1. Theresa May’s Resignation Throws a Fractured Britain Into Further
Turmoil
Prime
Minister Theresa May outside 10 Downing Street in London on Friday.
The New York Times May 24, 2019
LONDON
— Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation on Friday after three
years of trying and failing to pull Britain out of the European Union, throwing
her country into an unpredictable situation and setting off a bare-knuckled contest among other Conservative
lawmakers to replace her.
As
she stood behind a lectern outside 10 Downing Street, Mrs. May admitted that a different leader was
needed to shepherd the split, known as Brexit. But she also warned that
the unyielding stance taken by the hard-line factions of lawmakers who had
proved her undoing would have to change.
“To
succeed, he or she will have to find consensus in Parliament where I have not,”
Mrs. May said. “Such a consensus can only be reached if those on all sides of
the debate are willing to compromise.”
Whether
such compromise is even possible in Britain’s polarized politics is unclear at
best.
Brexit
has splintered both the Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party into
warring factions since the referendum that narrowly approved the departure on
June 23, 2016. A second referendum that could keep Britain in the European
Union remains a distant possibility.
But
many Conservative lawmakers have grown more hard-line during Mrs. May’s long,
fractious tenure and now support leaving the bloc with no withdrawal deal at
all — a move opposed by a majority in Parliament and
one that most analysts warn could bring dire economic consequences.
Mrs.
May’s departure, eagerly anticipated even by members of her own cabinet, is
certain to mean a politically charged summer in Britain. Mrs. May said she
would step down as Conservative Party leader on June 7, a few days after
President Trump makes an official state visit. The contest to succeed her will
begin the following week, and Mrs. May will remain in office until her
successor is chosen.
Brexit,
meanwhile, will remain in a state of suspended animation until a new leader is
chosen. Britain was originally scheduled to leave the European bloc on March
29, but the deadline was extended to Oct. 31after Parliament refused
three times to pass the withdrawal agreement that Mrs. May had negotiated with
European leaders.
Boris
Johnson, the former foreign secretary and a hard-line supporter of Brexit, on
Friday signaled an unflinching attitude, foreshadowing the tone for a
leadership contest. He is a leading contender to replace Mrs. May.
“We
will leave the E.U. on Oct. 31, deal or no deal,” Mr. Johnson told an economic
conference. “The way to get a good deal is to prepare for a no deal.”
Opposition
figures relished Mrs. May’s departure. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader who has
sparred relentlessly with the prime minister in the House of Commons, described
her resignation as an indictment of a Conservative Party riven for decades by
the issue of Britain’s membership in the European Union.
Mr.
Corbyn said she had “now accepted what the country has known for months: She
cannot govern, and nor can her divided and disintegrating party.”
Lawmakers
from Mrs. May’s own side were more generous, despite many of them having been
involved in back-room machinations to oust her and having already begun
campaigning in private to succeed her. Mrs. May’s government — deeply divided,
and sometimes chaotic — suffered around three dozen ministerial resignations
during her tenure.
An
abandoned customs post on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The
border is probably the toughest challenge in Britain’s withdrawal from the
European Union.CreditAndrew Testa for The New York Times
2.
How Trump Wins Next Year
What’s
happened in India and Australia is a warning to the left.
The New York Times May 24,
2019
President
Trump at a rally in Montoursville, Pa., on Monday.CreditCreditEric Thayer for
The New York Times
More than 600 million Indians cast their
ballots over the past six weeks in the largest democratic election in the
world. Donald Trump won.
A
week ago, several million Australians went to the polls in another
touchstone election. Trump won.
Citizens
of European Union member states are voting in elections for the mostly
toothless, but symbolically significant, European Parliament. Here, too,
Trumpism will mark its territory.
Legislative
elections in the Philippines this month, which further cemented the rule of Rodrigo
Duterte, were another win for Trumpism. Ditto for Benjamin Netanyahu’s
re-election in Israel last month, the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president
of Brazil last October, and Italy’s elevation of Matteo Salvini several months
before that.
If
past is prologue, expect the Trumpiest Tory — Boris Johnson — to succeed
Theresa May as prime minister of Britain, too.
In
2016, at a campaign rally in Albany, Trump warned: “We’re gonna win so
much you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, please, please, it’s
too much winning, we can’t take it anymore.”
Tell
us about it.
Trump’s
name, of course, was on none of the ballots in these recent elections. His
critics should take no comfort in that fact.
In
India, Narendra Modi won his
re-election largely on the strength of his appeals to
Hindu nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment. In Australia, incumbent Scott
Morrison ran against the high cost of climate action, including in lost jobs,
and won a stunning upset. In the U.K., Trump surrogate Nigel Farage looks like
he and his Brexit Party will be the runaway
victors in the European elections. In Brazil and the Philippines, the
political appeal of Bolsonaro and Duterte seems to be inversely correlated to
their respect for human rights and the rule of
law,
to say nothing of modern ethical pieties.
The
common thread here isn’t just right-wing populism. It’s contempt for the
ideology of them before us: of the immigrant
before the native-born; of the global or transnational interest before the
national or local one; of racial or ethnic or sexual minorities before the
majority; of the transgressive before the normal. It’s a revolt against the
people who say: Pay an immediate and visible price for a long-term and
invisible good. It’s hatred of those who think they can define that good, while
expecting someone else to pay for it.
When
protests erupted last year in France over Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to raise
gas prices for the sake of the climate, one gilets jaunes slogan
captured the core complaint: “Macron is concerned with the end of the world,”
it went, while “we are concerned with the end of the month.”
This
is a potent form of politics, and it’s why I suspect Trump will be re-elected
next year barring an economic meltdown or foreign-policy shock. You may think
(as I often do) that the administration is a daily carnival of shame. You may
also think that conservatives are even guiltier than liberals and progressives
of them-before-us politics: the 1-percenters before the 99 percent; the big
corporations before the little guy, and so on.
But
the left has the deeper problem. That’s partly because it self-consciously
approaches politics as a struggle against selfishness, and partly because it
has invested itself so deeply, and increasingly inflexibly, on issues such as
climate change or immigration. Whatever else might be said about this, it’s a
recipe for nonstop political defeat leavened only by a sensation of moral
superiority.
Progressives
are now speeding, Thelma and Louise style, toward the same cliff they went over
in the 1970s and ’80s. But unlike the ’80s, when conservatives held formidable
principles about economic freedom and Western unity, the left is flailing in
the face of a new right that is increasingly nativist, illiberal, lawless, and
buffoonish. It’s losing to losers.
It
needn’t be this way. The most successful left-of-center leaders of the past 30
years were Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. They believed in the benefits of free
markets, the importance of law and order, the superiority of Western values,
and a healthy respect for the moral reflexes of ordinary people. Within that
framework, they were able to achieve important liberal victories.
Political
blunders and personal shortcomings? Many. But neither man would ever have been
bested by someone like Trump.
Anyone
who thinks the most important political task of the next few years is to defeat
Trump in the United States and his epigones abroad must give an honest account
of their stunning electoral successes. Plenty has been said about the effects
of demagoguery and bigotry in driving these Trumpian victories, and
the cultural, social, and economic insecurities that fuel populist anxiety. Not
so often mentioned is that the secret of success lies also in having opponents
who are even less appealing.
In
the contest of ugly, the left keeps winning. To repurpose that line from Trump,
“Please, please, it’s too much winning.”
3.
How do you get children to eat vegetables?
Try
not to stress – it’s a phase most kids grow out of
The
Guardian 24 May 2019
‘Steams
green vegetables for just long enough to get them tender, then toss them in
olive oil, lemon juice, a pinch of sea salt and a hint of pepper.’ Photograph:
amie Grill/Getty Images
My kids won’t eat fresh vegetables, no matter how hard I
try. How do I get them to eat their greens?
Talk about asking the impossible, Annelise. Your guess is as good as mine, but at least you can take some comfort in the fact that you are not alone (and remember, anyone who says their little darling has cheerfully wolfed down cabbage since infancy is lying).
Talk about asking the impossible, Annelise. Your guess is as good as mine, but at least you can take some comfort in the fact that you are not alone (and remember, anyone who says their little darling has cheerfully wolfed down cabbage since infancy is lying).
Cooks
and restaurateurs are never the best people to talk to about tricky customers –
they tend to get a bit sweary – but some are mothers and fathers, too, so I
asked Feast’s own crew of exasperated parents how they cope. Like everyone who
has ever tried to feed a recalcitrant child, Thomasina Miersresorts to underhand
tactics. “I use every trick in the book,” she says. “The more children try
vegetables, the more they’ll eat them … in the end.”
That
includes extortion – “Bribe them with TV, sweets, anything” – as well as tough
love: the Miers brood don’t get pudding unless they’ve eaten their greens
(“Hardcore, maybe, but it works”). All three have now “slowly gone over to the
green side”, and eat vegetables without protest. Well, almost. “It is a war of
attrition, so get your tongs at the ready and wear those babies down.”
A golden rule is not to expect children to eat anything you wouldn’t put
in your own mouth
Yotam Ottolenghi adopts similar
covert strategies. “‘This’ll make you big and strong’ works. Sometimes,” the
father of two says. Another ploy is to insist “that a particular dish ‘is only
for grown-ups’. That’s like a red rag to a bull for my little boys.”
More
practically, he’s learned that thinly sliced french beans tend to go unnoticed
in stews and sauces; the same goes for the likes of diced carrot and courgette,
so long as they’re not visible in the end result. “Best of all, they take no
time to cook, so you can add them last minute.”
Another
golden rule is not to expect children to eat anything you wouldn’t put in your
own mouth. “Who wants mushy, over-boiled, insipid broccoli with no seasoning?”
Miers asks. She steams green vegetables for just long enough to get them tender
– “thereby preserving their nutrients, which, after all, is the point” – then
tosses them in olive oil, lemon juice, a pinch of sea salt and a hint of
pepper. “Better still, get the kids to dress and toss their greens themselves.”
After that, it’s all about persevering (over and over and over again, in all
likelihood).
Meera
Sodha and her young daughter, meanwhile, are big fans of Veg Power’s Eat Them to Defeat Them initiative. “It’s supported by councils up and
down the country, and nearly all the supermarkets, to get children eating more
vegetables,” Sodha says. “The idea is, if it’s fun, kids will eat vegetables.”
The vegpower.org.uk website comes complete with downloadable bright, child-friendly posters that might, just
might, encourage the ungrateful little so-and-sos to open their minds, and
mouths, to everything from peas to squash.
Failing
that, channel Rachel Roddy and try not to stress. It’s
just a phase they’ll grow out of (fingers crossed). “Paint chips green and kid
yourself they’re veg,” she laughs. That’s easier said than done if, like Roddy,
your seven-year-old won’t eat cooked veg at all (so much for
the fabled Italian diet, eh?). “I make him try everything, but he always does
this retching thing. Except, randomly, with minestrone, which he’ll eat with
lots of cheese.”
Roddy
Jr is less picky about raw veg. “Cucumber, red pepper, peas in their pods,
carrots, little gem hearts … most kids will eat some raw veg,” his mother
sighs. “I often put some out and see what happens. At the very least, I or the
tortoise will eat it.”
