Barack Obama Insults Great Britain: London Telegraph Lists President's Biggest UK Snubs Of 2013

For the third year in a row, the British newspaper The Telegraph published a "Top Ten List" of "insults" against Britain by President Barack Obama, written by columnist Nile Gardiner. The top ten list is so in-depth it would likely make David Letterman wince.

Annually since 2010, Gardiner has reminded the public of incidents that may have been perceived with varying levels of insensitivity by Britons. That is, regardless of whether the United Kingdom was even mentioned or referred to in each situation. Nonetheless, one doesn't have to mention someone by name to affect them personally in some way.

The Telegraph wrote that "the Obama presidency has displayed what can only be described as a sneering disdain and contempt for America's most important ally" thus far, calling him the "most anti-British US president of modern times". Of course, George Washington and James Madison were no friends of the British, but that was a different era.

One case where the lack of a mention of England reportedly drew the ire of Britons was a 2011 joint press conference with then-President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, during which Obama said that America has no "stronger ally than Nicolas Sarkozy and the French people". The "Telegraph"'s response was to call Obama's remark "factually wrong" and "insulting to Britain", noting their contention that the French "knifed Washington in the back" over the War on Terror.

France decided not to proceed with the invasion of Iraq alongside the United States, while Prime Minister Tony Blair aided then-President George Bush in executing the Iraq War at the time.

Gardiner also noted a report by the "Telegraph" that an anonymous State Department official reportedly said that "There's nothing special about Britain (in context to the "other 190 countries in the world") after a 2009 visit to Washington by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The Telegraph and a number of independent columnists and commentators scoffed at Obama's gift of DVD's to the British leader, after comparing them to a wooden pen holder made from the remains of an anti-slave warship that Obama received from Brown.

The paper also criticized Obama's absence at the funeral of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, who was seen as President Ronald W. Reagan's key ally against the Soviets during the Cold War. Gardiner noted that Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., nor Secretary of State John F. Kerry, the traditional American substitute leaders, were absent as well. He also noted that U.S. Senate Democrats reportedly "held up" an honorary resolution of Thatcher while allegedly trying to remove references in the document to a number of subjects including "IRA [Irish Republican Army] terrorism".

The number one "insult" noted by Gardiner, a consistent finisher in his previous annual columns, had to deal with the Falkland Islands, a British protectorate in the Southern Hemisphere. Find out why it made number one by visiting the "Telegraph"'s top ten list HERE.