Dave Brockington
LG&M
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Past articles by Dave:
Brexit Update from Delusional Britain
Things here in the United Kingdom are progressing from strength to strength of course. We’ve successfully taken back control, blue passports are now standard issue, and we’re tooling up for a war with the French over fish. This thread is several days old now, but captures the lunacy of what we’re experiencing. An excerpt: It … → Read More
A Trifecta Wish List Part II: Policy
A couple weeks ago, I discussed a fantasy world where not only did the Democrats win the trifecta, but I argue that they should use this power to redress institutional biases in the US Senate and the Supreme Court. There’s a reasonable chance for the trifecta, and likewise a decent chance for statehood for DC, … → Read More
A Trifecta Wish List Part I: Institutional Arrangements
The possibility of a trifecta opens up a rare opportunity for some creative thinking regarding both the institutional structure and fundamental policy outputs to enhance the democratic credibility of the US. I’ve been keeping a wish list in my mind of sorts, and win or lose in November, I’m looking at developing this as a … → Read More
Apollo 13 - Lawyers, Guns & Money
In the midst of everything else going on right now, it’s also the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, and I’m going to use this as an excuse to write about something a bit different: let’s share some geeky space and technology podcasts. Apollo in Real Time. These are exceptionally cool resources on Apollos … → Read More
The British Twenty-fifth Amendment
Spoiler alert: there isn’t one. In the event of the incapacitation of the executive, there is no constitutional “Plan-B”. I was told that the Cabinet Manual might cover it, which is perhaps the closest that the British have to an operations manual for the government. However, a skim of its 11 chapters and 100+ pages … → Read More
Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition
It seems trite to write about the shattered opposition party in a second-tier country during the age of pandemics and Tiger Kings, but the Labour Party will announce Jeremy Corbyn’s successor via email this morning. This is a contest that Sir Kier Starmer should win, and do so convincingly; the only real question is whether … → Read More
Corbynism: A Post Mortem
I’m going to have more on the December election and the future of the party in the coming days, but this post does a decent job of summarising the past four years of the Labour Party. Some bits I reject, like its implied pro-Brexit position, as well as how it wasn’t only the £3 registered … → Read More
The Past Couple Weeks of British Politics: Some Rambling Thoughts
This piece ran in the New York Times a couple weeks ago, as an attempt to characterise the brains behind Boris Johnson’s approach to governance as an evil genius: Mr. Cummings deliberately framed and precipitated the confrontation with Parliament, intending to lose the vote so that Mr. Johnson could instantly call an election as the … → Read More
British Politics and the Brothers of Betrayal
A bit more than 48 hours ago, I posted an update on the parliamentary dysfunction of British politics and . . . it only got messier in that time. As predicted, with two bills, one seizing control of the parliamentary calendar from the Government, and the second, a move to effectively block the crashing out … → Read More
Destroying British Democracy to Save Democracy, or Something.
Given there is no majority in the House of Commons for a no-deal Brexit, and while Boris Johnson might be many things, he does appear to possess the ability to count, he’s decided to go all-in and request that Parliament be prorogued. Let’s make this clear — the Prime Minister, “elected” by the votes of … → Read More
Corbyn's Plea is NOT About Brexit
However, as several people have brought to my attention, our friend Atrios appears to have drunk vigorously from the keg of Kool-Aid fuelling Corbynism. “The group of people have made their entire political raison d’etre opposition to Brexit were, in fact, just using it as one more thing to use to complain about Corbyn with … → Read More
This Month in British Politics: The View from Momentum
The past four to six weeks in Britain has been dominated by the Conservative Party’s succession battle to replace Theresa May as leader of the party (and, hence, Prime Minister). But you would never know it if your feed was dominated by Plymouth Momentum’s observations. For those not fully immersed in the left / hard … → Read More
The British Hard Left Embraces . . . Tulsi Gabbard?
A member of the Cult of Corbyn in good standing (involved in the local Momentum exec) this past weekend surprised me by coming out in favour of Tulsi Gabbard, which led to the following hilarious exchange (names obscured to protect the guilty): The contributor obscured in red is the member who authored the rambling motion … → Read More
A Corbynite Foreign Policy
While this is far removed from my bailiwick within the realm of political science, foreign policy is something that many of my acquaintances in the Labour Party are self-professed experts, able to see through the smears and brainwashing of the mainstream media to instantly focus, laser-like, on the truth: It’s the West’s fault. The reaction … → Read More
Random Musings on "Electing" the Next Prime Minister of the UK
By the end of the day, the Conservative parliamentary party should have reduced the number of contenders for its vacant leadership position from four to two, following which the membership of the party are scheduled to decide between them in electing, at once, both the leader of their party as well as the Prime Minister … → Read More
Nicolás Maduro Can Relax
Because the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Constituency Labour Party has finally weighed in with its long-awaited response to the Venezuelan crisis. Berlin, Paris, Washington, and New York have all been notified. So, too, of course, has Havana, Hanoi, Bejing, and Moscow. Before I reproduce the vital communiqué in its entirety below, I’m going to discuss … → Read More
The Immutability of the Corbyn Leadership
In every sense of the word. Skimming the comments to my post on Monday, I came across this (apologies to the OP; I didn’t copy the name), which touches on a conversation I’ve been having on and off with several people in the local party. Dr B, could you comment on the likelihood or Corbyn … → Read More
The Labour Party and Brexit
It’s a source of extraordinary frustration that the British Labour Party doesn’t take a firm stance against the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. One argument for the much ballyhooed policy of “constructive ambiguity” on the fundamental question of Brexit is that there are a lot of former “Labour heartland” constituencies in the north of … → Read More
In Politics, The Winners Write The Narrative
(4 May 2018, 03:40. Rumpled campaign manager and newly elected city councillor, both exhausted as we’d been awake for 24 hours by this point) I’ve been informed by LGM’s senior management that I haven’t published a post since June 7, 2017, and that bad things will happen. One excuse reason for my extended absence … → Read More
Final Musings on the 2017 British General Election
The polls are ludicrously everywhere and anywhere in this election. This is due in part to what I discussed a few days ago: the polling houses have not settled on a consensus fix for 2015. Again, it all seems to hang on which likely voter model you favour, and this post has an excellent overview of the … → Read More