QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:09 A.M. ET:   From Irwin Stelzer, in the Weekly Standard, on the stark differences between Britain's new prime minister, David Cameron, and his deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, whom Cameron was forced to take as part of the first peacetime coalition government in Britain since the 1930s:

To say this is an odd couple is to put it mildly. Cameron is wary of ceding more sovereignty to the European Union’s bureaucracy; Clegg is an enthusiastic Europhile who would have Britain replace the pound with the euro. Cameron wants to limit immigration into an overcrowded Britain that is rapidly losing its national identity; Clegg favors unlimited immigration and legalization of those who arrived illegally. Cameron wants the government to push the development of nuclear power; Clegg opposes it. Cameron wants to strengthen Britain’s military capability and is a supporter of NATO; Clegg would like to replace Britain’s attachment to NATO with greater reliance on a European Defense Force and would abandon Britain’s nuclear deterrent. Cameron wants to crack down on judges who hand out lenient sentences to muggers and other hoodlums; Clegg thinks jails should be places of redemption, not punishment.

COMMENT:  A marriage made in Hell.  Can it last?  I doubt it.

There's already one compromise agreement:  The Lib Dems, who contain within their ranks some really bad pieces of left-wing work, have agreed to a limit on immigration from outside the EU – that means Muslim immigration – so Britain has at least a shot at remaining vaguely British. 

But...the conservatives have agreed to a national referendum on whether to adopt proportional representation for British elections in the future.  Proportional representation, as Stelzer points out, is a catastrophic system that gives small parties inordinate influence over government composition and decisions.  It is the system that has made countries like Israel and Italy so difficult to govern.  I suspect the British people will have enough common sense to turn down the proposal.  If they don't, Britain is finished.

This used to be the land of Winston Churchill.

May 16, 2010