The Economist Latin America November 9, 2019

Politics As the British general election campaign officially got under way a stream of MPS announced they would not stand again. So far over 70 have stepped down, more than twice the number who chose not to face the electorate in 2017. More than 60 of those supported Remain, and most represented constituencies that voted for Brexit. The Conservatives’ campaign got off to a bad start, with the resignation of a cabinet minister. Polls still give them a double-digit lead over Labour. John Bercow stood down as Speaker of Britain’s House of Commons after ten years in the chair. Mr Bercow was known for crying “orderrrr!” and breaking parliamentary conventions. His replacement, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has hinted at a return to convention and decorum, promising that he will wear the Speaker’s wig…

Politics As the British general election campaign officially got under way a stream of MPS announced they would not stand again. So far over 70 have stepped down, more than twice the number who chose not to face the electorate in 2017. More than 60 of those supported Remain, and most represented constituencies that voted for Brexit. The Conservatives’ campaign got off to a bad start, with the resignation of a cabinet minister. Polls still give them a double-digit lead over Labour. John Bercow stood down as Speaker of Britain’s House of Commons after ten years in the chair. Mr Bercow was known for crying “orderrrr!” and breaking parliamentary conventions. His replacement, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has hinted at a return to convention and decorum, promising that he will wear the…

TODAY’S EUROPE owes its existence to the United States. America fought two world wars on European soil; American diplomacy was midwife to what became the European Union; American arms protected western Europe from Soviet invasion; and American statesmen oversaw German unification. Now, in a dramatic plea to all Europeans, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned that America is cutting Europe loose. The old continent is “on the edge of a precipice”, he warns. Unless it wakes up, “we will no longer be in control of our destiny.” In his Elysée Palace office, Mr Macron spoke to The Economist in apocalyptic terms (see Briefing). NATO, the transatlantic alliance, is suffering from “brain-death”, he says; Europe needs to develop a military force of its own. The EU thinks of itself as just a…

FOR 37 YEARS one man has ruled Cameroon, a staggeringly corrupt, oil-rich state in central Africa. President Paul Biya is an old-fashioned autocrat. When democracy swept across Africa after the cold war ended, he called it a “distasteful passing fetish”. Then he realised he would attract less foreign criticism if he quietly intimidated opponents and rigged elections instead of banning them. He has done so ever since, and kept on good terms with Western powers by posing as a champion of stability in a fissile region. His troops, trained and equipped by France, Israel and America, battle the jihadists of Boko Haram and Islamic State around Lake Chad. They also regularly don blue helmets to keep peace in countries such as the Central African Republic. Yet Mr Biya cannot keep…

BASHING BILLIONAIRES is gaining popularity—especially among candidates to be America’s president. Elizabeth Warren wants to take up to 6% of their wealth in tax every year. Bernie Sanders says they “should not exist”. “Every billionaire is a policy failure,” goes a common left-wing slogan. In Britain’s election, too, the super-rich are under fire. Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, says that a fair society would contain none. On October 31st he vowed to “go after” Britain’s plutocrats, singling out five individuals and bemoaning a “corrupt system”. Left-wingers blasting inequality is nothing new. But the idea that vast personal fortunes are made possible only when government goes wrong is a more novel and serious idea. It is also misguided. Personal wealth is at best an unreliable signal of bad behaviour…

TODAY’S EUROPE owes its existence to the United States. America fought two world wars on European soil; American diplomacy was midwife to what became the European Union; American arms protected western Europe from Soviet invasion; and American statesmen oversaw German unification. Now, in a dramatic plea to all Europeans, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned that America is cutting Europe loose. The old continent is “on the edge of a precipice”, he warns. Unless it wakes up, “we will no longer be in control of our destiny.” In his Elysée Palace office, Mr Macron spoke to The Economist in apocalyptic terms (see Briefing). NATO, the transatlantic alliance, is suffering from “brain-death”, he says; Europe needs to develop a military force of its own. The EU thinks of itself as just…