I don’t blame the Brits for being annoyed. This is just the sort of crude amateur mistake these neophytes and their entire unsophisticated entourage would make. As the article points out, this isn’t really about the children at all, but about unspoken signals between the two nations. The Brits went to a good deal of care and expense choosing gifts for the girls, while the Americans gave some cheap plastic models from the White House gift shop. Tactless and clumsy, like all of the diplomacy they have so far essayed.
yitbos