Ronald Reagan - one of the truly great political figures of the twentieth century - remains ridiculously underrated by chattering class opinion. More fool them. This post by Brian Mickelthwait has a terrific quote from John O'Sullivan's new book, The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister (which I am looking forward to reading). The quote is from Reagan talking to Richard Allen (soon to become his foreign policy adviser) in 1977:

At the end of the meeting, as Allen got up to leave, Reagan said something that, as Allen wrote later, “literally changed my life”. Reagan offered Allen his theory of the Cold War. He acknowledged that many people thought his views simplistic but said, “My theory of the Cold War is that we win and they lose."

Oh for a leader of Reagan's clarity, vision and leadership today, at a time when we face another battle, for the survival of Western civilisation. The nearest we have lives on the other side of the world.