Sunday, October 30, 2016

Why Remain Has Learned Nothing

Assessing Why Remain Lost The Brexit Vote, Forbes, October 30, 2016, "Daniel Korski, deputy director of former British Minister David Cameron’s policy unit, has published a fascinating and intelligent, if inevitably partial and partisan, assessment of why Remain lost the Brexit referendum last June. Journalism of this quality is the first draft of history. It shouldn’t be the last."

The NHS: Not Great for Health

Britain’s National Health Service Isn’t A World Beater, Forbes, October 30, 2016, "Last week, UK2020, a think tank founded by Conservative MP Owen Paterson, published a major study of “The UK Health System – An International Comparison of Health Outcomes,” by Dr. Kristian Niemietz of the Institute of Economic Affairs. It provides extensive and sober evidence for the contention that, regardless of what Britons (and others) think of it, the National Health Service (NHS) is not particularly good at reducing preventable deaths . Dr. Niemietz finds that over 46,000 people die annually in Britain who would have been kept alive if they had been treated by the best health system in the world. Even if they had been treated by the 12th best system in the world, 17,000 more people a year would live. The study quotes the Guardian’s assessment that “the only serious black mark against the NHS was its poor record on keeping people alive.” Quite."

Friday, October 21, 2016

On The Need To Control Territory

"ISIS' True Weakness," Newsday, October 21, 2016, "The start of an Iraqi and Kurdish offensive to liberate Mosul is a milestone in the defeat the so-called Islamic State. But winning the fight will be hard, and winning the peace far harder. Brutal though ISIS undoubtedly is, Mosul’s residents understandably don’t trust their would-be liberators."

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Foreign Policy In The Age of Multiculturalism

"This Is No Way to Run Foreign Policy," Newsday, October 11, 2016, "Last week, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released its annual survey of American public opinion and foreign policy, titled “America in the Age of Uncertainty.” Predictably, the council focused its polling on the issues that appear to be shaping the 2016 presidential campaign. But its most revealing findings run deeper."

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Cheerful Conservatives in Birmingham

"The Conservatives Are Actually Happy in the United Kingdom," Weekly Standard, October 6, 2016, " in London by train from Gatwick Airport, you pass Battersea Power Station on your right. Derelict for more than 30 years, it is an iconic, vast, roofless, brick structure, with tall white smokestack towers. In the years since it last produced a watt of power, it has hosted raves, Dr. Who episodes, and James Bond movies. What it has not done is anything of enduring use. But this time, as I trundled past, there were modular apartments going up around the power station, and cranes working on the inside. The next day, the reason for the activity was announced: The power station, renovated and reconstructed at no small expense, is to be Apple's new U.K. headquarters, and a new center of retail and life besides. We were told that, after Brexit, no one would want to invest in Britain. Evidently someone forgot to tell Apple."

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Tilting At Windmills

"Brexit Was A Reality Check Which Tories Must Now Implement," Yorkshire Post, October 1, 2016, "Three of Britain’s political parties have more or less given up on politics as we understand the term. They are crusaders who would rather tilt at windmills than enter the field of combat. They prefer to lose in purity than to compromise and win."

Proof of Churchill's Contention That No One Learns From History

"Britain’s Report on the Libya Fiasco," Forbes, October 1, 2016, "Almost unnoticed in the United States – and neglected even in Britain – the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has produced a superb report on Britain’s role in the disastrous NATO intervention in Libya in 2011. It makes for depressing, if valuable, reading."