The Tariff Issue
"Wherever I look at US policy, foreign or domestic, I see only insanity, ignorance, and incompetence."
Gillette Strikes Again: Is this the Best a ‘Transitioning Man’ Can Get?
"We are manufacturing transgender kids. We are manufacturing their depression, their anxiety, and it has turned into a huge industry that people are profiting from after kids’ lives are completely torn apart."
Nostalgic for Empire? Not ‘Leave’, but ‘Remain’.
"The kind of person who is particularly keen on the European “project” is still the kind of person who ... would have been happy running the Empire, while telling themselves that it was really a force for liberal political values."
Germany Slides towards Instability
At first blush the results in Germany for the EU elections looked like nothing of significance had happened. The media trumpeted the regression of the right. Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) 11% after polling as high as 18% in 2018 made it look like Angela Merkel had weathered the storm against her chancellorship from the right. But, in doing so, she…
“We Need a Revival of Spirit, a New Unconquerable Resolve”
On 5 June 2019, in a speech in Portsmouth, HM the Queen led the British commemoration of D-Day. She recalled the "hundreds of thousands of young soldiers, sailors and airmen left these shores in the cause of freedom. In a broadcast to the nation at that time, my Father, King George VI, said: “…what is demanded from us all is…
“Voices of Business”: Whose Voices, whose Businesses?
Caroline Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI, recently attempted to dictate policy to the future government in the name of British business. If we were to believe the so-called voices of business, the world would be flat and the UK about to fall off the edge on Brexit day. This recent manifestation of “Project Fear” Mark III, a blatant attempt to…
In the Marginals, It’s the Leavers Who Are in Revolt
The Remainers’ revolt is one of the most influential concepts in the number-crunching world of British politics. Some Conservative MPs fear that moving towards a hard Brexit could lose them key constituencies in the south of England. Labour is under pressure from its members to back a second referendum, lest they face a Remain backlash at the ballot box. But…
China as a Superpower: Erico Tavares Interviews Toshi Yoshihara
Dr. Toshi Yoshihara is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining CSBA, he held the John A. van Beuren Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies and was an affiliate member of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the Naval War College, where he taught strategy for ten years. He is the…
Herron Murder Highlights Real Homeless Problem
As the details emerge about the background of Courtney Herron’s alleged killer, we need to take a serious look at the problem of homelessness and mental illness. Our approach to these problems has not been working. Henry Hammond, a 27-year-old homeless man, appears to have had untreated mental illness and issues with substance abuse, including the drugs heroin, LSD and ice. According to…
A New Prime Minister Must End the Treasury’s Anti-Brexit Propaganda Campaign
The UK Conservative party has now begun a search for a new leader, and thus a new British Prime Minister. Who may ultimately land this job is far from clear, but one thing is very clear: any new PM serious about delivering a genuine Brexit must end the anti-Brexit campaign that the UK Treasury has been waging since 2016 –…
No, School Choice Does Not Cause ‘Segregation’
The mental gymnastics displayed by some people in order to blame school choice for Australia’s education woes never cease to amaze. A recent OECD report on school choice and equity indicated Australia has one of the most ‘segregated’ school systems in the OECD. This just means schools tend to have less diversity of student socioeconomic background — not that they are practising…
Vassalage or Power? Thoughts for Would-Be Prime Ministers
Tory leadership contenders (some of whom one is hard put even to identify) can spout as much nonsense as they like about renegotiating Theresa May’s ‘deal’ with the EU. But absolutely nothing has changed since she announced her departure and pulled publication of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill. It is still Groundhog May, as our soon-to-be retired Prime Minister pronounces the…
Brexit and the US-UK Defence Relationship
This is the transcript of Lecture at the Heritage Foundation, “Brexit and the US-UK Defense Relationship” given by Professor Gwythian Prins on 1 May 2019. A summary is on the Briefings for Brexit blog page. Ted, colleagues at Heritage, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. I am honoured and grateful for the hospitality of your platform this afternoon so that I can share…
Is Denmark on the Brink? Erico Tavares Interviews Iben Thranholm
Iben Thranholm examines political and social events with focus on their religious aspects, significance and moral implications. She is one of Denmark’s most widely read columnists on such matters. Thranholm is a former editor and radio host at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), at which she created a religious news program that set a new standard for religious analysis in…
Just Leave!
Through the treachery of the government and MPs, Britain is in political and economic limbo. Instead of being free to taking back control, they have handed the future of the country over to the EU… Delay, and more delay. Britain is now going to be denied independence for up to 6 months longer, a total of three-and-a-half years after voting…
Opinion: Secularisation, Individualism and #Indyref2
In 1964, the film Mary Poppins was released. It captured the mind of a generation and epitomised the sentiments of the turn of the century. Mary Poppins was not ultimately about a magical nanny or a singing chimney sweep, but about duty. It was about the duty of man to his family. Mary Poppins is the story of George Banks,…
Morrison Victory Highlights Divide between Elites and Ordinary Australians
The election victory was clearly a triumph for both the style and substance of Prime Minister Scott Morrison. But the most important post-election issue now is the battle to control the narrative surrounding the causes and meaning of the result. The advantages the PM enjoyed over his opponent are now obvious. These included his mastery of policy detail, his capacity…
The Worst US 2020 Election Interference Will Be Perfectly Legal
“After the Mueller report was released, our president called Vladimir Putin, spent an hour on the phone with him,” Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said on CBS’s Face The Nation yesterday. “Described the report as a hoax, giving Putin a green light to further interfere in our democracy.” “Russia interfered in the 2016 election,” tweeted presidential candidate Kamala Harris the other day. “If we don’t do…
Why Sovereignty Matters
The evolution of sovereign states around the world has been an uneven process. Some were founded on shared nationhood, language and culture. Some on lines drawn by colonial rulers. Others out of the chaos of war. But sovereign states have this in common: they are all that now stands between the peoples of the world and utter domination by the…
We Want Our Country Back
I had always thought that Gracie Fields’ great wartime song, ‘Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye,’ was written with the departing troops in mind, but it was actually sung by Gracie Fields in the 1939 film ‘Shipyard Sally’ to accompany her departure from Glasgow to present a petition from the men of the Clyde to the owners in…
Perry’s Attack on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 and the Empire’s Lost Grip on Reality
On Tuesday May 21st, US energy secretary Rick Perry made headlines after paying a visit to the newly elected administration of Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The visit itself wasn’t the cause of the headlines but rather Perry’s hubristic attack on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline and prophesying that a sanctions bill against western companies building the pipeline will pass into law in…
Rep. Thomas Massie Prevents House Skeleton Crew from Passing Legislation during Recess
You may think that the United States House of Representatives only passes legislation while in session when members have an opportunity to vote. Not so. On Tuesday, a small group of representatives on the House floor, while most representatives were far afield on recess, sought to quickly approve a 19 billion dollars disaster relief bill and a two-week extension of…
Brexit, Accountability and Reform
David Landsman asks how Brexit can help manage the challenges of globalisation and automation in a liberal way. He argues that continued EU membership could result in changes due to globalization being bulldozed through national parliaments without proper and necessary popular consideration. One of the more depressing features of the Brexit debate, especially since the referendum, is the near absence…
A Voter’s Grand Remonstrance
How on earth, we bewildered and disenchanted voters are entitled to ask, as the futile May 23 elections take place, can the Government and Parliament have contrived to make such a mess of implementing the verdict of the Referendum of June 23 2016? And how is that the Commentariat – scribes, pundits, opinion formers and soothsayers, the cerebral elite of…