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Tag: democracy

Britain Israel USA 

The real centre ground: the only political show in town

Melanie, , ,

Democracy, the process through which the people get to choose who governs them, involves a choice of leaders telling competing stories about how the world should be organized. A healthy society, we have told ourselves, involves regularly changing those leaders and their stories to provide the checks and balances essential to avoid the dangers inherent in one-party rule. In Israel, the United States and Britain, that process has stalled. The reason is that, in all three countries as elsewhere in the west, the story offered by the progressive side of…

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cliff Britain 

At the cliff-edge, the Tory lemmings

Melanie, ,

Well, what in heaven’s name did anyone expect? Theresa May’s refinements to her Brexit deal, crafted in order to force it through the Commons on her fourth attempt, have caused consternation and horror in the Tory party. With the political cliff edge towards which she has been steadily driving the party clearly in sight, she is now proposing a lethal shove to push the Conservative lemmings over the drop altogether. For her new Brexit deal is even worse than the old one – which was itself beyond terrible. This new…

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UK Britain 

The one and only way for panicking MPs to save their skins

Melanie, ,

They get it and they don’t get it. Panicking parliamentarians are gazing upon their poll numbers in free fall with horror and disbelief. Is it really possible that the Conservative and Labour parties might be collapsing as much as the polls suggest? Yes, it is most certainly possible. Might the Conservative party now be out of power for a generation or even split apart and disintegrate altogether? Yes it might. Could the entire political system now be entering a profound realignment? Yes it could. Can Nigel Farage’s Brexit party really…

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Boris Britain Culture wars 

The British in the wilderness as Brexit crisis explodes

Melanie, , ,

What in the name of heaven, you may well ask, is going on in Britain? Why is the Brexit issue causing a political nervous breakdown? And should any of this matter to anyone else? In answer to the last question, yes it should. The Brexit debacle has crucial lessons for the rest of the West, as well as for Israel and Diaspora Jews. Given the pace of unprecedented shocks at Westminster, by the time you read this the Brexit crisis may have veered off in yet another direction. At time…

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cox Britain 

Mrs May’s Chamberlain moment

Melanie, , ,

This morning, Theresa May was reported to be talking up as a breakthrough the concessions she has obtained from the EU on the Irish backstop, saying MPs should therefore vote tonight for her Brexit withdrawal deal. At time of writing, she is expected shortly to address parliament. The UK’s requirement was that it should never find itself bound by the backstop with no means of escape unless the EU gives it permission – which by definition, in the event of a breakdown in the future negotiations over the UK/EU relationship,…

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UK Britain Europe 

Why it’s imperative that Britain shows itself to be firmly behind no-deal

Melanie, , ,

We all know the problem over Theresa May’s Brexit deal, don’t we. The EU insisted on its red lines, offering nothing that would allow Britain to trade outside the customs union or single market. Hence her deal was botched because she was under the EU cosh. But what if this analysis were 180 degrees out? What if the opposite were the case? What if the EU had in fact offered the UK a comprehensive free trade agreement for the whole of the UK with zero tariffs and no quantitative restrictions,…

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Culture wars 

Liberal sore losers don’t respect democracy

Melanie, , ,

Liberal sore losers don’t respect democracy What’s so alarming is the way that political and ideological disputes are driving many into positions where minds are closed against evidence in a culture war which brooks no deviation. Speaking from my own experience, it’s apparently not possible to want to see rapists locked up and oppose the destruction of the presumption of innocence by #MeToo; to stand up against the West’s appeasement of Islamism and criticise Tommy Robinson; to be appalled by the psychological and other flaws of President Trump and acknowledge…

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norms Culture wars Israel USA 

The full-scale unravelling of Western cultural norms

Melanie, , ,

The Kavanaugh confirmation circus is not just a jaw-dropping and unedifying spectacle. It is a paradigm event in the unraveling of American and Western cultural norms. The allegations of sexual assault against the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh have crumbled away under their own multiple contradictions, absence of corroboration and unsubstantiated claims. So have all those who instantly proclaimed Kavanaugh guilty as charged expressed contrition for this character assassination? On the contrary: They have merely shifted the goalposts to yet more spurious accusations. These include his alleged teenage drinking, lying…

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