For Corbyn, Like Curly, Something's Turned Up

Do the Corbyn Shuffle, Weekly Standard, January 21, 2016. "The only thing less impressive than the backing for Jeremy Corbyn inside Britain's Labour Party is its opposition to him. When Corbyn won his shock bid for the leadership of the party in September, it seemed unlikely that a man who started with the support of fewer than 20 Labour MPs would hold the job for long. But now, the chances he'll be ousted soon are dropping. Meeting with Corbyn's opponents inside the party is a dispiriting experience. Blairites all, they give the impression of being short on policy ideas as well as constructive plans for opposition, and of being on a slow journey past anger and denial toward something that looks uncomfortably like acquiescence, though certainly not acceptance. So much has changed that it's hard to believe that Blair was Prime Minister less than a decade ago."

Liberalism's AWOL Leaders

Where Are the New Leaders For Unpopular Left?, Yorkshire Post, July 6, 2015. "It's difficult to look around America, or Britain, and see the next generation of liberal leaders. Undoubtedly, this is partly cyclical: in the mid-1990s, the Tories were short on talent, yet a decade later, it was Labour that was exhausted. Liberalism is not down forever."

I Guess I'm the Smart Money

They Said It Couldn’t Be Done, Weekly Standard, May 15, 2015. "The smart money said there was no way the Conservatives could win a majority in last Thursday’s general election in Britain. On the left, the New Statesman’s widely followed May2015 blog offered a cogent argument that there would be a blocking majority even against any repeat of the Conservative-led coalition government. On the right, columnist Matthew Parris echoed many Tories in fearing that the British people were about to make a terrible mistake. But it turns out that you hold elections because you don’t know the result in advance. On May 7, the British people returned a majority Conservative government. The smart money was wrong."

The End of a Mission

Tony Blair’s Vision for the Middle East and Britain’s Role in It Has Collapsed, Sunday Express (UK), September 1, 2013. "While Britain may not want to contribute to it, there’s fighting aplenty in the Middle East. In the midst of it stands Tony Blair, honored with the title of Representative of the Quartet on the Middle East, charged with bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians. That mission has been a failure."

A Review of a Blair Review

On Kirchick on Blair, New Ledger, February 2, 2011. "Jamie Kirchick has a thoughtful review up for Policy Review of Tony Blair’s memoirs. It’s difficult to quarrel with Jamie’s conclusion, which is that the more Labour becomes a creature of the trade unions, the less likely it is to win an election. And I certainly endorse Jamie’s stout defense of Blair’s policies in Iraq and, more broadly, Blair’s support for close Anglo-American relations. But to my mind, the overall picture is less clear, and less favorable to Blair, than Jamie has it."

Labour's Biggest Failure and Cameron's Challenge

Why Cameron Needs That Something Special to Get Britain Back On Its Feet, Yorkshire Post, June 1, 2010. "David Cameron has a big job ahead of him. This week, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development said it again: with the exception of Ireland, the outlook for Britain's public finances is the worst in the industrialised world."

When New Labour's Luck Ran Out

New Labour Was Lucky, Then the Luck Ran Out, Foxnews.com, May 14, 2010. "The only problem with relying on luck is that, sooner or later, it runs out. And that, looking back, sums up much of New Labour’s time in power."

British Politics Need to Return to Traditions, Not Break Them

Something Must Be Done, Contentions, May 4, 2010. "A.A. Gill’s much-forwarded piece in the Times on Britain’s election is a delightfully readable mixture of wrong-headedness, error, and sputtering confusion, with some sensible ideas and superb acidity mixed in. There is a case to be made that the House of Commons is too big — though reducing it would only mean larger constituencies, and thus an even more tenuous connection between MPs and those constituencies. And there is an even better case to be made that, as the expenses scandal revealed, the Commons has been far too concerned with feathering its own nest. On the other hand, some of his ideas are revealing in their errors."

Mr. Brown and the 'Bigoted' Voter

Uh, Mr. Brown, the Microphone's Live, Contentions, April 29, 2010. "Shades of Frank Drebin: Gordon Brown may have sunk his chances in Britain’s general election with an unguarded comment into a microphone he didn’t realize he was still wearing. After campaigning in Rochdale in northern England, he muttered, amid a stream of invective directed at his aides, that 61-year-old Labour supporter Gillian Duffy was a “bigoted woman” for questioning him about the impact on the British job market of immigration from Eastern Europe."

The EU's Constitution, and the American One

Constitutions, Good and Bad, Contentions, September 18, 2009. "The U.S. Constitution was signed 222 years ago yesterday. But for all the reverence with which the Constitution is treated, Constitution Day isn’t one of the higher-visibility federal holidays. Perhaps that’s because, for most Americans, holidays are days on which you don’t have to go to work. Or perhaps it’s because, until 2004, the day was known—to the few who had heard of it—as Citizenship Day."