Airstrip One

It's not about hurt feelings, Tam

What is it about the left? Tam Dalyell says that we should cut the Falklands adrift, and even this MP - as a staunch Scottish Unionist he's more accustomed to thinking about the national question than most of his contemporaries - but he says it in such a way to make it look unattractive. The real argument is that Britain is rapidly becoming unable to project power as far as the Falklands, and although we could get that capability back in a couple of years it will take the sort of spending that we are not prepared to contemplate.

The real question with the remaining colonies is how much of our defence capabilities are we prepared to divert away from the British Isles, and let's stop worrying about Argentine pride.

Stirrings on the Right

This could be promising, Monday Club members are regrouping. While they seem to be concentrating on social issues (full disclosure - I don't believe that the state should be involved in bedroom politics) it has the potential to be something more sweeping. With the suppression of the Monday Club and the voluntary winding up of Conservatives Against a Federal Europe, there is certainly room on the right of the party. And with the general uselessness of British Libertarians when trying to think about Britain's role in the world (who can cheer loudest for America) this could be a useful foil for the unthinking pro-Americanism on the right.

Empire envy may not be the most pleasant way to break the Pro-American log jam on the right, but with the Thatcherite and Libertarian infatuation with all things American - the natural Little Englander instincts of the free market right seem to have been suppressed.

Could Spell Trouble

Labour's euro dissidents to break cover. This looks like the "Brown for PM" crowd. It will also cause havoc among the pro-Euro campaign. They were going to say "well the public is against us, but the political establishment is for us". Now they are pinning their hopes on "the public country is against us but the political establishment is for us, except for the Conservatives and the Tory Press". If they don't move quickly then a few more pieces look like they're falling off.

I remember one person during the leadership election opining that supporting Duncan Smith would be a bad idea for the Tories because "he's going to be in an awkward position if the country vote to go into the Euro". A true leap of faith required.

Another interesting story, this time not foreign policy related is that there were financial links between the Casinos and Labour before the liberalisation of the gambling laws was announced. And we are supposed to act surprised? For some time I thought that a good idea for a web log would be to simply cross reference government policy announcements against Labour donations.

New Link

Gary Farber has a reciprocal link. I've also been mentioned by Jim Henley. Thanks chaps.

Given the nod

I've been mentioned by Glenn Reynolds for the first time ever, and my hits have soared. Gee, thanks. He makes a very interesting point:

I'd welcome an intellectually honest and thoughtful antiwar movement. One of my mentors in Law School was Charles L. Black, who with Thurgood Marshall wrote the brief in Brown v. Board of Education, and who worked on many of the post-Brown cases. He always felt that the poor quality of the intellectual opposition to desegregation led to flabby, bad law -- "we would have done better," he said, "if we'd had better lawyers on the other side."

I'm not exactly what he ordered as I'm on the other side of the pond, and my obsession is with British foreign policy and the British national interest. If I was an American I would have been for some sort of action to fry Bin Laden and root out Al Qaeda, although nation building in the Hindu Kush or reordering Iraq would not be so welcome.

In the end, I'm a believer in the British national interest (do not call me a British nationalist, as it has some weird and nasty conotations over here). So I don't believe Britain should either block or aid whatever America gets up to that doesn't affect Blighty.

And to all those new visitors from the Professors site, feel free to come back and use the discussion site