Atlantic Sentinel

Author: David Downing

  • Pressure Mounts on Boris Johnson to Resign

    Boris Johnson
    British prime minister Boris Johnson chairs a cabinet meeting in London, England, September 30, 2020 (10 Downing Street/Andrew Parsons)

    Boris Johnson may be remembered as the prime minister of Brexit and COVID parties.

    British media have revealed a series of parties were held at the prime minister’s residence when the rest of the United Kingdom was in pandemic lockdown. Each week seems to bring fresh allegations and criticism. Three of Johnson’s predecessors have reprimanded him. Conservative backbenchers and party donors have urged him to step down. Labour has taken a 7- to 10-point lead in the polls. Yet Johnson continues in office.

    The government first tried to defend the parties with what have been called “brazen” and “unbelievable” excuses. One involving wine, cheese and loud music was called a “work event”. A birthday party was defended as the prime minister being “ambushed by a cake.” (more…)

  • Boris Johnson’s Blue Wall Starts to Crack

    Boris Johnson Angela Merkel
    British prime minister Boris Johnson and German chancellor Angela Merkel pose for photos at the G7 in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, June 11 (10 Downing Street/Simon Dawson)

    British Conservatives woke up Friday morning to the news that a once-safe seat in Parliament was no longer blue.

    Liberal Democrat Sarah Green overturned a majority of 16,000 in Chesham and Amersham, bordering the London Green Belt, with a remarkable 25-point swing away from the Conservatives. It is one of the largest swings away from the ruling party since the early 1990s, when Tony Blair launched New Labour.

    Extrapolating from a by-election is risky. Britain has had many by-elections which were heralded as the dawning of a new political era that never arrived. But a center-right party losing the suburbs after lurching to the populist right sounds like a familiar story. (more…)

  • Great British Railways: Neither Public Nor Private Enough

    Waverley train station Edinburgh Scotland
    Waverley railway station in Edinburgh, Scotland (iStock)

    This week, the British government published its long-awaited and somewhat delayed review into the British railway network.

    The proposals — putting infrastructure, timetables, fares and tickets back into government hands but allowing private companies to run the trains — are a step in the right direction, but they would keep the network in a twilight zone.

    British rail is neither fully private nor fully public, despite the government and the Treasury in particular having control over many aspects of the railway. Accountability is murky. Industry fragmentation — 29 train companies, fifteen leasing companies — has only made it worse. (more…)

  • Statism Makes a Comeback in the United Kingdom

    Cabinet Office London England
    The British flag flies over the Cabinet Office in London, England (Shutterstock/Willy Barton)

    Two months ago, I argued Britain was once again the sick man of Europe. It had the second-highest per capita COVID death rate among major countries. Economic output had fallen 20 percent from the year before.

    The crisis wasn’t lost on policymakers. The dual shock of coronavirus and Brexit — Britain formally left in 2019 but still applies EU rules and regulations this year — has led to something of a quiet revolution in Whitehall: the potential rebirth of the interventionist state.

    There is still much wrong with how the British government has handled both events, the poster child for COVID being the decimation of the British aviation and travel industry as well as the arts. Not since the closing of the coal mines has an entire industry shrunk so dramatically.

    Yet the seeds of a new statism have been sown — by a Conservative government. (more…)

  • Britain Is Once Again the Sick Man of Europe

    London England
    View of the City of London, England from The Shard at night, June 13, 2018 (Unsplash/Tim Arterbury)

    During the 1960s and 70s, Britain, economically stagnant and losing its empire, was known as the sick man of Europe. With COVID-19, the sickness has returned — and this time it may be even harder to heal.

    More than 300,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the United Kingdom. 41,000 Britons have died of the disease, giving the country the second-highest per capita death rate among major countries. British economic output fell 20 percent in April, the worst rate by far among industrial nations.

    This comes after a decade of austerity and on top of the economic fallout of Brexit.

    It was the tough medicine of Thatcherism that allowed the United Kingdom to recover from its previous bout of ill health and find a new faith in itself — “Cool Britannia” — under New Labour.

    But the seeds of the current malaise were planted in the same era. (more…)

  • British Rediscover Normalcy in Abnormal Times

    Milton Abbas England
    Festival in Milton Abbas in the south of England, July 29, 2017 (Shutterstock/Vivvi Smak)

    “Normal” may not be the best word to describe the situation in the United Kingdom, where 60,773 people, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, are known to have contracted coronavirus disease and 7,097 with the infection have died.

    Yet after years during which Britain’s exit from the European Union overshadowed everything, there are also signs that political life on the island is returning to normalcy.

    As the government has tightened restrictions on public life in order to contain the outbreak, communities across the country are helping each other out. Almost every neighborhood now has a “COVID-19 Community Group” that organizes care for the needy and most vulnerable. Bitter divisions over Brexit have been set aside. (more…)

  • Stakes Are High in British Election, But Outcome Is Up in the Air

    Elizabeth Tower London England
    Elizabeth Tower of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, February 23, 2017 (Unsplash/Kate Krivanec)

    In a month, Britain will have its third election in four years. Once more the reason is Brexit, or rather the lack of Brexit.

    I’ve argued before that Britain’s departure from the EU is accelerating a breakdown of the two-party system. The upcoming election is like a kaleidoscope. Every time you shake it, a new pattern appears.

    Yet the stakes are simple enough. For the Conservatives, all that matters is winning a majority. The other parties merely have to stop this from happening to claim victory.

    Already we can say the new Parliament will be more partisan and less experienced. Sixty lawmakers with 750 years of combined legislative experience are not seeking reelection. Many blame the coarse political discourse of recent years. (more…)

  • After Week of Turmoil, What Next for British Politics?

    London England
    Aerial view of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey in London, England (Unsplash/Ricardo Frantz)

    Tuesday was an historic night in British politics, and one whose outcome could reverberate through the coming months and years.

    Lawmakers voted 328 to 321 to take control of the parliamentary agenda from the government in order to demand that Boris Johnson, the prime minister, ask for an extension of Britain’s exit from the European Union if no withdrawal agreement is in place by October 17.

    Johnson, who currently has a 100-percent loss rate in Parliament, and is the first British prime minister since William Pitt the Younger in 1793 to lose his first vote, refuses to delay Brexit and called for an early election instead.

    But that too failed. Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, a two-thirds supermajority is required to call an early election. Many opposition lawmakers, who fear an early election is a government trap to bring about a no-deal Brexit, abstained. (more…)

  • Election of Britain’s Next Prime Minister Feels a Little Ridiculous

    Theresa May Donald Trump
    British prime minister Theresa May speaks with American president Donald Trump the Oval Office of the White House in Washington DC, January 27, 2017 (10 Downing Street/Jay Allen)

    The contest to succeed Theresa May as Conservative Party leader and prime minister of the UK is about halfway through. A field of more than two dozen candidates has been whittled down to two by parliamentarians. The final contenders are Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.

    The entire thing has an air of ridicule to it. Many in the country have watched the televised debates between the candidates setting out their policies on not just Brexit but controversial domestic issues, such as social care and high-speed rail. But out of millions, only 150 to 160,000 party members have a vote.

    On top of this, to spend the better half of two months choosing a new leader, who will be the new prime minister by default, when the country faces perhaps its greatest crisis in half a century seems rather like rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking ship — futile and even a little insulting to those who suspect more could have been done with the six-month Brexit extension granted by the EU in April. (more…)

  • Brexit Is Tearing Britain’s Conservative Party Apart

    Theresa May
    British prime minister Theresa May attends a NATO summit in Brussels, July 11, 2018 (Shutterstock/Alexandros Michailidis)

    In last month’s European elections, Britain’s Conservative Party outdid expectations that it would perform poorly by performing terribly. It placed fifth with just 9 percent support, the party’s worst result since 1832.

    This is a humiliation for a party that prides itself on being Britain’s “natural party of government”. Theresa May promptly announced she would step down as prime minister and party leader. Twelve candidates are vying to replace her, including the former mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

    A fresh face won’t be enough avert the next electoral disaster, though. The Conservatives have lost their reputation for competence and prudence during the Brexit process and the issue of Europe — which has brought down every Conservative prime minister since Ted Heath — is unlikely to go away. (more…)

  • Local Elections Highlight Political Fragmentation in United Kingdom

    Bideford England
    Bideford, England seen from the River Torridge (Shutterstock)

    The outcome of local elections in the United Kingdom last week painted a stark picture for the country’s two major political parties.

    The ruling Conservatives were expecting to lose around 800 of their 5,521 seats. They ended up losing 1,330 and with it control of 44 councils.

    Labour, who were expecting gains, ended up losing 84 seats and control of six councils.

    The clear winners were the Liberal Democrats, who more than doubled their seats, from 658 to 1,351, with 19 percent support. The Greens also won.

    It is tempting to write up the result to those parties’ pro-EU message, but there is actually more at play. (more…)

  • Brexit Is Restructuring British Politics

    British parliament London
    Westminster Palace in London, England (Unsplash/Matt Milton)

    Friday was meant to be Brexit Day, but it wasn’t. Instead, after two “meaningful votes” about leaving the EU, a third was held in Parliament, which — like the previous two — did not succeed.

    On Monday, Parliament will continue its indicative voting to see what, if any, resolution to the crisis can command a majority in the House.

    Meanwhile, British politics continues its Brexit-themed realignment. (more…)

  • After May’s Deal Defeated, Brexit at Impasse

    British parliament London
    Aerial view of the Palace of Westminster in London, England (iStock/Robert Ingelhart)

    Last night, Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal was voted down by the British parliament in an historic defeat.

    This came even after she delayed the vote, which was meant to take place in December, to try to shore up support for the agreement.

    The three largest opposition parties — Labour, the Scottish nationalists and the Liberal Democrats — voted against the deal. So did the junior governing party, the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (DUP), along with 118 of May’s own Conservatives.

    In all, the treaty, which is meant to regulate Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, was rejected by 432 to 202 votes. (more…)

  • Beto O’Rourke Has Challenged the Stereotype of Texas

    San Antonio Texas
    View of San Antonio, Texas from the Tower of the Americas (Unsplash/Chandra Maharzan)

    One of the most watched elections in the United States on Tuesday will be in Texas, where Democrat Beto O’Rourke is challenging the incumbent Republican senator, Ted Cruz.

    The unexpectedly close contest — polls put Cruz 3 to 10 points ahead; he won by 16 points in 2012 — has revealed something many had forgotten: Texas is not, and never was, monolithic.

    When people, especially non-Americans, think of Texas, they think of cowboys, oil and Republicans. For a quarter century, this narrative has held. Now it seems to be fracturing. A new, or perhaps the true, Texas is emerging. (more…)

  • British Parties Do Just Well Enough in Local Elections

    Theresa May Lars Løkke Rasmussen
    Prime Ministers Theresa May of the United Kingdom and Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Denmark answer questions from reporters in Copenhagen, October 10, 2016 (10 Downing Street/Tom Evans)

    In local elections on Thursday, both of Britain’s major parties did just well enough to keep criticism about their leaders at bay without doing well enough to silence it altogether. (more…)