German Chancellor Angela Merkel, March 14, 2009: If we want to actually strengthen the effect of such [stimulus] packages you simply have to implement them and not talk about the next one before the first has actually taken effect. Bloomberg, March 26, 2009: Chancellor Angela Merkel is injecting 82 billion euros ($110 billion) into the economy, the biggest stimulus package in Europe. . . . Germany’s spending spree came after Merkel exasperated European Union leaders, who wanted her to endorse a collective 200 billion-euro rescue package for the 27-nation trade …
Three weeks ago, Washington and the world were contemplating British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s ‘Global New Deal,’ and expectations were rising that the G-20 summit in London on April 2 would produce a comprehensive, job-destroying deal on global financial regulations. But inflated expectations always burst – ask the Obama administration – and as of late, the most interesting reporting on the summit has focused on how many lunatic fringe anti-freedom activists will attempt to disrupt it. Former British Cabinet Minister Stephen Byers is now criticizing Brown, saying that he is …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs[/youtube]In a speech during Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s visit to the European Parliament on March 24, 2009, British Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan gives a striking speech directed at his Prime Minister, explaining the pitfalls of liberal borrow-spend-bailout policies. Sound familiar? Instead of DVDs, President Obama should have given Gordon Brown his teleprompter, because without it, there is no response to this.
Rory Cooper has drawn attention to the fact that the DVDs that President Obama gave British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit here earlier this month won’t play in Britain. It’s worse than that: Brown is blind in one eye, and is reported to be suffering vision problems in the other. The gift of DVDs was not only cheap and unworthy of the Anglo-American Special Relationship: it was also spectacularly tactless. Brown’s gifts to Obama, by contrast, showed the dignity and care that statesmen – and especially great allies …
Last month, President Obama returned a bronze bust of Winston Churchill that had, since 9/11, been on loan as a symbol of the Special Relationship from the British Government to the United States. When he arrived for his visit this week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown brought along a few replacements. If he studies them well, Obama could learn a useful lesson about diplomacy: it is a compliment to, not a replacement of, the use of force. There was a first edition of Sir Martin Gilbert’s authorized biography of Churchill, all …
Expectations for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s address to the joint meeting of Congress this morning were low. His visit so far has been devoid of highlights. His joint press conference with Obama on Tuesday was canceled, supposedly because of the weather, which was a snub Tony Blair never endured. At bottom, the reality is that Brown is desperately unpopular in Britain, and must simply be grateful if any of Obama’s popularity rubs off on him. Because he wants a lot but can deliver little, no one in the Administration, or …
It will come as no surprise that Barack Obama’s emphatic victory has been warmly greeted in the United Kingdom and across Europe. Newspapers are covered with proclamations of a history-changing moment for the United States. The record turnout, particularly among groups that previously felt they belonged only on the margins of society, is surely something to be impressed by — and a trend all Western parties will hope to learn from. The so-called “Bradley effect” never materialized. And there stands a good chance that race may now be laid to rest …
This past weekend President Bush announced plans to host an “emergency” summit of world leaders to “overhaul the regulatory framework for global finance.” Bush offered few details on what actual policy fixes would be addressed, but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown penned an op-ed in for The Washington Post calling for unprecedented levels of “global governance,” including global standards for accounting and regulation and a “renewal of our international institutions to make them effective early-warning systems for the world economy.” Specifically, Brown wants to enhance the power and authority of …
