On the Record | Brexit: A Hostage to Fortune

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit: A Hostage to Fortune’:

“Insanity,” according to conventional wisdom, “is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome.” Britain’s prime minister is coming dangerously close to fulfilling this charge. The Times of London reports “contingency planning for a snap election” this autumn, to save Theresa May’s job and her Brexit proposal after being effectively snubbed by Brussels.

Mrs. May continues to extol the benefits of Chequers, her party’s program for future relations with the European Union once Britain exits. She’s persisting even though both Leavers and Remainers trashed its half-in/half-out provisions. Only when her EU counterparts reiterated that its provisions were unacceptable, has she contemplated — perhaps — a Chequers redo.

Rumors are swirling around Downing Street that, in the face of factions at home and recalcitrance abroad, the Prime Minister will appeal to voters to strengthen her mandate. It would be a “Hail Mary pass” to unite Tories behind her Brexit strategy and convince Brussels that Britain means business.

Haven’t we seen this brainstorm before?

Read more . . .

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | When Britain Stood Up at Bruges

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘When Britain Stood Up at Bruges’:

“The shot heard round the world.” That’s how history remembers that fateful day in April 1775 when Massachusetts militia engaged British regulars on the fields of Lexington and Concord in defence of their liberties. Brexiteers recall their own summons to freedom, 30 years ago today: Margaret Thatcher’s Bruges speech.

Mrs. Thatcher’s critique of the European Union’s appetite for power made its mark and sparked a movement. Bruges gave birth to Brexit; its apotheosis, the June 2016 referendum vote whether to regain lost sovereignty or to stay within the EU. “Only” the hard work of negotiating Britain’s secession remains.

So much of the Bruges speech informs the rise of Brexit. And with Britain’s withdrawal from Brussels merely six months away, Mrs. Thatcher’s vision can lay the framework for Britain post-Brexit: “the willing and active cooperation between independent sovereign states.”

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Ghosts of the Thatcher Coup

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Ghosts of the Thatcher Coup’:

As rumors swirl about challenges to Theresa May, the British press has been dogging a politician with first-hand experience in the art of ousting a sitting prime minister — Michael Heseltine. He infamously defenestrated Margaret Thatcher. Will it be déjà vu all over again, this time with Boris Johnson as the leading conspirator against the lady in power?

Lord Heseltine challenged Mrs. Thatcher in November 1990, arguing that the Iron Lady was no longer “fit for purpose.” There’s some irony that the row was ignited by the desire of some of the Conservatives to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Mrs. Thatcher objected. I wouldn’t want to press the point too far, but that beef was an early seed of Brexit.

While successful in the overthrow, Lord Heseltine himself failed to emerge in the top spot. Those who “do in” their leaders rarely do. Yet he remains active in Conservative politics, both as a life peer and a prominent opponent of Brexit. He’s making the most of the efforts by the press to cast him as a wise man.

Asked about the career prospects of Mrs. May’s potential challenger, Lord Heseltine agrees that BoJo is adept at “playing the game of becoming leader of the Conservative party.” As to the larger issues of uniting the party and the nation toward finalizing Brexit, these are, Lord Heseltine harrumphs, “key questions about achieving power and my doubts and reservations are very substantial.”

Read more . . .

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

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DMI wishes its American friends a happy ‘Constitution Day’!

On the Record | What Would Disraeli Do?

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘What Would Disraeli Do?’:

What would Benjamin Disraeli do? And what would Britain’s great 19^th-century Conservative prime minister, born in the Jewish faith, say to Frank Field, the veteran member of Parliament who resigned the Labor whip prior to the autumn session, over the issue of anti-Semitism? Mr. Field warned his fellow Labor members: “We are increasingly seen as a racist party.”

It’s impossible to imagine Disraeli would have failed to address the anti-Semitism. One biographer calls him a lifelong booster of “one of the oldest races in the world.” Dizzy (as he was popularly known) boasted that a Jewish civilization was thriving when “the inhabitants of England were going half-naked and eating acorns.”

He would understand, too, that a fish rots from the head. So no doubt Disraeli would place much of the blame for the corruption of Labor with its leader. He would not be fooled by Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to characterize his views as a quarrel with Israel.

Read more . . .

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.