NZCPR Newsletter: Lessons from the UK

There are many lessons for New Zealand in last week’s British election result, which saw the 14-year reign of the Conservative Party ending in a crushing defeat.

While the number of seats won by Labour appeared to indicate a huge swing to the left in support of Sir Keir Starmer’s Party, that isn’t the case at all.

Peter Williams: Election Day

Is Labour's spectacular win what it seems?

It’s intriguing to arrive in a foreign land on the eve of their General Election.

Just why the United Kingdom votes on a Thursday has always been a bit of a mystery but it certainly adds to the low key nature of the day.

We’re staying in East London, home to the long serving Diane Abbot’s Labour-dominated constituency of Hackney and Stoke Newington.

Guy Steward: The Left is Wrong about Fascism

It’s heartening to see the landslide victory of the Conservatives in the UK with support across different socio-demographics. It shows amongst other things what voters disenchanted by the frequent failure of left-wing parties can do when there are viable alternatives. May we see something similar in New Zealand in 2020.

And it’s fascinating to observe the reactions—especially of vociferous left-wingers—to resounding defeats like this. It reveals their political integrity or lack thereof. 

Street protesters tend to come across as less rational, less adult, in their reduction of everything to accusations. Granted that duplicity is no one’s preserve, and everyone occasionally wears the hypocrite label. Yet the political left at the street level take the cake, because while their banners display moralist statements like “Say no to racism”, they are quite OK with lying, smearing, slandering, misrepresenting, inferring evil intent, hating, threatening, and cursing anyone considered too “right” or conservative. …but please “Say no to racism!”.

Clive Bibby: The small guys fight back - they have nothing to lose!

The remarkable political successes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump against what most "experts" described as insurmountable odds has to be the story of the year - at least that is the way l see it.

I hope you will have the patience to bear with me as l give my reasons for making that claim and also volunteering why it is important that this region, way down here at the opposite end of the planet, needs to take heed of any lessons we can learn from this northern hemisphere phenomenon.

Frank Newman: Brexit exit for Corbyn

The UK Labour Party has been slaughtered in the recent election result. It's their worst result in 80 years. Electorates that had been Labour bastions forever have fallen as life-long Labour supporters held their nose and voted for Boris Johnson's Conservative Party - or didn't vote.  

Brexit was a crucial factor as was Labour's archaic socialist policies and its repugnant leadership. The Labour Party's position on Brexit was political rather than principled and their messaging was unclear. Were they for a Brexit exit or not? Voters simply wanted clarity and after years of political deadlock voters had had enough and pro-Brexit Labourites voted accordingly.

Melanie Phillips: A numbed electorate between devil and deep blue sea

In this most dismal and dispiriting general election, a numbed British electorate desperate to end the Brexit nightmare is instead being corralled with its hands tied behind its back towards the likely continuation of that nightmare.

One of the many fundamental negotiating errors made by Theresa May in trying to settle the terms of the UK’s Brexit withdrawal deal with the EU was to rule out leaving with no deal.

Melanie Phillips: Nigel Farage’s agonising calculation

Anthony Wells, director of political research at YouGov, says: “Nigel Farage is sending a message that you can trust Boris Johnson to deliver Brexit”.

This is untrue. Farage is not sending that message at all. Yesterday he repeated that “the direction we are going in is simply not Brexit”. He has not retreated from his opinion that the Johnson deal is a trap for the UK which, after it has left the EU will remain remain bound to it by destructive ties.

Matt Ridley: Post-election blues

For those of us who want a clean Brexit and who champion freedom and innovation rather than socialism, the election result was a shattering disappointment. It reduced the party that most embraces free enterprise to a minority in the House of Commons and leaves us with a diminished and humiliated government less likely to win crucial concessions from a European Union emboldened to be more punitive — all against a background of teenager-murdering theocracy.

But, as the first shock fades, I am finding a few crumbs of comfort. Not optimism exactly, but glimmers of light amid the gloom. Here is my top ten.

NZCPR Weekly: Lessons from the UK Election

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, we look into the recent UK election to see what lessons we can learn, our NZCPR Guest Commentator House of Lords Member Richard Balfe shares his analysis of the British election, and with New Zealand’s General Election less than 100 days away, this week’s poll asks for your predictions of which parties you believe will form the next Government. .

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*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

GWPF Newsletter: G20 Summit - Merkel’s Anti-Trump Front Is Crumbling

1) G20 Summit: Merkel’s Anti-Trump Front Is Crumbling
Spiegel Online, 10 June 2017

2) Isolating Trump: Merkel’s G-20 Climate Alliance Is Crumbling
Spiegel Online, 9 June 2017

3) Tories Form Government With Climate-Sceptic DUP
edie News, 9 June 2017

4) UK Election: 'Nothing Has Changed'

5) And Finally: The Book Of Jeremy Corbyn
The New Yorker, 9 June 2017