Nile Gardiner

Joe Biden (right) with David Cameron

Joe Biden has caused a bit of a stir this week with his bizarre suggestion that “the Taliban per se is not our enemy”, just a decade on from the 9/11 attacks, carried out by al-Qaeda, and aided and abetted in Afghanistan by none other than the Taliban. The comments formed part of a wider interview on foreign policy given by Biden to Leslie Gelb of Newsweek. The stupidity of the vice president’s remarks on the war in Afghanistan were matched only by his reckless, almost surreal advice on the European financial crisis, which is so out of touch with reality that I doubt even the delusional Herman Van Rompuy would agree with him. Joe Biden’s solution for the EU’s massive… Read More

The beachside house the Obamas stayed in on a previous visit to Hawaii

Around $4 million (£2.6 million) – the expected total cost to the US taxpayer of the Obama Christmas family vacation to Hawaii according to the Hawaii Reporter (hat tip: Rob Bluey at The Foundry). This is an astonishing amount of public money to be spending in an age of austerity – when the president is supposed to be leading efforts to cut the US budget deficit, the largest since World War Two, and a towering $15 trillion national debt:
Hawaii Reporter research shows the total cost for the President’s visit for taxpayers far exceeded $1.5 million in 2010 – but is even more costly this year because he… Read More

David Cameron's firm stance against European integration will serve Britain well

David Cameron showed grit in standing up to Germany and France last week in defence of British sovereignty. London’s decision to stand alone as the rest of Europe opts for a disastrous fiscal union will not only help preserve British freedom in Europe, but may also lay the foundations for the resurgence of Great Britain as a world power, unrestrained by the shackles of an anti-democratic European Project. While the rest of Europe looks increasingly inwards, rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking German-flagged ship, Britain has an opportunity to re-emerge as a force on the world stage.

Berlin and Paris may sneer, but they cannot escape the fact that the European Union is pushing the self-destruct… Read More

Obama has built up of towering levels of debt (Photo: Reuters)

All over Europe governments have begun to implement austerity measures in an effort to rein in spending and reduce crippling budget deficits. It is hard to find a major European leader these days still advocating the kind of large-scale stimulus spending championed by the Obama Administration in the United States over the past three years. Ironically, the most vocal supporters of greater government spending in the EU can be found today in America.

In yet another hectoring New York Times piece last week on the European financial crisis (a follow-up to his November 10 article “Legends of the Fail”), imaginatively entitled “Killing the Euro”, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman attacked “deficit scolds and inflation obsessives”, completely dismissing the idea that the EU debt disaster has anything to do with out-of-control… Read More

Howard Gutman, the US ambassador to Brussels (far left)

The US ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, has sparked outrage in both Israel and the United States with his recent comments suggesting that Israel should shoulder the blame for some forms of anti-Semitism. According to a report by Haaretz over the weekend:
Ambassador Howard Gutman, who is Jewish, made the controversial remarks at a conference on anti-Semitism organized by the European Jewish Union in Brussels last week.

“A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned, and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” Gutman reportedly told those gathered, going on to argue that “…an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty will significantly diminish Muslim anti-Semitism.”

In reaction to the comments, and… Read More

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Photo: Reuters)

There was nothing spontaneous about Tuesday's storming of the British Embassy compound in Tehran by “Iranian students”. The menacing thugs, including paramilitaries, who burned the Union Jack, insulted the Queen and chanted “death to England” were unquestionably rampaging with the full blessing of Iran’s theocracy, their actions broadcast live on Iranian state television in front of millions as they carried pictures of the Supreme Leader. This was a carefully orchestrated act of mob violence directed by a government with a long track record of brutalising its own people and sponsoring acts of international terrorism. You can be sure that these “protesters”, in marked contrast to pro-democracy demonstrators, won’t be beaten to a pulp by Iran's secret police.

As yesterday’s events make clear, there can be no guarantee of the safety… Read More

There was a time when US presidents showed real leadership in Europe – think of Ronald Reagan’s magnificent “tear down this wall” speech in Berlin in 1987 for example, standing up to the Soviet Empire in the defence of freedom. With Europe facing its biggest financial crisis since the 1930s, today might be another moment when a US president could stand with European allies while projecting American strength and leadership at a time of great fear and uncertainty.

Barack Obama, however, is no Reagan, and he is himself adopting the same big government policies that are bringing some of Europe’s largest economies to their knees, racking up the biggest budget deficit since World War Two. He is also standing full square behind the spectacularly failing idea of a federal Europe, declaring just a fortnight ago that that “we stand behind the European project, we stand behind the euro”. A… Read More

Workmen clean up after Occupy Wall Street (Photo: Getty)

The failure of the Occupy Wall Street movement and its descent into Lord of the Flies-style chaos, and in many instances thuggery and criminality, is emblematic of the dramatic decline of the Left in the United States. The ragtag encampments that President Obama earlier described as expressing “the frustrations that the American people feel”, are now being swept from the streets of New York, Oakland, Portland, and across America, no doubt to great applause from locals who have had to put up for weeks with unsanitary tent cities on their doorstep. Nancy Pelosi should now be eating her words after having declared in October: “God bless them, for their spontaneity. It’s independent… it’s young, it’s spontaneous, and it’s focused. And it’s going to be effective.”

The downfall of Occupy… Read More

Paul Krugman: wrong again

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is right about one thing, when he says: “now, with Italy falling off a cliff, it’s hard to see how the euro can survive at all”.

But the rest of his analysis of the crisis in Europe, as well as the causes, is in the realm of pure fantasy. In his recent piece entitled “Legends of the Fail”, Krugman rejects the idea that “Europe’s woes reflect the failure of welfare states in general, and that Europe’s crisis makes the case for immediate fiscal austerity in the United States”.
It’s true that all European countries have more generous social benefits — including universal health care — and higher government spending than America does. But the nations now in crisis don’t have bigger welfare states than the nation… Read More

Prince William lays a wreath at the Cenotaph (Photo: Reuters)

The Telegraph has reported that Argentina is mightily upset over British government plans to deploy Prince William to the Falkland Islands for six weeks in February and March next year. According to Robin Yapp in Sao Paolo:
La Nacion newspaper in Buenos Aires reported that there was "ample evidence of discontent" at the Argentine Foreign Ministry over the announcement and said the Argentine government believes the move adds to London's "aggressive attitude".

Sebastian Brugo Marco, director of the Malvinas and South Atlantic at the foreign ministry, told the newspaper "we cannot ignore the political aspect of this military operation, taking into account that the Prince forms part of the Royal Family." Mr Brugo Marco said the Duke's deployment represents "another provocative act by Great Britain with its military presence in… Read More