ENGLAND – UK Prime Minister David Cameron has risked damaging the relationship between America and Britain after rating his U.S. visit two and a half stars on TripAdvisor.
Following the return from the U.S., the Conservative leader updated his profile on the travel reviews website with the lowest rating of any state visit since Hitler passed through Poland in 1939.
White House officials are currently analysing the review for validity and spelling errors.
High maintenance
In a positive beginning, Mr Cameron highlighted a ride on Air Force One as “nice” and praised White House staff as “friendly enough”, adding: “it’s always good when reception staff speak English, even if it was with a strange accent.”
However, the British leader then recounts a number of grievances that contributed to the low rating, including high prices in the gift shop which “made us feel much better about nicking the towels on the way back.”
Among the Cameron’s chief complaints were lack of buffet breakfast option, poor thread count in bed sheets, and local shops been too far from the White House (location was given a one star rating).
In the review, Mr Cameron was noticeably angered by the view from the room, which contributed to a two star rating: “All we could see was the ongoing construction of the West Wing – Fantastic!”
Added to that, the endless droning from Joe Biden appeared to cause the couple particular annoyance, “especially since there was no obvious way to turn him off.”
He also bemoaned the refusal of service staff “to bring me the midnight Club Sandwich I repeatedly asked for.”
“In fact, the entire secret service were regularly slow to respond to my requests and constantly acted as if they had something better to do.”
‘It’s the little things’
President Obama is reported to have reacted furiously after reading Mr Cameron’s review, which has led to negative reviews from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez despite neither having visited the White House.
The White House remains concerned the review would affect the potential for future visits and have requested TripAdvisor suspend the offending review before any more damage could be done.
Indeed, Indian president Pratibha Patil is already said to be re-evaluating plans to stay at the White House at least until issues with Joe Biden were resolved.
“I’m not sitting through another of Joe’s childhood stories,” warned Patil. “I’ll stay at a motel instead.”
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