WITH A CRUSHING ELECTION victory in sight, here’s some advice about running British foreign policy. As a newly elected Labour Prime Minister, you will want to focus on domestic problems. After all, they are pressing. You vowed to tackle them. You’ll want to win the next election. Labour governments are infrequent, so a vital task is to stay there. But even a new Jerusalem must look beyond the city walls.
International crises wrecked some of your predecessors, from Suez to Iraq to Brexit. And domestically, your position is not particularly strong, and this affects your ability to have a foreign policy. Room for investment is limited, given the strained national finances. Depressed budgets and depleted resources are not your fault. It’s what you inherited. But your ability to do things is constrained, your political capital limited.
You may be headed for a landslide. But it will be the most unenthusiastic landslide in history. Many people, including your own voters, are already sick
