But partly it reflects a very British tolerance of mediocrity, of schools and hospitals and railways and jobs that are, well, not very good but not too bad either.The second, and bigger, explanation lies with the Conservative Party.
It suits some local politicians, not only in the Far East, to whip up anti-Chinese sentiment.The second and bigger explanation for Russian vulnerability is that Russians are so weak and thin on the ground east of the Urals.
Most of the main organisations of the religious right, such as the Family Research Council, once run by Gary Bauer, are strongly against trade with China.But the bigger explanation for the persistent strength of the opposition has nothing to do with the merits of the argument or national debate at all.
At heart, this argument is an elaboration of the child's question "But Mommy, who made God?" To posit God as the ground of all being is a nonstarter, Dawkins submits, for "any God capable of designing a universe, carefully and foresightfully tuned to lead to our evolution, must be a supremely complex and improbable entity who needs an even bigger explanation than the one he is supposed to provide".
The bigger explanation, Rosenfeld said, is that since the 1960s, companies have gotten really good at fighting unions.
It was impossible to imagine a lone gunman not because the evidence didn't match up (magic bullet theory, anyone?) but because I needed a bigger explanation for the killing to make sense.
"All of New York is owed a very big explanation".
Another big explanation, though, lies in corporate restructuring, mainly among larger Japanese firms.
But the biggest explanation is low British unemployment of 4.8%, less than half the French rate of 10.2%.
The view that Ukip "have the best policies on particular issues I care about" was the biggest explanation, cited by 81% of the party's voters.
But Lee argues that the fact that they are so evenly matched is the single biggest explanation driving the kind of partisan conflict that leads to an over-all strategy of non-coöperation and gridlock in Washington.
