fireworks? Couldn't you make do with a parade of some kind?

What makes July 4 a particularly galling holiday is that one of the principles on which the War of Independence was fought was that there should be no taxation without representation. Now, I wholeheartedly endorse that principle. It's the very basis of democracy. Yet it's a principle that America has singularly failed to uphold.

As a non-U.S. citizen earning my living in New York, I'm in exactly the same position as the American subjects of King George III: I'm obliged to pay taxes on pain of imprisonment, yet I'm not allowed any say in the composition of the government. I'm forced to hand over money to a state I have no control over. I'm taxed but I can't vote. It's an outrage! I ought to make my way to Boston right this minute and start tossing tea into the harbor.

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