In most of the European Union, when the authorities hold a plebiscite and don’t get the result they want, they hold another, and another, until the voters see it their way. The English tradition holds democracy in greater esteem than that. Or at least it used to, before the Brexit mess.
Theresa May retains office but hemorrhages power.
Theresa May’s Brexit deal means the end of sovereignty and democracy.
More ministers resign as May faces the axe.
Will a road to nowhere in London lead back to Brussels?
Britain’s Conservative party comes together—and soon it will be coming apart
A fight delayed.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Her days will grow short, when she reaches September.
I wish I’d bothered to learn more poetry when I was younger so that I could think beyond Yeats’s done-to-death “Second Coming” when musing about British politics right now. Perhaps in 2018 it is better explained in meme form, as the dog in the burning house muttering “This is fine,” or the sweating…
“Brexit means Brexit.” That’s Theresa May’s most famous slogan. The problem is, it doesn’t really mean anything because the British vote to leave the European Union provided no indication of what leaving would actually entail. And it’s not clear that the people who supported it really agreed on a…
Just like the balloon designed to mock him.
When Theresa May goes down, Jacob Rees-Mogg will be Tory executioner and Tory kingmaker.
Britain’s prime minister rocked by resignations related to Brexit.
On his website, John Laurits (a self-identified communist based in Oregon) claimed that there is “no evidence” that Russia was involved in the poisoning of former Russian spy and double agent, Sergei Skripal.
There are two ways of looking at Brexit. One is confusing, the other is clear, and both are true. Many people in Britain would prefer not to look at all at Brexit. They would prefer to undo it by calling a second referendum, or contriving a slow legislative throttling that, like the assassination…
It is highly likely that on March 4 Russia used a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to kill one of its former spies in the United Kingdom. On March 14, British prime minister Theresa May retaliated by banishing 23 Russian diplomats “who have been identified as undeclared intelligence…
Who poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia?
British Prime Minister Theresa May took action against the Kremlin on Wednesday when she banished 23 Russian diplomats “who have been identified as foreign intelligence officers” from her nation’s shores. The expulsion was in direct response to the alleged—but “highly likely”—Russian use of an…
London.
In July 2016, Theresa May won the Tory party leadership contest, and thus became the U.K.’s prime minister, for one simple reason. There was no one else. It was less than a month after the Brexit referendum had upended Britain’s political order. The only thing her predecessor, David Cameron, was…
As Oscar Wilde might have said, to lose one minister is unfortunate. To lose a second minister in the space of two weeks looks like carelessness, especially when the minister appears to have pursued secret diplomacy at odds with the positions of the Foreign Office,. To place a third minister under…
All politics aspires to the condition of entertainment. At least it does so these days, whether in London or in Washington. The British derive enjoyment from their national dramas, even when things go wrong—Dunkirk was the film of the summer. But that multi-series extravaganza known as Brexit makes…
Theresa May’s speech at this week’s Conservative Party conference in Manchester, England, was meant to be the high point of the three-day event. Instead, her speech Wednesday morning became an extended and excruciating fiasco. None of this was May’s fault. It was just her bad luck. But luck is the…
A week is a long time in politics, and the days grow short as you reach September. Teresa May began last week with a victory, the passage of the EU withdrawal bill, previously known as the “Great Repeal Bill,” through the House of Commons. But her week ended with a harbinger of defeat. On Friday,…
As Theresa May went to Brussels Thursday for the opening of the two-day European Council summit, a European Union official warned that she was in for a “humiliating” experience. If so, May will feel at home on foreign soil.
York, England
York, England
London
London—Theresa May has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Britain's general election. By 5:00 a.m. EST, with 649 of 650 seats having declared, Britain looks set for a hung parliament. May's Conservatives have won 318 seats—6 short of the 326 needed for a majority, and 21 seats less than…
British voters have just shocked Europe—and perhaps themselves—by repudiating their conservative prime minister Theresa May. May called a snap election because it seemed an easy way to bolster her slender parliamentary majority as she began negotiating Britain's exit from the European Union. That…
When British Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap general election back in April (the vote will be held this Thursday) the governing Conservatives were seen as a shoo-in. They were roughly 20 points ahead in the polls, May was liked and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn—seen as dangerous,…
"It is time to say, enough is enough," Theresa May announced on Sunday morning, as forensic teams were examining the sites of the Islamist attacks on London Bridge and Borough Market and armed police were raiding homes in east London. "We cannot, and must not, pretend that things can continue as…
The May 27 headline in the London Spectator couldn't be more direct. "This is the worst Tory election campaign ever," proclaims author Rod Liddle. He just might be right.
Special advisers to political leaders need to get out more. Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to sneak what was quickly labeled a "dementia tax" into the Conservative party's general election manifesto (the British general election will be held on June 8) was reportedly heavily influenced by…
If Britain winds up leaving the European Union, it will be the doing of a woman who was not even publicly identified with the cause when voters approved the referendum for “Brexit" 10 months ago. This week Conservative prime minister Theresa May called a general election for June 8. It will…
This morning’s calling of a snap election in Britain on June 8 strengthens Prime Minister Theresa May's position as Brexit negotiator—and not only in her negotiations with Brussels. "At this moment of enormous national significance, there should be unity here in Westminster," she announced on the…
London
An elementary lesson of life is that systems are often invented by geniuses but usually administrated by less gifted individuals. This explains a lot about zero-tolerance policies in schools, prosecutorial discretion, and other topics of recurring interest. The best-known example, in popular…
British prime minister Theresa May sweeps into Washington, D.C. Friday as the first foreign leader to meet with President Donald Trump. Just one week after his inauguration, Trump will welcome May at the White House and the two will hold a joint press conference before engaging in a "working lunch."
British prime minister Theresa May has been in office for just five months. It hasn't been smooth sailing. Grappling with the aftermath of Brexit, May has faced anti-Brexit legal challenges, tough negotiations with disaffected European Union leaders, and a parliamentary revolt over plans to expand…
It was the mayhem that made Theresa May. Britain’s unexpected vote to leave the EU crushed financial markets and plunged some Remainers into angry, unhinged, and tellingly snobbish mourning: It was, one author explained, "the revenge of the Brownshirts, a dictatorship of the illiterate and the…