British Prime Minister Tony Blair has already retired and been replaced by Gordon Brown who has been removing British troops from Iraq steadily but quietly in a calculated effort to withdraw with minimum impact on the much vaunted special relationship between the UK and the US.
Yesterday, Poles turned out the incumbent government in favor of a party which wants to withdraw troops from Iraq and work more closely with the EU. Incidentally, this move also ends Poland's interesting experiment in having identical twins hold the offices of President and Prime Minister simultaneously. The editorial in the Economist, hardly known for its far-left politics, may jar some on the right here:
Primitive politics, xenophobia, and high-handed attitudes to the niceties of democracy and the rule of law, have been shown to be electoral liabilities, not a surefire route to success.Australia is expected to join the club next month. According to the Economist (subscription required for this one), Prime Minister John Howard's Liberals lag about 12-points behind Labour.
