Jonathan Freedland's crystal ball looks a little dodgy

Jonathan Freedland's article for Comment is Free arguing that a worldwide left-wing revival is taking place is dismally bad. His argument:

1) The Right are doing well electorally. This is true. He cites France and the UK within the last week but one could easily look to Sweden, Germany, the US for some years (only Republican incompetence is screwing that up), Canada, Finland or a host of others. There has been left-wing movement as well (Italy, for example) but that looks decidedly shaky.

His analysis of the local elections is a little odd. He decides that a vote for the nationalists in Wales and Scotland, parties that aren't really defined by their ideological position, is more significant than the elections in England where both left-wing parties lost hundreds of seats.

Also, he tells us that Sarkozy has a protectionist side, he's no Adam Smith. What a shock. It's France. He is still the candidate of a right-wing 'rupture' by the standard set across the Channel.

2) The Left are the ones doing well really. His evidence for this isn't exactly convincing. Inequality is rising and Democrats are telling us that they want to do something about it. No commentary on whether that message is proving persuasive. No real analysis about what it proves at all. He just assumes that with inequality rising the left-wing response must be convincing. Democratic presidential candidates are assumed to speak for America.