Christopher Montgomery

Right, here’s the problem: you need to go to war, but you’d find it ticklish – and frankly, boring – to go into your real reasons for doing so, so what are you going to do? If, last September, you were Tony Blair, you’d decide that the best way forward was to blind the electorate … Continue reading “Blair’s Political Suicide”

Reasons to Be Fearful? No doubt at this very moment, in the manner of a BBC historical drama about Appeasement, some brave-but-ignored Cassandra at, oh, the Telegraph, is preparing to stub out his cigarette, pat the cat, kiss his wife on both cheeks, put on his trilby and walk out the front door for the … Continue reading “The Ambassador from Alabama”

Changing Conservatives In opposition the Tory party is a marvelous beast. All those principles which, when in power, we sacrificed in favour of what seemed like the \’sensible\’ policies required for governing, well see how we love them now. Adamantine we are in our defence of the Union, or against European encroachments on British sovereignty, … Continue reading “Who\’s Scared of Euroland?”

Bliss It Was Who is Christopher Caldwell? No doubt Google would tell me some sort of truth about the man, but is there world enough and time to be bothered? He\’s something to do with that gaggle of charmers over at Mr Murdoch\’s Weekly Standard, I know that much, but nothing else. I don\’t know … Continue reading “On the Nature of Meaning (and Union Jack Tee-Shirts)”

Is Gordon Brown a Eurosceptic? Well of course he\’s not, but every time that question is asked of him, or the label is tentatively applied to him, what\’s really meant is: the Chancellor\’s not as keen as the Prime Minister to replace Sterling with the Euro. Whether this distinction exists because the Chancellor, having sat … Continue reading “How Iain Won\’t Save Britain”

And to think some of you had less than a high opinion of Mr Rumsfeld. No doubt contrition consumes you, as the United States announces that it\’s, more or less, going to withdraw from the Saudi bases it formally established after the previous Iraq war, and, of course, she\’s not looking to set up new … Continue reading “How Osama Got His Way”

Now that the war\’s over and wrapped up well within the 6 weeks some of us (ahem) predicted, and rapidly rushing off the front pages, what, before it becomes sooo mid-March, is there for us all to agree on? Very simply this: the neoconservatives were behind it. They like to boast this, their antiwar opponents … Continue reading “Know Thine Enemy”

Winners & Losers It\’s a good thing that this war is coming to an end soon as otherwise I don\’t think the TV companies could have afforded to continue covering it. Already several of the US networks have shipped home some of their more expensive human resources, and just think where we would be if … Continue reading “The Anglo-American Way of War”

Even I was beginning to worry if I was going to be proven wrong: for the entire nine years that Tony Blair has been leader of the Labour party, I\’ve guaranteed everyone who\’d listen that \’Clare Short will do the dirty on Tony Blair\’, and nothing much happened. She lashed out a few times, in … Continue reading “The Limits of Conservatism”