United Kingdom
September 24, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Today comes word that the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has ruled Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proroguing of Parliament unconstitutional. I thought only our Supreme Court was able to act in such a blatantly high-handed fashion. Here at the Spectator and here at Spectator USA, however, Richard Ekins anticipated this result a few days ago: Who runs Britain? When Boris Johnson’s lawyers made their case in front of the Supreme Court
»
September 22, 2019 — John Hinderaker
If, like me, you have wondered how a left-wing loony like Jeremy Corbyn can remain in control of the Labour Party, this poll, reported in the Sun, suggests the answer: Labour is a party of left-wing loonies. Marxist zealots have seized control at every level since Jeremy Corbyn became leader — and are poisoning the debate with their hardline views. For example: only a small minority of Labourites believe that
»
June 5, 2019 — John Hinderaker
President and Mrs. Trump have finished up a triumphant visit to the U.K. If Brits followed the visit on BBC, they saw news readers ridiculing the President with a replica of the “baby Trump” balloon floated by leftists on their set. No surprise there: fake news. But if you followed the Daily Mail and the Sun, the newspapers that most Brits actually read, the coverage was overwhelmingly positive. The Daily
»
June 4, 2019 — John Hinderaker
President Trump is in the midst of his visit to the United Kingdom, tweeting as he goes. For example: London part of trip is going really well. The Queen and the entire Royal family have been fantastic. The relationship with the United Kingdom is very strong. Tremendous crowds of well wishers and people that love our Country. Haven’t seen any protests yet, but I’m sure the…. — Donald J. Trump
»
May 28, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I haven’t found exactly what I’ve been looking for in the way of analysis of the European Parliament election results in the United Kingdom. The Telegraph’s weekly newsletter summary put it this way yesterday: The Conservatives have been decimated in the European elections and recorded their worst result in history, as Nigel Farage’s six-week-old Brexit party triumphed. The European elections, which were never supposed to happen, proved disastrous for both
»
December 3, 2018 — John Hinderaker
A few mornings ago, I was eating breakfast at one of the clubs in the Pall Mall-St. James area. A gentleman at the next table was expounding his views, at high volume, to a woman I took to be his wife. If she ever said a word, I didn’t hear it. The man was getting up in years, had longish, silver hair and a wispy beard, and was dressed well
»
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
»
July 6, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Everyone understands that the left is against comedy, because humor punctures their precious earnestness. It is widely understood that Mel Brooks couldn’t make Blazing Saddles today, even if Richard Pryor wrote most of the script again. But there’s another movie what can’t be made today: Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Although the film is mostly a satire of political extremism, at the time of the film’s release a lot of
»
May 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
I wrote here about the strange case of Tommy Robinson, and Scott followed up here. The case is strange indeed: Robinson was live-streaming on Facebook from the street in front of a courthouse in Leeds where a number of defendants were on trial for rape. Reportedly, he was reading the names of the defendants and the crimes with which they were charged. That was enough to bring out the paddy
»
May 28, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Bruce Bawer has been covering the Tommy Robinson affair for our friends at the Gatestone Institute. Today’s column is “UK: You’re Not Allowed to Talk about It. About What? Don’t Ask.” Please see Bruce’s column at the Gatestone site for the relevant links. With the kind permission of Gatestone, here is the text of the column: On Friday, British free-speech activist and Islam critic Tommy Robinson was acting as a
»
May 28, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Tommy Robinson (whose real name reportedly is Stephen Lennon) is one of the founders of the English Defense League, which opposes mass Islamic immigration. On Friday, he was standing outside a courthouse where several Muslims were on trial for sex-related crimes, “reporting” on the trial via Facebook live, when he was arrested for breaching the peace. You can see the arrest in this video; as far as I can see,
»
November 1, 2017 — John Hinderaker
I hope you’ve noticed that I haven’t written anything for a while. This is because I have been on vacation in England, and generally offline, for the last 11 days. So, did anything happen while I was gone? Just kidding. I’ll have more to say about events of recent days before long, but for now just want to comment on conversations I had with Brits about politics while on vacation.
»
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
»
June 11, 2017 — Steven Hayward
I don’t know what’s ahead for Britain after this total cluster-you-know-what election, but can we please, PLEASE have this man as the next prime minister? I mean, c’mon, why is this even a question?
»
June 8, 2017 — Steven Hayward
I haven’t had time yet to compose my “Five Ways To Think about ComeyCon,” then the shocking U.K. election pops up to overtake the Comey Conundrum. Some observations: 1. Hindsight is always 20/20, but calling this snap election was a mistake. Don’t say we didn’t warn you that May was in danger of blowing it. Analysts will slice up Theresa May’s mistakes and how the recent terrorist attacks may have
»
June 3, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The details are even murkier than usual, but multiple terrorist attacks, apparently coordinated, killed at least seven people in London tonight. Five or more Muslims apparently collaborated in the attacks, which employed a vehicle that ran down pedestrians on London Bridge as well as knives and possibly one or more firearms. With Britain’s election scheduled for June 8 and Labour supposedly closing rapidly, the attacks, along with the recent mass
»
May 26, 2017 — John Hinderaker
Can a Western welfare state defend itself against Islamic terrorism? Perhaps, but it will require fundamental changes. The Telegraph reports that last week’s terrorist attack in Manchester was funded by the British government: The Manchester suicide bomber used taxpayer-funded student loans and benefits to bankroll the terror plot, police believe. Salman Abedi is understood to have received thousands of pounds in state funding in the run up to Monday’s atrocity
»
