Some members of the American press corps in London had a rare opportunity to sit down with Britain’s relatively new Foreign Secretary William Hague, who has just returned from a trip to the United States.

Each time there is a change of government, either here, in London, or in Washington, transatlantic experts start speculating how it will impact “the Special Relationship.”

Hague told reporters, “Hillary Clinton and I have a tremendous working relationship.  We enjoyed a good dinner Tuesday night, as well as talks yesterday morning.  And I think, across a whole range of issues—Iran, the Middle East (and many other areas) there is a strong measure of agreement.”

I asked Secretary Hague about the barrage of terror threats facing both the United States and Europe.  He said, on the subject of intelligence sharing, “the level of cooperation between the US and the UK is unparalleled in the world.”

When asked about what citizens need to do to protect themselves in this increasingly perilous time, he said, “People should not panic but they should be alert.”

Hague went on, “The threat level in the United Kingdom is severe.  That means we consider an attack highly likely and attempts at attacks are highly likely.”

Unfortunately, it seems, there is not much more governments can say to citizens about how to avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But Hague also credited the Saudi government for invaluable intelligence which led to the detection of the printer cartridge bombs in cargo planes.

On another topic rattling Europe and the world, currency fluctuations.  Reporters asked about Ireland’s debt problem, in the wake of the bail-out of Greece.  Hague spoke about the single European currency, the Euro, which the UK has not adopted.

“You know my views about the Euro.  I have always opposed Britain joining it.  Many of the fears I had about the Euro and expressed more than a decade ago have come true.  As it is, there is nobody left in Britain in favor of joining the Euro.”

He also said about the Euro, “There are disadvantages to different economies linked, locked into the same exchange rate and interest rate.”

Back to that “Special Relationship”–it remains solid, through Conservative and Labour, Republican and Democratic administrations.  Hague today summed up bilateral relations with the U.S. best in a word– “excellent.”