Are you suggesting that the UK government isn't snoopy or creative enough to initiate this idea on their own??

No. Maybe it was their idea, maybe it was the US's. One thing's for sure though we wouldn't be pushing ahead with this without the tacit support of the US, particularly in the current environment.

Tenuous. The UK did not need US approval to make all of its existing privacy-violating laws. Nor did Australia, or parts of the EU.

Don't get me wrong. The only thing holding the US government back from growing all the more monstrous is a patchwork of sketchy laws that might have teeth.

But I don't see any reason to assume that the stupidity of Brits is the fault of Americans. This time.

So they have us intercept internet traffic and pass it on to them, but they wouldn't want access to data in iCloud? Right, ok sure.

I don't know, or care, if we initiated it or the US - but I find folks from the US acting like it's some shocking thing is quite galling.

FWIW, the US govt does not have a back door into the encrypted data held by US companies. A US company is not obligated to create a way to decrypt customer data to respond to a court order.

So this is different, and worse. Not everything stupid in the world can be blamed on the US, as it seems you're trying to do. Plenty can! But not everything. Some stupid is home grown. See also: Brexit.