SVG
Commentary
Wall Street Journal

England’s Spring of Discontent

Britain must learn how to stay relevant in the post-imperial, post-Atlantic world.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the Federal Chancellery in Vienna. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
Caption
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Vienna, Austria, on May 21, 2024. (Photo by Simon Dawson/No. 10 Downing Street)

London

In the U.K. last week for the second annual London Defence Conference at King’s College, I was happy to see that climate change had not yet disrupted British weather. Tourists scurried miserably across the slippery streets, jackets buttoned against a cold London spring.

But the weather was warm and welcoming compared with the mood among Conservative Party members. The 14 years of Tory rule that began optimistically under David Cameron’s coalition with the Liberal Democrats is sputtering toward an end.