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Cameron: Afghanistan "Most Important" Foreign Policy Issue for Britain

4:55 PM, Jun 11, 2010 • By JOHN NOONAN

Not a bad start for Britain's new prime minister, David Cameron:

Afghanistan is the most important foreign policy and national security issue facing Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday while on an unannounced visit to Kabul.

Lessons for the GOP from the UK Election

Republicans, if they learn from Conservatives, can avoid big blunders.

12:15 AM, May 9, 2010 • By FRED BARNES

Conservatives came in first in Thursday’s election in Great Britain, but it’s their failure to win a majority that Republicans should examine for the lessons it teaches. If the GOP listens, they’ll improve their chance of winning control of Congress in the congressional midterm election on November 2.

"Gillian The Pensioner" Rocks British Election

More viral than Joe the Plumber.

10:32 AM, Apr 29, 2010 • By ADAM BRICKLEY

On Wednesday morning, it looked as though Gordon Brown might have stalled Cleggmania, inching back into second place in some polls. But then he met Gillian Duffy.

Duffy, a senior citizen and lifelong Labour supporter, bumped into Brown as the prime minister was leaving a meet-and-greet in the town of Rochdale. Duffy told him she was almost ashamed to say she was a Labour voter, and while she would vote for Brown, she had concerns about the national debt, taxes, and immigration. The exchange ended amicably, with Duffy wishing Brown good luck as he climbed into his car. But the prime minister forgot he was wired for sound and lashed out at his aides for allowing Duffy to speak with him. Brown branded the exchange a disaster and called Duffy a "bigoted woman" as his car was leaving the scene.

Thoughts on the election across the pond.

9:45 AM, Apr 22, 2010 • By ADAM BRICKLEY

On the heels of the first televised election debate in British history, the country seems to have become totally enamored with Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrat party. While the LibDems traditionally languish in a distant third behind the Labour and Conservative parties, Clegg's spectacular debate performance ignited a surge that has pushed his party past Labour and into a statistical tie with David Cameron's Conservatives (some polls show a slim Conservative lead, others a slim LibDem lead).

Obama Refuses to Endorse British Sovereignty over the Falklands

Meanwhile, British forces continue to fight and die alongside U.S. Marines in the Helmand...

4:10 PM, Feb 25, 2010 • By JOHN NOONAN

The Times of London, in a story that borders on the passive-aggressive, is reporting that President Obama has refused to endorse British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. The short skinny of this is that there's another Buenos Aires-London row over the rightful ownership of the islands (you may remember that the last such incident ended in rather poor results for Argentina), incited by a British proposal to drill off the Falklands coast. Mostly, though, it's the standard Argentinean response to poor internal economic conditions.

Britain commits her famed fighting units to Helmand.

4:31 PM, Feb 19, 2010 • By JOHN NOONAN

As Operation Moshtarak enters its second week, Americans should take a minute to appreciate just how lucky we are to have the British fighting alongside U.S. and Afghan forces. Their vast experience in imperial counterinsurgency notwithstanding, this marks the third war that the British have fought in the Hindu Kush.

Afghanistan had a profound effect on British military culture. They were defeated on retreat from Kabul in 1842, a loss so devastating to their collective psyche that it was lamented as "the heaviest calamity that has ever fallen on British arms." The Second Anglo-Afghan War, which came at the height of the Great Game between England and Russia, slightly improved the British posture in the region (and was the inspiration for The Ballad of the King's Jest, a terrific Kipling poem).