US President Barack Obama was in London, where he delivered a passionate plea to Britain to vote to remain in the European Union in an upcoming referendum.
The American leader's intervention in the country's fierce "Brexit" row has proven remarkably divisive in London, with some politicians attacking him for being "anti-British" and others suggesting that Obama's part-Kenyan heritage led to an "ancestral dislike of the British empire".
Obama was apparently not fazed. During a joint news conference with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, he offered a stern warning of the potential consequences for the transatlantic relationship should Britain leave the EU. However, it wasn't just Obama's warnings that gained attention among the Brits - it was a subtle stylistic shift in the way he worded those warnings.
"I think it's fair to say maybe some point down the line, but it's not going to happen any time soon because our focus is on negotiating with the EU," Obama told reporters. "The UK is going to be at the back of the queue."
Obama was simply repeating a warning made before by US officials: that the United States is not interested in bilateral trade deals with individual countries, and that they would focus instead on deals with larger organisations like the EU However, the President's choice of words when making this point left many gobsmacked. The President of the United States had used the word "queue," typically used by Brits, rather than "line," considered the proper term in American English.