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What Britain Can Teach Democrats About the Ultra-Left

August 13, 2026 · 9:30 am ET · Leave a Comment

The Economist: “Neil Kinnock is best known in America as the man whose oratory Joe Biden plagiarised. In 1987 Mr Biden was so taken by the British Labour Party leader’s line about being the first of his family ‘in a thousand generations’ to attend college that he borrowed it. At first, with due credit. Then, on television, without. The ensuing furore helped sink Mr Biden’s first run for the presidency.”

“Yet Lord Kinnock, as he is now known, is not just the man who condemned Mr Biden to another 21 gruelling years in the Senate. He also helped make Britain’s main centre-left party electable again, by purging hard-left extremists who had infiltrated it. His story is one the Democratic Party could usefully study.”

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Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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