The UK government needs to be "less deferential¹" towards the US and more willing to say no to Washington, a group of MPs have said.

英国一组国会议员称，英国政府需要对美国“少一些恭敬”，要更多地勇于对其说不。

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There has been much speculation about the "special" bond

The Commons Foreign Affairs committee also said it was wrong to speak of "the special relationship" with the US, as it was fostering（哺育，养育） other alliances.

However, the MPs did agree that the link between the countries was "profound（深厚的，渊博的） and valuable".

The Foreign Office said the two nations share a "unique" bond.

The committee said the phrase "the special relationship" did not reflect the "modern" Anglo-American relationship.

It was originally coined（铸造，杜撰） more than 60 years ago by Winston Churchill.

'Potentially misleading'

The committee said although Britain and the US still had close ties, the UK's influence had "diminished（减少，削弱） " as its economic and military power had waned³（衰落，消逝） .

"The use of the phrase 'the special relationship' in its historical sense, to describe the totality of the ever-evolving UK-US relationship, is potentially misleading, and we recommend that its use should be avoided," the committee said.

"The overuse of the phrase by some politicians and many in the media serves simultaneously⁴（同时地） to de-value its meaning and to raise unrealistic expectations about the benefits the relationship can deliver to the UK."

Three Labour MPs and two Conservatives voted unsuccessfully for the recommendation to be dropped but were over-ruled.

The committee said that the relationship was more associated now with the perceived（感知到的，感观的） support Britain gave to President George W Bush over the Iraq war.

"The perception（感觉，知觉） that the British government was a subservient⁵（奉承的，有用的） 'poodle（狮子狗） ' to the US administration leading up to the period of the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath is widespread both among the British public and overseas," it said.

"This perception, whatever its relation to reality, is deeply damaging to the reputation and interests of the UK."

The committee also said US President Barack Obama had taken the same "pragmatic（实用主义的） " attitude as it was recommending now since entering the White House in 2009.

It said: "The UK needs to be less deferential（恭敬的） and more willing to say no to the US on those issues where the two countries' interests and values diverge⁶（分歧，偏离） .

"The UK's relationship should be principally driven by the UK's national interests within individual policy areas. It needs to be characterised by a hard-headed political approach to the relationship and a realistic（现实的，逼真的） sense of the UK's limits."

Committee chairman Mike Gapes⁷ said: "We must be realistic and accept that globalisation, structural⁸ changes and shifts in geopolitical power will inevitably⁹（必然地） affect the UK-US relationship.

"Over the longer-term, the UK is unlikely to be able to influence the US to the extent it has in the past."