The Americanization of British politics
Reason
by Michael C. Moynihan
04/16/10
During his tenure as prime minister, it was considered a deep and very clever insult to accuse Tony Blair not just of being ‘Bush’s poodle’ but of acting presidential. It wasn’t always clear that this accusation was backed by a working knowledge of how the American president governed, or a decent argument as to why this was so vastly inferior to the British model. The point was rather obvious: American politics were something to avoid, seeing as Americans all carry handguns and are denied hospital treatment when shot (which is inevitable, considering the number of armed lunatics stalking the streets). … this heavy-breathing about America’s baleful influence on British politics came to mind when watching last night’s ‘presidential debate,’ the first of its kind, that pitted Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Labour), David Cameron (Conservative), and Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat) against each other and an audience of pre-selected questioners...
http://reason.com/archives/2010/04/16/the-americanization-of-british
Presidential politics: The horse that’s bolted
Adam Smith Institute
by Tom Clougherty
04/18/10
British politics has become presidential. Thursday’s leaders debate just underlined that. The problem, of course, is that we don’t have a constitution that can contain presidential power. In fact, we have one that takes presidential power and, provided the ruling party’s majority is large enough, turns it into an elected dictatorship. Put simply, our legislature no longer holds the executive to account in any meaningful way. Party whips enforce discipline, and anyone who wants to climb the greasy poll knows they have to toe the party line — if they don’t they’ll lose out on the luxuries that come with being a minister...
http://tinyurl.com/y2vy4pv
The battle of Britain
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
04/30/10
The British election campaign has reached its dramatic climax, with the third debate between the ‘major’ party representatives, but the furor created by Gordon Brown’s confrontation with that ‘bigoted woman’ who dared ask a question about immigration may have pulled the rug out from under the Labor party before the clash of the partisans was aired. In British politics, as in America, immigration is an issue that separates the elites from the hoi polloi: the former don’t want to talk about it, except to give reasons why it ought to be increased, and the latter deeply resent it, as the economy tanks and immigrants line up for welfare benefits. In hard times, when ordinary people are being squeezed, immigrants as scapegoats are a popular target, but Brown’s run-in with Gillian Duffy, the ‘bigoted’ grandmother, underscored the arrogance not only of the British Prime Minister but of the elites he speaks for, who feel nothing but disdain for ordinary people as they struggle to survive in an era of diminished expectations. How dare Grandma Duffy ask such a politically incorrect question! Doesn’t she know the rules?
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/04/29/the-battle-of-britain/
Britons see “dangers ahead” in US relationship
USA Today
05/03/10
For Americans, ‘the special relationship’ sounds like the title of a guidebook on marriage. Many Britons instantly recognize the phrase as Winston Churchill’s description of the tight bond between Great Britain and the United States. That alliance is on the rocks, experts say, and the results of Thursday’s election may weaken it further.
http://tinyurl.com/3yybjr2
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
--------
Nick Clegg Should Stick To His Guns
Under bombardment from the rightwing media, Clegg must not tack back to the middle ground
By John Kampfner
The evidence so far is that Clegg will not tone down some of his more "controversial" policies. I put the word in inverted commas because many of the points he is making are blindingly obvious to sensible voters. In a speech to London-based foreign correspondents this week, Clegg spoke candidly of the need to end the self-delusion of the "special relationship" with the United States.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25292.htm
U.K. Election Campaign Enlivened by Come-From-Behind Politician Who Wants A 'Rebalanced' Transatlantic Relationship
The customarily third-place "Lib Dems" have jumped 10 points in a week, putting Clegg's party either in the lead or close behind the Conservatives and pushing Labor into third place in terms of votes overall.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64374
Lib Dem foreign policies - Clegg's achilles heel?
"We first need to acknowledge the fact that we still too readily put ourselves in a position of unthinking subservience to American interests", Clegg has said.
http://snipurl.com/vpcsf
Nick Clegg interview - on ForeignPolicy
Nick Clegg speaks to politics.co.uk about Foreign Policy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGHbU2uLDs8
Nick Clegg's Speech to the Liberal Democrats 2009 Conference
Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats making his speech to the Liberal Democrats 2009 Conference in Bournemouth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaQHTrUhM_4
Clegg!
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
04/23/10
Nick Clegg’s sudden forward sprint in the British elections has the political establishment in Britain in an uproar — and the Americans are suddenly noticing that they might have a slight problem on their hands. As a symptom of the vast discontent of the English-speaking peoples, his surge in the polls — after a scintillating performance in the first debate — confirms a trend that began in the last US presidential election, and has apparently leaped the Atlantic to implant itself in British soil. In Britain it is the year of the insurgent, as it was in America in 2008 — and yet that is where the similarities end, for the most part. With Barack Obama, there was the appearance of change, but the reality soon proved to be quite different...
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/04/22/clegg/
The Age of Ennui
By David Michael Green
Voters in the UK have given us a paradigmatic sampling of our political times. They don't know where to turn. They vaguely remember that letting the right have the keys to government is a prescription for disaster, but the so-called left has not only lost its nerve and purpose, it's lost its leftiness too.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25407.htm
From Information Clearing House
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=what+change
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tony+Blair
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gordon+Brown
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nick+Clegg
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=dictatorship
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=immigra
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+C.+Moynihan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Clougherty
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Kampfner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=raimondo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+Michael+Green
by Michael C. Moynihan
04/16/10
During his tenure as prime minister, it was considered a deep and very clever insult to accuse Tony Blair not just of being ‘Bush’s poodle’ but of acting presidential. It wasn’t always clear that this accusation was backed by a working knowledge of how the American president governed, or a decent argument as to why this was so vastly inferior to the British model. The point was rather obvious: American politics were something to avoid, seeing as Americans all carry handguns and are denied hospital treatment when shot (which is inevitable, considering the number of armed lunatics stalking the streets). … this heavy-breathing about America’s baleful influence on British politics came to mind when watching last night’s ‘presidential debate,’ the first of its kind, that pitted Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Labour), David Cameron (Conservative), and Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat) against each other and an audience of pre-selected questioners...
http://reason.com/archives/2010/04/16/the-americanization-of-british
Presidential politics: The horse that’s bolted
Adam Smith Institute
by Tom Clougherty
04/18/10
British politics has become presidential. Thursday’s leaders debate just underlined that. The problem, of course, is that we don’t have a constitution that can contain presidential power. In fact, we have one that takes presidential power and, provided the ruling party’s majority is large enough, turns it into an elected dictatorship. Put simply, our legislature no longer holds the executive to account in any meaningful way. Party whips enforce discipline, and anyone who wants to climb the greasy poll knows they have to toe the party line — if they don’t they’ll lose out on the luxuries that come with being a minister...
http://tinyurl.com/y2vy4pv
The battle of Britain
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
04/30/10
The British election campaign has reached its dramatic climax, with the third debate between the ‘major’ party representatives, but the furor created by Gordon Brown’s confrontation with that ‘bigoted woman’ who dared ask a question about immigration may have pulled the rug out from under the Labor party before the clash of the partisans was aired. In British politics, as in America, immigration is an issue that separates the elites from the hoi polloi: the former don’t want to talk about it, except to give reasons why it ought to be increased, and the latter deeply resent it, as the economy tanks and immigrants line up for welfare benefits. In hard times, when ordinary people are being squeezed, immigrants as scapegoats are a popular target, but Brown’s run-in with Gillian Duffy, the ‘bigoted’ grandmother, underscored the arrogance not only of the British Prime Minister but of the elites he speaks for, who feel nothing but disdain for ordinary people as they struggle to survive in an era of diminished expectations. How dare Grandma Duffy ask such a politically incorrect question! Doesn’t she know the rules?
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/04/29/the-battle-of-britain/
Britons see “dangers ahead” in US relationship
USA Today
05/03/10
For Americans, ‘the special relationship’ sounds like the title of a guidebook on marriage. Many Britons instantly recognize the phrase as Winston Churchill’s description of the tight bond between Great Britain and the United States. That alliance is on the rocks, experts say, and the results of Thursday’s election may weaken it further.
http://tinyurl.com/3yybjr2
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
--------
Nick Clegg Should Stick To His Guns
Under bombardment from the rightwing media, Clegg must not tack back to the middle ground
By John Kampfner
The evidence so far is that Clegg will not tone down some of his more "controversial" policies. I put the word in inverted commas because many of the points he is making are blindingly obvious to sensible voters. In a speech to London-based foreign correspondents this week, Clegg spoke candidly of the need to end the self-delusion of the "special relationship" with the United States.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25292.htm
U.K. Election Campaign Enlivened by Come-From-Behind Politician Who Wants A 'Rebalanced' Transatlantic Relationship
The customarily third-place "Lib Dems" have jumped 10 points in a week, putting Clegg's party either in the lead or close behind the Conservatives and pushing Labor into third place in terms of votes overall.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64374
Lib Dem foreign policies - Clegg's achilles heel?
"We first need to acknowledge the fact that we still too readily put ourselves in a position of unthinking subservience to American interests", Clegg has said.
http://snipurl.com/vpcsf
Nick Clegg interview - on ForeignPolicy
Nick Clegg speaks to politics.co.uk about Foreign Policy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGHbU2uLDs8
Nick Clegg's Speech to the Liberal Democrats 2009 Conference
Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats making his speech to the Liberal Democrats 2009 Conference in Bournemouth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaQHTrUhM_4
Clegg!
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
04/23/10
Nick Clegg’s sudden forward sprint in the British elections has the political establishment in Britain in an uproar — and the Americans are suddenly noticing that they might have a slight problem on their hands. As a symptom of the vast discontent of the English-speaking peoples, his surge in the polls — after a scintillating performance in the first debate — confirms a trend that began in the last US presidential election, and has apparently leaped the Atlantic to implant itself in British soil. In Britain it is the year of the insurgent, as it was in America in 2008 — and yet that is where the similarities end, for the most part. With Barack Obama, there was the appearance of change, but the reality soon proved to be quite different...
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/04/22/clegg/
The Age of Ennui
By David Michael Green
Voters in the UK have given us a paradigmatic sampling of our political times. They don't know where to turn. They vaguely remember that letting the right have the keys to government is a prescription for disaster, but the so-called left has not only lost its nerve and purpose, it's lost its leftiness too.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25407.htm
From Information Clearing House
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=what+change
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tony+Blair
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gordon+Brown
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nick+Clegg
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=dictatorship
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=immigra
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+C.+Moynihan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Clougherty
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Kampfner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=raimondo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+Michael+Green
rudkla - 19. Apr, 08:57
