The Brexit Party only launched six weeks ago – but it just finished first in the UK’s EU elections last week, with the Conservatives having their lowest vote share in a national election since they formed in 1834. Their trajectories have been incredible to watch:
The Brexit Party has 29 of 73 seats, the most of any UK party, and yet the political class of Britain thinks the election was a huge win for Remain. Brendan O’Neill in Spiked calls on everyone to “ignore the bruised and increasingly unhinged establishment – these elections confirm how strong the desire for Brexit remains.”
Theresa May announced her resignation as UK Prime Minister last week. The only thing surprising about it was that it had not happened sooner. Madeleine Kearns in National Review recounts May’s myriad blunders, and why she doesn’t “feel in the least bit sorry for the trembling ninny.”
Boris Johnson is clear favourite to take over as PM, but there has been a truly disturbing roadblock: He received a court summons today over claims he made in the Brexit campaign. That’s right – you can be taken to court if some remainer thinks you’ve overstated how much the EU costs Britain.
It was an absolute privilege to interview Andrés Guevara from free market think tank Cedice in Venezuela for this week’s episode of The Young IPA Podcast. We talked about daily life in Venezuela under socialism, whether Juan Guaidó represents hope and what it’s like fighting for freedom in the totalitarian state. You should also read this harrowing New York Times article from two weeks ago explaining how Venezuela’s collapse is outpacing Zimbabwe, Cuba and the Soviet Union.
The group of people affected by Facebook’s increasing censoriousness just got larger and fitter. Popular fitness enterprise CrossFit pulled its Facebook and Instagram accounts after Facebook shut down a user group that promoted a diet plan Facebook disagrees with. This is good news, says Nick Gillespie at Reason, as user action against Facebook “ is a more libertarian outcome than…government regulation”.
If you’re having a tough week then just be thankful you’re not internationally renowned progressive Naomi Wolf, who found out live on BBC radio the entire basis of her upcoming book relied on her incorrect interpretation of an old UK legal concept. Is all publicity actually good publicity?
Article of the week:
Lost in the wild results of the Australian and EU elections was Narendra Modi’s re-election as Prime Minister in India. As Guy Sorman said in City Journal on Wednesday, “by keeping Modi and his BJP party in power, Indians are declaring that a free economy is good for them, particularly for the poor.”
IPA Staff Pick:
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Daniel Wild
J.D. Vance, author of the great book Hillbilly Elegy, delivered the keynote address to The American Conservative‘s annual gala in early May. Vance outlined a pro-worker, pro-family conservatism which highlights the important role that work, community, family, and home-ownership plays in enabling human flourishing, success, and excellence. And fans of the book would be interested to know Hillbilly Elegy will be made into a Netflix movie directed by Ron Howard.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- John Roskam, Five ways Morrison can put ‘aspiration’ into practice – The Australian Financial Review
- Scott Hargreaves, The minors are now major parties, despite old player and media whinges – The Spectator Australia
- David Cragg, Lest we regret – IPA Review
- John Lloyd, When Billy met Sally – IPA Review
- Kurt Wallace, Living wage, Universal Basic Income, and the dignity of work – Speech to the ALS Friedman Conference 2019
- Daniel Wild, All Australians are equal – Media Release
