By Denis Campbell
Her Majesty is “displeased.” 
Queen Elizabeth II normally stays above the fray, so much so that “displeased” is a cause for alarm bells across Westminster and the land. Most monarchs in Europe’s labyrinth of Constitutional Monarchies serve largely “ceremonial” roles. Although most can still take the Draconian step of dissolving a dysfunctional government, they [...]

 
 
Stan Greenberg has advised former President Clinton, former UK PM Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela, Israel’s Ehud Barak and others. He is one of those political lions inspired during the Bobby Kennedy era to join politics and who provides a lot of wisdom for the taking if you are willing to listen. His new book ‘Dispatches [...]

 
Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave a well-received address before the US Congress this past week. It was interrupted several times by applause as he spoke of the “special relationship” between the USA and UK. That’s generally the US view of the trip. In the alternate media universe of the UK, focused on the slight of [...]

 
By Denis Campbell
Gordon Brown knows quid pro quo. 
He sat quietly in waiting for 12-years as his would-be mentor Tony Blair stayed vainly in power much too long and frittered away Labour’s public standing in a series of dramatic pratfalls, the biggest being a huge backlash for being a loyal Bush lapdog for years over Iraq. [...]

John McCain has abandoned any premise of controlling his campaign, his party or even his own destiny. As Charley James writes today, he has chosen an obscure, mean-spirited and vindictive running mate who, as more and more reporters scrape back the patina and veneer of, seems frighteningly similar to the current resident of Navy Observatory [...]

Mr. Gates has held many titles in his long career. From software developer to world’s richest man to, as some on the opposite side of a negotiating table would call him, ruthless genius… all titles fit him at different stages in his career. His retirement last month from day-to-day operations at Microsoft Corporation, the company [...]

It begins with one whose ambition gets ahead of him or herself. Like the proverbial drip, drip, drip of the tiniest hole in the dyke, Labour front bench cabinet ministers sat silently for the first few moments of Gordon Brown’s holiday and then one-by-one began to stick toes or more in to test the waters [...]

You’d think the time pressure of being several G-8 nations’ lead representative trying to craft a last-minute, face saving Middle East peace deal for George W. Bush’s legacy (he only has 234 days left to his regime and sabre rattling/bombing Iran is still on the table) would be a big enough job. Or, trying to [...]

In yet another incident of foot in mouth disease, Senator Hillary Clinton yesterday voiced the unspoken/unthinkable fear of many by cravenly invoking the horrible memory of 1968’s assassination of Bobby Kennedy in California before a group of South Dakota news editors. Her half-hearted apology for the gaffe seemed as self-protecting and disingenuous as her explanation [...]

Would George W. Bush stand for pointed questions on live TV from Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McCain if forced weekly to endure a forum such as the UK’s Wednesday noon mosh pit a.k.a. Prime Minister’s Question time? This is a place where every member of the House, in theory, can ask questions of the PM and his government.  [...]