April 26, 2005

Another Viewpoint on British Politics

The other day in a post regarding the BBC planting hecklers at a Conservative political rally in Britain, I mentioned that if I were a British citizen I would probably prefer a conservative in office, even though I like Tony Blair.

Today, I read an article by Christopher Hitchens that has given me a few things to think about:

Meanwhile, most of the groaning and sniping about the missing WMDs comes from the hard right, which has a hold on the Tory party and more than a hold on the tabloid press. Anti-Americanism in Britain has long been a conservative rather than a radical trope, and dislike for George Bush is very common among the aristocratic remnant, as well as among those who are nostalgic for the British empire that America supplanted after the war. That especial form of British anti-Semitism ("You catch it on the edge of a remark," as Harold Abrahams puts it so well in Chariots of Fire) is beautifully ventriloquized in the way that certain BBC announcers pronounce the name "Wolfowitz."

And this:

Other considerations inflect the picture, altering the misleading liberal-vs.-conservative divide that our media have imposed on the argument. Blair's Britain is a sort of post-Keynesian full-employment and welfarist society. Its government makes at least the right noises about Kyoto, the U.N., Palestine, and the International Criminal Court. Thus there are fewer opportunities for anti-war voices to change the subject. And the anti-Bush/Blair "left" has, to its credit, been perfectly honest in identifying itself both with Saddam Hussein and with Islamic fundamentalism.

So perhaps I would prefer Tony Blair, if I had the vote. Interesting. He's not perfect (who is?), but it just goes to show that party lines don't mean everything. Read it and see what you think.

UPDATE: Mark over at Decision '08 has a few words to say on this subject as well.

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