Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Friday

Alex Massie

Tory Cuts and British Defence Policy

More riffing on Nelson! Fraser, that is. His Telegraph article and subsequent Coffee House post on future spending cuts argue that the Tories are, defensively, planning to leave the NHS budget untouched (and international development!) and that doing so will require 10% cuts across every other department. Including defence. Since most people would, I think, accept that the armed forces are under-funded and over-stretched as it is, imposing further cuts surely and necessarily demands a reappraisal of current commitments and future capabilities. But do we hear anything of that from the Tories? I'm not sure we do.

Alex Massie

The BNP is a British Sinn Fein

Fraser's piece on the BNP is well worth your time. Parts of it were eerily familiar as I had the feeling that I'd been down this road before. That's because I have: the BNP's strategy is pretty much the same as that employed by Sinn Fein in the Republic of Ireland. There wasn't much talk of Marxist economic theory or the urgent need for a United Ireland when Sinn Fein was out canvassing Dublin housing estates. No, it was this sort of stuff: Certainly, Mr Dunne could scarcely be more different from the stereotype of the tattooed thug. Besuited and softly spoken, he talks about taking his family to Kew Gardens and says that he wants to serve locals — ‘black or white’ — as best he can.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Lance Armstrong and the Giro: Part 2

I'll give Lance Armstrong's fans this: they know how to count to seven. Beyond that, however, they're rather like members of a cult who refuse to accept that there could even be such a thing as another way of looking at matters, let alone the idea that there might be some merit to that alternative view. For daring to suggest that there could be a different view, it turns out that I'm "an absolute loser" who should, since I apparently think it so easy, try winning the Tour de France myself. This, of course, is the school of opinion that must demand that if you can't write music like Mozart you can't comment on his music or, in a different arean, if you couldn't win a Presidential election yourself you forfeit the right to comment on those who do. In other words, it is absurd. And infantile.

Alex Massie

Department of Denial

Responding to today's Telegraph story which quotes Major-General Antonio Taguba as saying that the unreleased interrogation photos show "torture, abuse, rape and every indecency" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had this to say: “I want to speak generally about some reports I’ve witnessed over the past few years in the British media. And in some ways, I’m surprised it filtered down,” Gibbs began. “Let’s just say if I wanted to look up – if I wanted to read a writeup today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champion’s League cup, I might open up a British newspaper. If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I’m not entirely sure it’d be in the first pack of clips I’d pick up.

Alex Massie

Where the Sisters Have No Mercy and the Brothers No Christianity

Carol Sarler may be correct to argue, as she does in this week's edition of the magazine, that we have an unhealthy fascination with sex crimes that is both prurient and puritanical. But I'd suggest that, whatever the merits of her wider argument, she doesn't know very much about Ireland: In Ireland, some 2,000 adults who gave evidence of assault at the hands of Roman Catholic priests and nuns are, probably correctly, spitting tacks. The inquiry into their treatment when in children’s institutions has ruled that, although they did indeed suffer, no charges may be brought, no names shamed and, for what it’s worth, no bank balances swollen by damages sucked from the Vatican’s already depleted coffers.

Alex Massie

More Drug Law Madness

It is the very ordinariness of this case that makes it worth mentioning. From this week's edition of our local paper, the Southern Reporter: Unhappy with conventional treatments, Jean Sherlow turned to cannabis in a bid to relieve her pain, Selkirk Sheriff Court heard on Tuesday. The 59-year-old decided to cultivate her own supply at her home, where police found eight plants with an estimated value of £150 each, along with 56gm of the illegal drug, worth £300... "It is not contested by the Crown that she suffers from glaucoma and Crohn's disease, and it would appear that through her dissatisfaction with conventional treatments, she began to cultivate cannabis at her home," explained depute procurator fiscal Alasdair Fay.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Tour de France: Prison Edition

The Giro d'Italia isn't the only cycling story around right now. Not by a long shot! Consider this: Close to 200 prisoners will cycle around France next month, watched by scores of guards on bicycles, in the first penal version of the Tour de France. The 196 prisoners will cycle in a pack and breakaway sprints will not be allowed. They will be accompanied by 124 guards and prison sports instructors. There will be no ranking, the idea being to foster values like teamwork and effort. "It's a kind of escape for us, a chance to break away from the daily reality of prison," said Daniel, a 48-year-old prisoner in the western city of Nantes, at the official launch of the event. His last name was not given.

Alex Massie

Champions League Final

Like any sensible person, I shall be supporting Barcelona this evening, even if that does also require one to endorse the insufferable Thierry Henry. Nonetheless, give me wee Lionel Messi over Christiano Ronaldo any and every day. Alas, I fear the worst and suspect that Manchester United will prevail and that they may do so more comfortably than might be expected. Not that I have too much against United, even if Sir Alex Ferguson did once, inexplicably, scoff at my suggestion* that he could only further secure "legend" status by returning to Scotland and guiding Heart of Midlothian to their first league championship since 1960. Anyway, consider this an open thread or whatnot for your theories on the final. *Made, if mermory serves, in Eamonn Doran's nightclub in Dublin, circa 1996.

Alex Massie

Cuba: The Last Refuge of Excuse-Making Scoundrels

I suppose one ought not to be surprised that there remain some folk for whom the Cuban revolutionaries remain unblemished heroes. Equally, there is, alas, no great reason to be too astonished that the Guardian still publishes panegyrics saluting the brilliance and ineffable wisdom of Castro and Guevara. Nevertheless, Simon Reid-Henry's* article today may take the biscuit in terms of recent contributions to the genre: After the war, what had begun as little more than an association of convenience developed into one of the most intriguing of all political partnerships. Their different working styles and approaches to revolution helped the Cuban leadership negotiate the hazardous switch from American to Soviet patronage.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Nancy Pelosi is, er, Pussy Galore?

Has anyone at the Republican National Committee actually watched Goldfinger? Apparently not. My friend Garance Franke-Ruta picked up on a web video posted on Youtube by the RNC which compared Nancy Pelosi with Pussy Galore. And this is supposed ot be an attack ad? Sheesh, when did being compared to Honor Blackman become a bad thing? I take no position on the question of whether or not the CIA misled Congress - the ostnesible subject of the ad - but this wilful ignorance of all matters Bondian cannot be allowed to stand. Do these people not realise that Pussy Galore is the movie's heroine? Granted, her coversion to the cause is only confirmed after, literally, a roll in the hay with Sean Connery but from that point forward she's one of the Good Girls.

Alex Massie

Obama’s Supreme Court

I have no idea whether Sonia Sotomayor is qualified to sit on the United States Supreme Court. But, unlike Harriet Miers, she's not obviously unqualified. Having been appointed to the bench by George HW Bush is no bad thing; having been recommended by Daniel Patrick Moynihan a considerable advantage. Presuming that no scandalous relevation from her past bubbles up into the public domain one imagines she will be confirmed. This appointment, though it won't shift the balance of the court too much, poses a couple of awkward problems for the Republican party. Since I doubt they can prevent her being confirmed, one wonders whether there's any significant upside in fighting the nomination with as much vim and anger as many interest groups on the right are likely to demand?

Alex Massie

The Dangers of Brilliance

Given the nature of his own work there was something delightfully, shall we say, mischievous about David Brooks' review of Simon Schama's (absurdly titled) The American Future: A History. The into was especially good: Some people collect stamps, and others butterflies, but I have a thing for Brilliant Books. The Brilliant Book is the sort of book written by a big thinker who comes to capture the American spirit while armed only with his own brilliance. He usually comes during an election year so he can observe the spectacle of the campaign and peer into the nation’s exposed soul. He visits the stationsof officially prescribed American exotica. He will enjoya moment of soulful rapture at a black church.

Alex Massie

The Telegraph’s Secret Agenda!

Nadine Dorries is at the end of her tether: Does the DT [Daily Telegraph] have an agenda other than the desire to perform a public service? Why would they expose this fiasco at the start of an election campaign if the priority was not to destabilise the main political parties and to drive votes towards the minority parties? Really, this presumes that newspapers are vastly more cunning than tends to be the case. The Telegraph is motivated by something rather quaintly old-fashioned: a story. Like anything else in the paper this is designed to serve two ideas: make money and b) inform the public. Just occasionally (oh, happy day!), it's possible for a story to do both.

Saturday

Alex Massie

What’s the Best Sports City in the World?

That's the question Dan Drezner asks, riffing on this frankly dubious Toronto Star survey of North American cities. The Star bases its criteria upon winning percentage which is a rum, if typically North American, way of looking at these matters, and comes up with the rather surprising verdict that Indianapolis is the best sports city in North America. Make of that what you may. It wouldn't be enough for me. Anyway, Dan wonders how to take this "global" factoring in all those non-American sports and coming up with a candidate for the title of "Greatest Sporting City in the World". I suspect readers will have their own views on this but, despite the many and obvious claims London might have on this bauble, I think the palm might have to go to...

Alex Massie

Auto-tune the News: Pig Flu Special

It's hard to be certain of these things but, like Peter Suderman, I rather think that (video after the jump) this is the best edition of Auto-Tuning the News yet. And it comes with a dollop of Ron Paul goodness too! Plus, Hamid Karzai, Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney and Katie Couric. What more could you ask for? In an odd way this is as good a way as any of ridiculing the fat-headed nonsense that's offered up by TV news each and every day. Plus, you know, it's fun... Simply superb.

Friday

Alex Massie

Headline of the Day | 22 May 2009

This just in from the Lone Star State: Mayor quits job for gay illegal immigrant he loves Thank god he loves him. Me, I love Texas. Read the story too, if only for the great comparison to Wallis Simpson in the intro.

Alex Massie

Diet Guantanamo!

Watch this one run and run. First up is Florida Democrat Alcee Hastings: "If we have transparency and accountability, than you can leave Gitmo just like it is," he said. "The physical plant of Guantanamo is built to hold people. And therefore I argue and will pursue the administration to give a look at legislation that I am developing that will give transparency and accountability and may satisfy our allies as well," Hastings said, noting that he would enable groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Red Cross to have better access to monitor the facility. Hastings has yet to seriously discuss the proposal with the White House but asserts that it could be a viable solution given that the new Gitmo comes with a guarantee of no torture. Hastings, a former U.S.

Alex Massie

Cheney vs Obama; Cheney vs The American Idea

The theatre of yesterday's speeches from Barack Obama and Dick Cheney was irresistible. And phoney. That is, this was a pretty strange "duel" given that the matter was decided long ago and not just as recently as last November's election. Or, to put it another way, Dick Cheney might have given a largely and substantively similar speech had John McCain been the 44th President of the United States. After all, McCain had also promised to close Guantanamo and confirm the prohibition on the use of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" Cheney says are so essential to preserving American security. There's nothing too surprising about this: Condi Rice also wanted to close Guantanamo and even President Bush held its eventual shuttering as a stated long-term policy aim.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Dick Cheney vs David Petraeus

More on today's Obama and Cheney speeches in due course, but first another bout: Dick Cheney vs David Petraeus. Cheney argued today that: If fine speech-making, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field. And when they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don’t stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for – our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.

Alex Massie

Special Relationship Fretting: Ambassadorial Edition

Time's Swampland blog pokes some fun at Britons getting "in a tizzy" over the apparent news that Obama is, like his predecessor, going to reward one of his fund-raisers by appointing Lou Susman to be the United States' Ambassador to the Court of St James. Apparently, Susman shouldn't worry. Once the Brits get over their disappointment, they'll stop seeing him as Not-Oprah and remember he's Close-to-Obama. Well, maybe. And it's true, of course, that much of the fretting and hand-wringing over the so-called "Special Relationship" is absurd. So much so that it's become one of the press's favourite pantomime acts.