On The Other Side Of The Pond

Posts from my husband on NRO - The Corner about Old Blimey....

Re: Let's Stop Calling It The Stimulus [Iain Murray]
I note my friends at the Heritage Foundation are calling it the Pelosi-Reid-Obama Debt Plan, which seems pretty reasonable to me.

As for Progressive, Andy, I think the best word is "lefty." After all, while in the UK certain people are talking about "progressive conservatism" again (groan), at least some have the honesty to term it "red toryism."

>"Progressive Conservatism" [Iain Murray]
I note my friends at the Heritage Foundation are calling it the Pelosi-Reid-Obama Debt Plan, which seems pretty reasonable to me.

As for Progressive, Andy, I think the best word is "lefty." After all, while in the UK certain people are talking about "progressive conservatism" again (groan), at least some have the honesty to term it "red toryism."

Wretched, isn't it?

According to the latest poll data, the Tories are headed for a strong majority, but given that after the financial crisis broke, Gordon Brown's poll rating went up so much he actually wiped out a 20-point Tory lead, it's hard to say what would happen in a general election campaign. It's not implausible to see Cameron doing a Neil Kinnock*.

At least part of the reason for the so-called Brown Bounce was that the Tories had a very timid economic policy, essentially saying "We'll do what Brown does, but we'll be nicer about it." When the crisis came, they really hadn't got a leg to stand on, and they just let Brown blame the crisis on Thatcher and America, despite the fact that Labour has been in power for 11 years, rather than advancing a strongly conservative alternative.

So Cameron's current tactic is to say that he's Britain's Obama, because the symbol of change in Britain is an Eton- and Oxford-educated PR man, who is the grandson of a Baronet and married to the daughter of another one. To say I find this approach frustrating is an understatement.

*Yes, the one the Vice-President plagiarized his speeches from.