Brexit
August 21, 2019 — Scott Johnson
We conclude this week’s preview of the new (Summer) issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here) with CRB contributing editor Christopher Caldwell’s essay “Why hasn’t Brexit happened?” I selected this essay because Caldwell’s exposition helped me understand the ordeal that has convulsed British politics. In their ever more brazen efforts to undo the democratic vote in favor of independence from the European Union, British elites have shown themselves
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July 24, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Boris Johnson is now prime minister of Great Britain, and the British establishment, including much of his own party, is horrified at this turn of events, just like the American Establishment (including the GOP hierarchy) were horrified by Donald Trump’s election. I can report on some of the early sentiment. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles are said to be “bitterly opposed” to Johnson becoming prime minister. A cabinet secretary has been
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March 5, 2019 — Steven Hayward
We have Hamilton, the musical, but the British now have its, um, very rough (strong language warning!) equivalent about Brexit. I think the continuing clown show within the British government over Brexit is one of the key stories of our time, and the outcome, like the 2016 vote itself, contains significant meaning for the United States, for the question of Brexit is the same as the question with Trump: Are
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December 12, 2018 — Steven Hayward
A few hours from now British Prime Minister Theresa May will face a no confidence vote from her own party, and as of this moment I’d bet she will lose the vote and be ousted. Whether this will lead to a general No Confidence vote of the entire House of Commons, which would result in an immediate general election, is harder to forecast. Much will depend on whether the Tory
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December 10, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Is it purely a coincidence that the governments of Britain, France, and Germany are all in deep trouble? Both Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron may not survive the week, and Angela Merkel is testing just how long a lame duck period is possible. Gee—I wonder what they have in common? It’s a total mystery. (NB: Theresa May and the Tories would likely already be gone were it not for the
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November 15, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The ordeal of Brexit appears to be approaching some sort of crisis. The Telegraph reports that two senior cabinet ministers and two frontbenchers have quit Theresa May’s government over her Brexit deal as Jacob Rees-Mogg prepared to send a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister: “Mrs May launched an impassioned defence of her agreement [in Parliament] following the resignations as she told MPs: ‘The British people want us
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October 4, 2018 — Steven Hayward
I really hate to pick on British Prime Minister Theresa May, though it does seem evident that she’s totally botched the Brexit negotiations. I noted here several weeks ago that it is a good thing that May is a politician, because she obviously will never make it on “Dancing with the Stars,” and this week as if to prove the point her own party set her up for a another
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August 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
This is the time of the week when I assemble the Week in Pictures for Saturday morning (it’s now mandated in the Constitution and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights), and our research team that scans the globe for material sometimes comes up with videos that are indeed tempting, though for the time being we’re sticking with just still shots for WIP. But some things do deserve notice. You
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August 27, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Over the weekend I finally finished reading Dominic Green’s long Weekly Standard profile of Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory backbencher and serious Brexiteer. I learned a lot from reading Green’s profile, but what kept me going was the sheer entertainment of the thing. Wanting to hear what Rees-Mogg sounds like, I tracked down the highlight reel below on YouTube. I can’t get enough of it. Fortunately, it’s only part 1 of
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July 11, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The President of the European Council is one Donald Tusk. Tusk previously served as Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and chairman of the Civic Platform political party. I concede that I don’t know much about him. I thought yesterday that he was entirely out of line with his comment on the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Minister in the cabinet of British
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November 15, 2017 — Steven Hayward
It’s not just the Republican Party that is riven with infighting that threatens its hold on power. The Tory Party in Britain is coming apart right now, too. Part of the problem is the turmoil over Brexit, over the lack of progress in putting together a Brexit scheme. But other aspects of current Tory government policy are not going well, and appear deeply unpopular with voters. Several cabinet and sub-cabinet
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October 24, 2017 — Steven Hayward
I’ve always been fond of the old line that “There are two kinds of countries in the world: those that use the metric system, and those that have been to the moon.” Heh. The American disdain for the metric system is one of those little tics that cosmopolite liberals like to point to as just one of many reasons for their contempt for America and its citizens. (They never seem
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July 29, 2017 — John Hinderaker
There have long been similarities between politics in the United States and politics in the United Kingdom. For example, one could argue that Ronald Reagan = Margaret Thatcher, George H.W. Bush = John Major, and Bernie Sanders = Jeremy Corbyn. Recently, though, the parallels have been rather uncanny. Here in the U.S., Democrats have refused to accept the results of the November 2016 election. They view President Trump as illegitimate
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May 18, 2017 — Steven Hayward
The Conservative Party in Britain has the Labour Party by the throat in the upcoming snap election, and could wipe out Labour for a decade. This is largely because Labour has chosen Jeremy Corbyn as its leader, and Corbyn makes Bernie Sanders look like Jeb Bush by comparison. So what does Tory Prime Minister Theresa May do with the chance to smash the Labour Party to bits? They’ve issued a
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April 17, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The Telegraph reports that post-Brexit, Britain’s government intends to shelve renewable energy commitments that will dramatically increase energy costs to British consumers: Britain is preparing to scrap EU green energy targets which will add more than £100 to the average energy bill as part of a bonfire of red tape after Brexit. The UK is currently committed to getting 15 per cent of all energy from renewable sources such as
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January 27, 2017 — Scott Johnson
In his weekly email newsletter, Spiked editor Brendan O’Neill directs attention to a new video (below): “Our steadfast defence of self-government is in evidence elsewhere on spiked this week with the launch of our brand new spiked film – ‘Brexit and the Battle for Democracy.’ It features a stellar cast – Paul Embery, Harsimrat Kaur, Tom Slater, Gisela Stuart and Bruno Waterfield – on the Glorious Referendum, the history of
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January 15, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama famously warned the British that Brexit would put the United Kingdom at the “back of the queue” when it comes to trades deals. Fortunately, Obama will be out of the White House in a few days, and his successor has other ideas. President-elect Trump, in his first interview with the British press, said: I will be meeting with [Prime Minister Theresa May]. She’s requesting a meeting and we’ll
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