Tag Archives: Brexit

There Used to Always Be an England

Beppe Severgnini reminisced in early January about what he and millions of Continental Europeans have cherished about the United Kingdom. Above all, we were mesmerized by that quaint country, where the citizens had pounds and not kilograms, restaurants served meat … Continue reading

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Advancing Retrogression

http://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/opinion/brexit-uk.html “Put your flags away, you’re leaving, and take them with you.” [Mairead McGuinness, vice-president of the Parliament, to Nigel Farage, who waved a miniature Union Jack in the European Parliament as he bade farewell (2020).] “We must build a … Continue reading

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You Can Pick Your Battles, Not Your Wars

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/21/crushed-by-brexit-how-labour-lost-the-election My title is what I extrapolate from the tersely cogent remark attributed to an anonymous Labour Party strategist: “In the end, you can’t just fight a battle and ignore your opponent. You can’t just say: ‘We’re fighting at sea’, … Continue reading

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Getting Itself Done

http://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/opinion/uk-election-labour.html … The mines of County Durham, the pottery workshops of Staffordshire and the textile factories of Lancashire… Onetime Labour strongholds stretching from West Bromwich on the outskirts of Birmingham to Blyth Valley near the Scottish border… Bolsover in the … Continue reading

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“The Self-Defeating Rage of the Old”

The young people of England, like those in the rest of Britain, … understand we need liberation from the practices of Westminster and Whitehall, not Brussels, and from the self-defeating rage of the old. David Edgerton, a British historian, writes: … Continue reading

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“Morally Murky World” Redux

This morally murky world of spying is where le Carré continues to make his literary mark. John le Carré’s 25th novel, “Agent Running in the Field,” was published on October 22, 2019. It came two years after the 88-year-old author’s … Continue reading

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Catch of the Day

I qualify only as a spectator to the Brexit scene; however, the informal allegory cited by Roger Cohen in his opinion piece travels well in other precincts. As a British friend wrote me recently, “I’m just saying if I narrowly … Continue reading

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Young Bashi-Bazouk

“Mr. Cummings is a bashi-bazouk,” said [Dominic] Grieve, citing the Ottoman Empire’s shock troops, who were renowned for their ferocity. “It is going to be a very difficult period because Cummings doesn’t respect any rule at all.” (Benjamin Mueller and Stephen Castle, … Continue reading

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Rees-Mogging the Confecters

“The candyfloss of outrage that we’ve had over the past 24 hours — which is almost entirely confected — is from people who never wanted to leave the European Union,” Mr. Rees-Mogg said in an interview with BBC radio. (Stephen … Continue reading

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