The UK’s questionable claim to pursue an independent foreign policy and the legacy of colonial era racism have been laid bare by the latest batch of documents from the WikiLeaks website. Many in South Block have long held the view that British priorities are best understood in Washington as the foreign policies of the two countries are intertwined.

Their bilateral co-operation goes far beyond the “special relationship”, which is another way of referring to the unique links that have been calculatedly cultivated between the two countries’ secret services, the CIA and MI6.

WikiLeaks exposes the almost cringing behaviour of politicians from the UK's ruling Conservative Party, who tried to outdo each other in promising to be pro-American and willing to please Washington by buying more weapons from the US.

American diplomats were both bemused and patronising in their assessment of the British attitude, including “paranoid” UK fears about sustaining the special relationship.

One US diplomat is quoted as saying how the British attitude “would often be humorous if it were not so corrosive”, adding that it was “tempting to exploit this neurosis to make London more willing to respond favourably when pressed for assistance”.

The most telling quote is from the US Deputy Ambassador to London in 2008, Richard LeBaron, who talks about former Conservative Party leader and current Foreign Secretary William Hague.

“Hague said he, David Cameron (the current Prime Minister) and George Osborne (the current chancellor of the exchequer) were 'children of Thatcher' and staunch Atlanticists… Hague said whoever enters 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister soon learns of the essential nature of the relationship with America.” He went on, “We want a pro-American regime. We need it. The world needs it."

The other revealing document from WikiLeaks shows how, despite claims to the contrary, the British government has no regrets about displacing the inhabitants of Diego Garcia and has no plans about allowing them to return.

Diego Garcia was in effect handed over to the US to make way for an American military base and most of the local families were forcibly relocated to Mauritius. WikiLeaks quotes a senior British diplomat, Colin Roberts, as saying, “We do not regret the removal of the population."

Roberts is also quoted as telling American diplomats last year that they should support plans for an environmental protection zone around the islands to prevent local families ever returning to their homes.

Most damagingly, he makes a derogatory reference to the evicted islanders as "Man Fridays", the name that 17th century writer Daniel Defoe's created for Robinson Crusoe's black personal servant.