Romney book: Britain is a tiny island that makes stuff nobody wants

Mitt Romney has already gotten in a spot of trouble in London for suggesting that Britain may not be quite ready to host the Olympic Games. Romney has walked back his comments, but it’s not the first time the candidate has said some not-so-flattering things about the Sceptered Isle. In his book, No Apology, he ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Mitt Romney has already gotten in a spot of trouble in London for suggesting that Britain may not be quite ready to host the Olympic Games. Romney has walked back his comments, but it's not the first time the candidate has said some not-so-flattering things about the Sceptered Isle. In his book, No Apology, he writes:

Mitt Romney has already gotten in a spot of trouble in London for suggesting that Britain may not be quite ready to host the Olympic Games. Romney has walked back his comments, but it’s not the first time the candidate has said some not-so-flattering things about the Sceptered Isle. In his book, No Apology, he writes:

England [sic] is just a small island. Its roads and houses are small. With few exceptions, it doesn’t make things that people in the rest of the world want to buy. And if it hadn’t been separated from the continent by water, it almost certainly would have been lost to Hitler’s ambitions. Yet only two lifetimes ago, Britain ruled the largest and wealthiest empire in the history of humankind. Britain controlled a quarter of the earth’s land and a quarter of the earth’s population.

Its roads and houses are small? The trees probably aren’t the right height either.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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