 |
|
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
May 7, 2010
/ 23 Iyar 5770
Oil spreads across the Atlantic
By
Wesley Pruden
| 
|
|
|
| |
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Buyer's remorse has become a chronic disease of the democracies. Candidates who look good in winter turn out not to taste so good in summer. We can expect to see a new outbreak in Britain sometime after this weekend.
The oily goo of Barack Obama's hopey-changey slick has inevitably spread across the Atlantic, like the spill off Louisiana, only writ larger. David Cameron, who expects to become the prime minister despite falling just short of an indecisive parliamentary majority, had tried to tie himself to Mr. Obama's game of bait-and-switch, of extravagant promises made and never redeemed. The Sun, one of London's irreverent tabloids, even appropriated the famous Obama campaign poster for its election-day front page, emblazoned "Our Only Hope." This was presumably not meant as irony. Alas, we knew Britain was in sad shape, but nobody knew things were that bad.
Mr. Cameron hit it off with the president — "bonded," in the ripe wet cliché of current fashion — months ago when he braved the briny to take his own measure of Washington. He quickly adopted the president's campaign mantra of hopey-changey, and hired Anita Dunn, who was Mr. Obama's communications director before she left the White House to become a political consultant, to give him advice on how to copy the Obama presidential campaign. Some of his friends in London now worry that once he actually becomes the prime minister Mr. Cameron will try to emulate the messiah of South Side Chicago rather than channel the robust ghosts of Churchill, Thatcher and Reagan as he settles in as prime minister.
This is the source of the buyer's remorse that inevitably followed recent elections in various places. The lightweight emulate the lightweight, weakness and irresolution is relentlessly pursued, and trustful voters are left with only regrets, rue and remorse.
Despite the reassuring similarity in name, the Conservatives of Britain are only superficially similar to small-c American conservatives. Though more appealing to Americans than Gordon Brown and the Labor party, Mr. Cameron and the Conservatives aren't expected to cultivate an appetite to curtail the growth, or even correct the fundamental weakness, of the welfare state that Britain adopted decades ago. Britain's national health care, with its filthy hospitals, long waits for critical surgery and impersonal physicians, long ago became sacrosanct to the British public. Mr. Cameron, no passionate fan of Maggie Thatcher, isn't expected to pursue her agenda of limited government, low taxes, reduced spending and the job-making economy that Britain needs.
Mr. Obama's determined effort to remake America in the image of the European welfare state, on the other hand, naturally strikes Europeans and many Britons as nothing much out of the ordinary. Mr. Obama's runaway public spending, appeasement of Islamist enemies bent on destroying the West, weakening of the military, and a sagging economy that spiked his popularity at home, is a puzzle to many in Britain.
But Britons who haven't yet given up dream of Mr. Cameron learning from the president's mistakes, even if they understand that Mr. Obama doesn't regard the consequences of striking leftward as "mistakes." Nile Gardiner, a columnist for the London Telegraph, observes that Mr. Obama's America may be declining as a world power, but has lessons for Britain: "David Cameron must learn from [Mr.] Obama's mistakes, and take Britain down a completely different path based on clearly defined conservative principles, which advance rather than constrain British leadership."
This would be a tall order any time, but rarely more so than now. The new prime minister will inherit a dreary legacy of economic decline that threatens all of Europe. Greece is bankrupt and its European benefactors are determined to impose stark correctives to its spendthrift ways. Some economists warn that Britain may be next. Worst of all, nobody is looking to London and what used to be the British empire for a rescue. The disciplinarian in boots, armed with a whip of braided currency, is the German lady.
"Nothing less than the future of Europe is at stake," Angela Merkel said on Thursday. "The happy tale of German history since World War II and our emergence as a free, united and strong country cannot be separated from the European Union. Europe today is looking to Germany . . . Immediate help is needed to ensure the financial stability of the eurozone. This must be done to avoid a chain-reaction to the European and international financial system."
Reality not-so-warmly welcomes the new PM. In London. Happy days are not necessarily here again.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
Wesley Pruden Archives
© 2007 Wesley Pruden
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|
