Britain Has to Earn It

On 6th Anniversary of Brexit, UK Yet to Grab All of Freedom’s Opportunities, Daily Signal, June 22, 2022. "Six years ago, on June 23, 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union. Above all, Brexit was about regaining the right of self-government, which is a fundamental value."

Free Trade in People

, Newsday, November 19, 2016, "Around the world, globalization is supposedly under attack. From Brexit in Britain, to Donald Trump in the United States, we’re told we’re facing a rebellion against it. Yes, it’s a rebellion. But what’s driving it isn’t free trade in goods. It’s free trade in people."

Why Did Britain Exit? Because It Finally Got the Chance To

Why Did Britain Exit? Because It Finally Got the Chance To, Weekly Standard Online, July 12, 2016, "The reason immigration mattered in 2016 wasn't that Britain was in the midst of a sudden panic. It was that immigration had been a front-burner issue for 15 years. Immigration, in short, was a background condition. And it was a background condition not because of vague theories about globalization, or vaporous claims about the failure of Britons to "imagine themselves part of a cosmopolitan, thriving democratic polity," but because of specific actions taken by the New Labour government, and broader EU policies, that were very unpopular."

Brexit, Britain’s Immigration Fight

Brexit, Britain’s Immigration Fight, Newsday, June 19, 2016, "On Thursday, Britain will vote in a referendum on whether it should exit — hence, Brexit — the European Union. If it does leave, one reason will be because the British people are fed up with uncontrolled immigration. This is a story about the arrogance of Britain’s elite, with a lesson for politicians in all countries."

Irrelevancy Commands No Respect

Obama Is Irrelevant Abroad and Now Disliked at Home, Yorkshire Post, April 29, 2014. "A year ago, Obama’s highest Gallup rankings were on foreign affairs. But by February, a majority of Americans believed the world’s leaders had little respect for the U.S. president. In late March, CBS found that only 36 percent of Americans approved of his foreign policy. Even Obamacare is more popular."

The Need For A Positive No to the EU

UK Needs Freedom to Pick Talent from the Whole World, Yorkshire Post, November 23, 2013. "The EU’s problems are real, and underneath, they will drive voting in the referendum. But the Out campaign needs not just the Thatcherite spirit of rebellion: it needs her optimism. Even in terms of immigration, the EU means favouring talent from Europe, a tiny part of the world, at the expense of talent from the rest of it. And that makes less sense today for Britain than it ever did in the past."

On Trade Offs and Liberalism

The Politics of False Promise: New Labour and Barack Obama, New Ledger, May 19, 2010. "The lesson of New Labour’s fall has been lost in the United States. It should not be, for New Labour’s fate will also be Barack Obama’s. Unlike Tony Blair, Obama won high office at a time of foreign and domestic crisis. But he has doubled down by applying New Labour’s political and governing strategies nonetheless."

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."

American Manners, English Gloom

On A Letter from London, Contentions, January 7, 2010. "Geoff Dyer’s column “My American Friends” in the New York Times is hitting my mailbox from every direction at once. If you’ve not read it, you should: it’s fun. It’s got, of course, a few swipes at George W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair, but it’s really a love letter from Britain to the United States. Dyer points out that many of the British clichés voiced about America reflect either ignorance or a barely-disguised, liberal-elite desire to bring the U.S. down a peg or two because, as too many Britons are grumpy and desperate to feel superior about something, Americans must be made out to be inferior."

Where's the Corruption in British Politics?

British Corruption, Contentions, November 24, 2009. "Britain has fallen a notch in Transparency International’s 2009 Corruptions Perceptions Index. It now ranks 17th out of the 180 countries surveyed. Transparency said that the decline 'reflects the damage to its international standing caused by the MPs’ expenses scandal and the weakness of its efforts to prosecute foreign bribery.' "

Britain, Pakistan, Terror, and Assimilation

The Pakistan-Britain Terror Connection: Lessons and Warnings for the United States, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2337, November 6, 2009, co-authored with Lisa Curtis. "The Pakistan-Britain terror connection poses a serious threat to Great Britain and its allies, including the United States. Breaking the personnel, financial, and ideological links will require fighting terrorism on three fronts: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Britain. In Afghanistan, the U.S., the U.K., and their allies need to continue to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda. They should also hold Pakistan accountable for its failure to act decisively against terrorism. In Britain, the government needs to enforce the tightened immigration and asylum practices, refuse to cooperate with radical Islamism, and promote citizenship and economic opportunity to help immigrants assimilate into British society."

On Surveillance and Border Control

More on Britain's 'Police State', Contentions, October 28, 2009. "Anthony Sacramone, working from a New York Times report, is tolerably severe about the rise of domestic surveillance in Britain. As always, the Times is late to the party. The House of Lords Constitution Committee issued a lengthy report on this subject in January, following on five years of discussion about the rise of the “surveillance society” in Britain."

Data on Islamist Terrorist Plots in Great Britain

Islamist Terrorist Plots in Great Britain: Uncovering the Global Network, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2329, with Morgan Roach, October 26, 2009. "Individuals who traveled in Pakistan and received terrorist training there or in Afghanistan are a central part of the challenge of Islamist terrorism in Britain. Because al-Qaeda’s strategy relies partly on using European nationals to carry out attacks against the United States, the rise of Islamist terrorism in Britain and Europe poses a serious danger to the U.S. and its allies in Europe and around the world."

Britain's Role in Spreading Islamism

Britain's Islamist Pipeline, Contentions, June 25, 2009.

Who's Responsible for Educational Failure in Britain?

Eugenics and Class in Brit Schools, Contentions, May 13, 2009. This was not the title I submitted for this piece, and I do not endorse the title it was published under.