The League of Democracies?

Robert Kagan assesses the idea of the moment:

So would a concert of democracies supplant the UN? Of course not, any more than the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations or any number of other international organisations supplant it. But the world’s democracies could make common cause to act in humanitarian crises when the UN Security Council cannot reach unanimity.
 
If people find that prospect unsettling, then they should seek the disbandment of Nato and the European Union and other regional organisations which not only can but, in the case of Kosovo, have taken collective action in crises when the Security Council was deadlocked. The difference is that the league of democracies would not be limited to Europeans and Americans but would include the world’s other great democracies, such as India, Brazil, Japan and Australia, and would have even greater legitimacy.

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A pale view of hills

Rice terraces in Niigata, one of Japan's most productive rice-growing areas. The crop is traditionally planted in May and then harvested in October. The terraces are also used as natural dams to store water in mountains. [Photo credit: Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images]

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Tiff

If you look at the Pickled Post item that Iain Dale is complaining about, you'll see that Sunny Hundal has words of praise for one of the new City Hall appointments, and criticises the other one. I don't quite see how that amounts to thinking that "all ethnic minorities must vote Labour".

Funnily enough, it's that second appointee whose background has attracted so much interest elsewhere.

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Notebook

I don't know whether he has any passionately held views. There must be more to him than a pastiche of an Englishman. I remember when the Americans went into Afghanistan and Boris said, "Wouldn't it be funny if - yeah - the Americans took a hiding."  He's not anti-American, but he's mercurial. It would have been a better story.

Stuart Reid, quoted in "Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson" by Andrew Gimson.

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The memory fades

Why is May 8th a public holiday in France? Arthur Goldhammer watches a vox pop of Parisian cafe denizens. They give some odd answers, one woman suggesting it's something to do with the sunshine.

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