Ronald Reagan
Row builds over the US Senate’s silence on Lady Thatcher
Further to my report yesterday, the Heritage Foundation, the giant conservative think-tank that has its own Margaret Thatcher Centre to study and promote the Special Relationship, has weighed in: ‘To refuse to honour… Continue reading
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US Senate strangely silent over Margaret Thatcher
In deference to Lady Thatcher’s immense popularity across the Pond, the US House of Representatives paid tribute to her. But the US Senate has been oddly reluctant to follow suit.… Continue reading
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Lessons from Ronnie and Maggie
Ramesh Ponnuru has written a splendid op-ed for today’s New York Times. Splendid, not because it is new or especially original, but because, alas, it’s central message needs repeating until,… Continue reading
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‘Are you better off?’ won’t be a winning debate line for Mitt Romney
‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ That was the question Ronald Reagan told Americans to ask themselves when choosing their President in 1980, and it’s a… Continue reading
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RIP Robert Hughes: Enemy of the Woozy
Few books have had a greater effect on me than Robert Hughes’ Culture of Complaint. The clarity of Hughes’ style in his dissection of the discontents of the 1980s was… Continue reading
13 CommentsWhy ‘starving the beast’ may not work
Steven F. Hayward’s audit of the state of American conservatism, which David Brooks judges to be one of the best magazine articles of the year, argues that the Reaganite ‘starve… Continue reading
23 CommentsFrom the archives: The Great Communicator stumbles
It’s been 25 years since the Iran-Contra affair – the scandal about the US government selling arms to Iran and using the proceeds to fund the Nicaraguan rebels. It saw… Continue reading
4 CommentsArresting the West’s crisis of confidence
What’s the most important geo-political event of this century? Most people would say 9/11. The Foreign Secretary believes that it is the Arab Spring. But in The Times today (£),… Continue reading
19 CommentsStand up for freedom and freedom will stand up for you (eventually)
It was hard to be a supporter of U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Western Europe. As a student living in West Germany at the time, I remember well the commonly… Continue reading
12 CommentsThatcher snubs Palin?
Sarah Palin will be in town soon and she hopes to meet Mrs Thatcher. She told the Sunday Times: “I am going to Sudan in July and hope to stop… Continue reading
37 CommentsWas Carter right?
Today marks the 31st anniversary of President Jimmy Carter’s famous ‘malaise’ speech. On July 15, 1979, Carter, then running for re-election against Ronald Reagan, ignored the advice of his campaign… Continue reading
27 CommentsWorse off than you were in 2005
The obsession of British politicians – and political journalists – with American politics is often mocked. But there’s a clarity to American political messages that is often missing in this… Continue reading
17 CommentsReagan’s consummate circumlocution
This tale from Ted Kennedy’s autobiography, to be posthumously published later this month, is classic Reagan and an illustration of what made him such an able politician: ‘The senator said… Continue reading
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