Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Sunday

Alex Massie

Gordon Brown & The Thick of It

From our UK edition

A lovely catch and telling observation from Iain Martin* on how the Prime Minister's speech to the Labour party conference was put together and how this exhausted government is, essentially, a real-life satire: My favourite [part of The Thick of It] is the episode in which, after a Prime Ministerial resignation, increasingly frantic meetings go on all night around Whitehall as various spin-doctors try to find a suitable replacement leader. Well, over to that exasperated Labour aide: “Do you know when the decision was finally taken by Gordon to drop the commitment to debate Cameron from the speech? At 1:30 in the morning on the day of his speech, that’s when he decided. At that point there’s panic. Quick, who has some substance we can use to fill the hole in the speech?

Alex Massie

What is Tory policy on Europe?

From our UK edition

Fraser says there's plenty to fight for on the Great European Question and, in many ways, I'm sure he's right. But what is Tory policy in the event that Lisbon is ratified before the election? That may be a hypothetical, but it's not an unreasonable one. It deserves a clear answer. I'm struck too by what Cameron said in his interview with Fraser in this week's edition of the magazine: The whole Conservative party has had the benefit of learning the mistake Blair made - having a mandate and not using it. Not actually using your early months to demonstrate how you can transform a country... There are some things you can do very quickly. There are some easy wins. Well, that sounds quite promising. But what happens if the first six months of a Cameron ministry are dominated by europe?

Saturday

Alex Massie

Saturday Afternoon Country: Justin Townes Earle

From our UK edition

Yes, that would be Steve Earle's boy and yes he's named after the great Townes van Zandt. One of the things I like about country music is it that, in the end, it's all one big family. Granted, a family that sings about heartbreak and loss and the endless miseries of life quite a lot, but a family nonetheless. So it's good to see Steve's son following the family tradition. And the kid can play and sing and write. He's good, in a reflective, acoustic fashion that differentiates him from some of his old man's more rock-influenced stuff. There's a certain mischief too. Consider this song, Mama's Eyes, from his sophomore album Midnight at the Movies that was released earlier this year. This is one for Norm's Momma'n'Daddy collection for sure.

Friday

Alex Massie

Biblical Corruption: Liberals & Fellow-Travelling Surrender Christians

From our UK edition

Did you know that the problem with the Bible is that it is, frankly, a book for liberal surrender-monkeys? Apparently so. Hence the urgent need for a new, properly conservative translation. Let's hear it for the Conservative Bible Project. Apparently, As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines...

Alex Massie

Yes, Mary Seacole was Black. So what?

From our UK edition

I confess that until recently I had never heard of Mary Seacole. But, like Boris Johnson, who found himself in this position a few years ago, that reflects poorly on me, not on the redoubtable Seacole. Brother Liddle says that her inclusion upon new lists of eminent Victorians can only be explained "solely and utterly because she was black". That she was and doubtless that does indeed have something to do with her renewed prominence. But what of it? (I say renewed prominence, incidentally, because it is quite clear that her contemporaries regarded her as a figure of some stature.) And if she is only remembered today "because she was black" then, who knows, perhaps her disappearance from history for a century or more also had something to do with the colour of her skin. Perhaps not.

Thursday

Alex Massie

The Moonie Times Loves Reverend Moon. Hold the Front Page!

From our UK edition

Sometimes you have to pity Literary Editors. Or, to put it another way, one of life's small pleasures is seeing how newspapers review books written by their own proprietors. I always thought the Telegraph should just have asked Conrad Black to review his own books and like to think that he'd have done it well. By which I mean he'd have done it entertainingly. But pity poor Carol Herman, literary editor* of the Washington Times. Sensibly, I think, she must have concluded that asking an outside reviewer to write a notice for the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's autobiography would risk trouble. Nobly, then, she took one for the team and gave the paper's founder and owner the respect he properly deserves: Faith, family, freedom and service are the pillars of the Rev. Moon's worldview and work.

Alex Massie

Trumpton-on-the-North-Sea Latest: The Donald Can Still Buy Your House

From our UK edition

It had been expected - according to press reports admittedly - that Aberdeenshire Council would lift the threat of compulsory purchase orders being used to evict four families from their homes to pacify Donald Trump's demand for yet more land for his golf course development on the Menie Estate, near Aberdeen. Well, so much for expectations. Alas. By 57 votes to six the council rejected that proposal, claiming, according to the BBC that it would be "inappropriate to reject the use of CPOs completely without a full report." While it's good that the Council hasn't yet endorsed compulsory purchase orders, it's depressing that they remain on the table at all and one must fear that, when or if push comes to shove, the council will eventually approve them.

Alex Massie

Labour’s Next Leader, Darling?

From our UK edition

Photo: Max Nash/AFP/Getty Images Brother Liddle says that Jon Cruddas is the only one of Gordon Brown's potential successors that gives him any great hope for the future of the Labour party. And given the competition that may not be so very surprising. But if the party conference this week has proved anything, it's that one of the reasons Brown remains leader is that he is by far and away and for all his faults the most substantial figure in the party.  Still, Labour will, as things stand now, need a new leader next summer. That, actually, is the lesser of the party's two major problems. Before it decides what sort of leader it wants, Labour needs to decide what sort of party it wants to be. That, however, is a discussion that takes time and demands a period of quiet reflection.

Alex Massie

Memo to Labour: the Press is Always Revolting

From our UK edition

The press really is beastly, isn't it? According to Jonathan Freedland, The media's conviction that Labour, and Gordon Brown in particular, are doomed has grown so intense that it has turned into a kind of sneering disdain for the government, casting aside all conventions of respect for those holding elected office... You don't have to yearn for a return to the days of dinner-jacketed deference on the BBC, or want an end to robust questioning, to feel uncomfortable at all this playground bullying of a man deemed weak. Like it or not, Brown does lead the democratically-elected government of this country. True, he does not have a personal mandate. But the office of prime minister deserves a modicum of basic respect.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Was Rory Stewart an MI6 Officer?

From our UK edition

Was Rory Stewart, Harvard Professor, author of The Places In Between and prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Bracknell constituency, an MI6 officer? Former-ambassador-turned-conspiracist Craig Murray says he was: One person I would not vote for is the crusading neo-Conservative Rory Stewart. It is particularly annoying that he is constantly referred to as a former diplomat. Stewart was an MI6 officer and not a member of the FCO. Three years ago I received a message from the FCO asking me not to mention this as, at that time, Stewart was still very active for MI6 in Afghanistan and his life could have been endangered. I agreed, and even removed a reference from my blog.

Alex Massie

A Strategic Blunder by a Prime Minister Living in a Fantasy World

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown is an intelligent man but I've always thought him a better tactician than strategist. His speech to the Labour party conference yesterday confirmed that view and, indeed, strengthened it. Consider this passage from Jonathan Freedland's column today: The Brownites always loathed Blair's "respect agenda", regarding anti-social behaviour orders as dismal and sacking Blair's respect tsar. But Brown devoted a full page and a half of today's text to the topic, more than on foreign policy, defence and climate change combined. So there were crowd-pleasing promises to crack down on Britain's "50,000 most chaotic families" and to set up "supervised homes" for teenage mothers.

Alex Massie

Roman Polanski’s Friends Should Probably Shut Up

From our UK edition

Director Roman Polanski attends Che Tempo Che Fa TV Show held at RAI Studios on November 23, 2008 in MIlan. Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images. So, what about Roman Polanski, eh? Let me suggest that you can a) acknowledge that his arrest is scarcely an urgent priority, that b) there are questions to be asked about the original handling of the case, c) that the victim's desire to see the matter dropped is noteworthy, though not of great legal import and that d) Polanski is probably not a threat to the public. Nonetheless, the rush to defend the film-maker has been nauseating. Consider Robert Harris's piece in the New York Times today: I make no apology for feeling desperately sorry for him.

Alex Massie

Zapatero & His Banshees

From our UK edition

Remiss of me not to note that this photograph of the Obamas and the Zapateros has caused quite a stir in Spain. That's because the Spanish people were not generally aware that the Prime Minister's daughters, Laura and Alba*, are goths. There's a law that protects their privacy, you see and so, until the State Department released this photo, no Spanish paper had printed photographs of the girls. Like Marbury, I think they look pretty fine and think the world would be a better place if more politicians' kids explored entertaining sub-cultures and the like. *Is this a common name in Spain? I mean, sure, it's derived from the latin for white but it's also the historic name for, er, Scotland.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Gordon Brown Fail.

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour party conference this afternoon was, in its way, breathtaking. Breathtakingly shameless, mendacious, confused, contradictory, delusional, dishonest and irresponsible that is. It was also the speech of a Prime Minister resigned to defeat. Elections are won in the centre, not on the extremes. But Gordon's speech was designed to appeal to the Labour base, not to Middle Britain. It was, then, designed to shore up existing support, not appeal to floating voters. It was for the left wing of the Labour party, not the Blairite voters who flocked to the party in 1997. Some of them left in 2001, still more stayed at home in 2005. On this evidence many of them will vote Conservative in 2010. The Prime Minister takes the electorate for fools.

Alex Massie

Gordon’s Alive? Live-Blogging Brown in Brighton

From our UK edition

Of course, in the movies Gordon wasn't merely alive, but on his way to a memorable victory. Politics may not be so kind to our hero. But, since this may be his last conference speech as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour party it seems appropriate to mark the occasion by sitting in the peanut gallery and live-blogging the merriment. We'll kick off around 2pm (9am for any intrepid Americans joining the entertainment) and there will, I hope, be polls and bells and whistles and the chance for you to take part too. Hope to see you back here in an hour or so... Gordon's Alive?

Alex Massie

Gordon & The Last Chance Speech

From our UK edition

Fraser says that the Labour conference in Brighton is like an Irish wake: People are happy to see each other, but sad at the circumstances of the gathering. Shouldn't that be the other way round? At least you know what you're supposed to feel at a funeral; there's none of the bittersweet sensation that can accompany a wedding, nor any nagging suspicion that the party has gathered to celebrate a terrible mistake. So, Gordon Brown has it all to do. It is, once again, the Most Important Speech of His Political Life. As Iain Martin points out, We've Been Here Before: We are told that Brown must demonstrate his party is really back in the fight with the Tories. To pull this off he must make the speech of his life, apparently. Last year he was set a similar challenge.

Alex Massie

The Enraging Case of DC Shepherd & DC Jarrett

From our UK edition

The case of Leanne Shepherd and Lucy Jarrett - the job-sharing police constables whose child-minding arrangements have become a matter of some controversy*  - rightly enrages all sensible folk. To recap: the two women are best friends and share a job, each working 20 hours a week. Their husbands, also policemen, work irregular shifts. Their daughters are essentially the same age. And also friends. So it makes a good deal of sense for them to pool resources and arrange for whichever woman isn't working to look after both children. I dare say there are many women who had as convenient and elegant a solution to the child-care problem as that. But not Ofsted who accuse the pair of running "an illegal child-minding business".

Alex Massie

Going Rogue: Sarah Palin Finishes Her Memoir

From our UK edition

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Good news, Palin fans: her memoir has beaten its deadline and will now be available in November! So you won't have to wait until spring to read Going Rogue: An American Life. That's an interesting title: perfect, absurd and perhaps a little bit revealing. Not the American Life bit since just about everyone* has enjoyed an "American Life" but the Going Rogue** bit. This either suggests that Palin still hasn't appreciated the damage she eventually did to John McCain's presidential campaign (damage for which McCain was, of course, largely responsible himself) or, and this seems more probable, that she does appreciate this and has decided that it's something worth revelling in.

Monday

Alex Massie

Liberal Measures That Need Rescuing By Tory (or Labour) Men

From our UK edition

Charlotte Gore is entirely correct: Lib Dems have one killer policy: Set the threshold for Income Tax and National Insurance contributions at £10,000 a year (or roughly minimum wage). It’s so good Labour activists want their party to steal it. I wouldn’t be surprised if similar pressure is being put on David Cameron to do the same, although he won’t (tax cuts are for ‘Same Old Tories’ not modern, Compassionate With Your Money Conservatives)... Its painfully obvious that if you don’t take tax off people in the first place, you don’t need a monolithic, incompetent bureaucracy to then give it back again, wasting money for the sheer hell of it.

Alex Massie

The BNP, the BBC and a Sense of Perspective

From our UK edition

Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images. Fraser makes a number of excellent points in his latest post on the BNP and I also agree that Jack Straw is not a great choice to debate Nick Griffin. Straw is too self-righteous for the job and, despite his lefty past, neither the bruiser he thinks he is, nor possessed of the kind of rapier wit that will, gratifyingly, make the BNP appear as the ridiculous oafs they are. Nonetheless, it strikes me that there's rather too much hand-wringing about Griffin's appearance on Question Time. He leads, let us remember, a party that has never won an election that actually matters. Rather few than one in 60 Britons voted for the BNP in their "breakthrough" performance in this year's European Parliamentary elections.