On the Today programme this morning David Miliband contended that there was no need for the referendum that Labour promised in its 2005 manifesto as “the constitution is dead, last night marked the end of the constitution”. This argument is flawed on two levels. First, this treaty is–as pretty much every European leader other than
John Derbyshire on fetishisation and Islamophobia (which does, of course exist, even if it is much less widespread than muslim “community leaders” would have you believe): Speaking of which, I have been voted off the New English Review site for being insufficiently Islamophobic. Fair enough. NER has now settled down as a definitely and strongly
James Fallows’ blog is normally a treat. But in the midst of slapping Congress for the supposed foolishness and self-indulgence of the Armenian genocide resolution he writes this (emphasis added): Why not go all the way? How about a resolution condemning China for the millions who suffered in the Cultural Revolution and the tens of
Matt Yglesias writes: People often note that there appears to be a more vigorous debate over Israel’s approach to the Israeli-Arab conflict in the mainstream Israeli press than there is in the mainstream American press. This is, however, the kind of judgment that it’s hard for a casual American observer to
As the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses grow ever closer, the 2008 nominating contests are heating up. Today, word came that Sam Brownback—a standard bearer for religious conservatives—is to quit the Republican race. Brownback’s campaign has never caught on as many pundits thought it would and he simply doesn’t have the money or
John Howard has been trailing in the polls for months and time finally seemed to be up for the Australian PM. But under the headline ‘Lazarus Stirs’ the Sydney Morning Herald has a poll showing a swing back to Howard at the end of the first week of the Australian election campaign. Although Labor is
With wearying predictability The Independent splashes today on “10 Myths about the EU Treaty” – and prints a rebuttal of those eurosceptic “myths” on page three. They looked curiously familiar to me. And then I figured out why. The piece is an almost word-for-word reprint of a Foreign Office briefing note – but without any attribution
Last Friday, I was invited on the radio to have a go at Kelvin MacKenzie who attacked Scotland’s welfare dependency on Question Time. I had to drop the bombshell: I broadly agreed with him. When I was political editor of The Scotsman, I was regularly amazed at the picture told by the reports I was
With wearying predictability The Independent splashes today on “10 Myths about the Reform Treaty” – and prints a rebuttal of those eurosceptic “myths” on page three. They looked curiously familiar to me. And then I figured out why. The piece is an almost word-for-word reprint of a Foreign Office briefing note – but without any attribution
Obviously, the vote in the Turkish Parliament yesterday authorising incursions into northern Iraq to combat Kurdish terrorists threatens to undercut much of the progress that has been made in Iraq recently. But the security success of the surge in recent months has been quite remarkable as this sniper from Joe Klein’s Today in Iraq slot
David Ignatius’s column today on the dangers of a nuclear attack by al Qaeda is absolutely essential reading. Ignatius, who is neither a scaremonger nor a shrill but an experienced journalist with incomparable intelligence sources, lays out the reasons to worry about what al Qaeda has up its sleeve. Perhaps, the greatest puzzle of the
Nick Clegg scores the endorsement of the most impressive Lib Dem in public life, Paddy Ashdown, this morning. Writing in The Guardian, Ashdown argues that Clegg is the man to take the Lib Dems to the next level and the candidate the Tories fear. Chris Huhne, the main threat to Nick Clegg’s, has given interviews
Amidst suggestions that Nancy Pelosi will in fact put the Armenian Genocide resolution in her pocket, it’s been quite something to see so many self-styled liberals shake their heads and mutter that, you know, while we feel for the poor Armenians – and please, don’t for a moment doubt the seriousness of our compassion –
Foreign Policy’s Blake Hounshell deplores knee-jerk contrarianism and lists 10 Contrarian Arguments He Never Wants to Hear. Among them: Let Them Eat Cake: How a Delicious Dessert Could Save the World’s Poor. This seems unfair. Marie Antoinette’s famous advice was, if memory serves, given out of compassion and understanding, not aristocratic contempt for the urban
“So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” Lots of people will recoil at Bush’s Texan directness, one might almost say glibness, on this point. But there’s no getting
It is hard to think of two more different politicians than Dick Cheney and Barack Obama. But it turns out that they are actually eighth cousins. To borrow Richard Littlejohn’s catchphrase, you couldn’t make it up.
Glutton for punishment that I am, I watched all of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee’s cross-examination of David Miliband on Tuesday (you can share my pain by going to the committee’s website). Most of the press coverage has focused on the angry exchanges between the Foreign Secretary and the MPs, and particularly his justified fury
Nick Clegg is clearly the bookies and the Westminster favourite to succeed Ming but there are reasons to believe that he might be the wrong choice for the Lib Dems. Unlike the two main parties, Lib Dem leaders have to earn their media. Charles Kennedy and Paddy Ashdown were successful at doing this because they
Brown better today, but that’s not saying much. The Labour benches were obviously under instructions to cheer, but they still look on without expression with only a handful (Jack Straw especially) nodding to Brown’s points. But he still stammers and allows himself to be shouted down by the Tories. His new line (mentioned five times)
Reading this post from James Poulos left me wondering: What would happen if a US state decided to leave the Union? Would they be permitted to do so? How would you go about seceding anyway? Would it be legal to do so? What would be the consequences? Bonus questions: Which state would be most likely