Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Monday

Alex Massie

Ecstasy and the Agony that is Jacqui Smith

From our UK edition

So the government is going to reject advice that Ecstasy be reclassified as a Class B drug. No surprise there. Got to adopt a tough stance on these matters, you know. Not that the penalties for possession of a Class B drug are anything other than absurdly draconian themselves: you can still be locked away for five years or, for the crime of selling a drug to your friends, receive as many as 14 years imprisonment. This does not seem a lenient approach to me. Meanwhile, a government expert makes the obviously true point that more people are killed horse-riding each year than as a result of taking Ecstasy and that this sort of statistic should encourage one to reassess how we approach risk and, you know, life.

Alex Massie

France’s Sorry Decline

From our UK edition

Photo: Keystone/Getty Images Once upon a time Citroen produced the DS - driven here by Lord Hailsham -  as revolutionary and beautiful a car as anyone has produced in the last 50 years. More importantly, it was cool. So, what better way for the marque to make a statement than by reviving the old DS brand? After all, the success of the new retro-styled Mini Cooper and Fiat's Cinquecento have shown that there's a demand for cars that look fun and pay homage to the best of their makers' histories. So how has Citroen fared? Answer: about as badly as could be imagined. I mean, look at this monstrosity, this betrayal of all things French and stylish and wonderful...

Alex Massie

Obama Still Extremely, Inconveniently Popular

From our UK edition

Melanie may think that the United States made a monumental blunder when it elected Barack Obama, but right now, it must be said, the Americans themselves seem pretty happy with their new President. For the last week newspapers and cable TV have been hyping every perceived blunder and doing everything bar declaring the Obama presidency a failure. Already. The voters seem more sanguine. And sober. According to the latest Gallup poll, two thirds of the electorate approve of the manner in which Obama has handled the debate over the economic stimulus plan. Just 25% disapprove of the way he's approached matters. In other words, there are plenty of people who voted for McCain who are quite happy with the way Obama is handling affairs.

Alex Massie

51 All Out

From our UK edition

Apologies for the radio silence. I'm still struggling to comes to terms with England's Jamaican debacle. Matters were scarcely improved by an ill-considered trip to Murrayfield yesterday. Back to the drawing board then. Still, while there was a certain grimness to Scotland's sluggish performance against Wales, at least it didn't plumb the depths of England's cricketing fiasco against the West Indies. When the tourists stumbled to 15/3 I suggested, jokingly, that they might lose by an innings. But I didn't actually expect them to go ahead and do it. Right now the Ashes look as though they will be contested by two pretty mediocre sides (though Australia should, alas, still and rightly be favoured.

Friday

Alex Massie

Dubious Proposition of the Day

From our UK edition

I have nothing to say on this ludicrous Jeremy Clarkson controversy, save to observe that this constant hoopla over whether BBC presenters have offended anyone is beyond wearisome. That said, Iain Gray, the aptly named leader of the Labour group in the Scottish parliament, responded to Clarkson in especially presumptious style: "Such a comment is really a reflection on Jeremy Clarkson and speaks for itself," he said. "Most people here are proud that the prime minister is a Scot and believe him to be the right person to get the UK through this global economic crisis." As they say, count me out. If anything the reverse may be true. Quite why we should be supposed to think better of El Gordo simply because he's a Fifer is beyond me.

Alex Massie

Special Relationship Fretting Special!

From our UK edition

Could there be anything more juvenile than Fleet Street's unanimous view that Gordon Brown has been embarrassed by Tony Blair "beating" him to an audience with Barack Obama? Sure, it's always entertaining to dip back into the Blair-Brown psychodrama and everyone likes the idea of the PM watching Tone preach the word at the White House and throwing the TV remote against the wall in a fit of Presbyterian - "Bloody Tony uses the Good News Bible. He would, wouldn't he? Good News! I ask you, what's that? Not even a proper Christian. Cherie believes in crystals - fury... But I digress. the point is that the view that it matters who "wins" the supposed "race" to meet Obama is laughably trivial.

Alex Massie

Italian Jobs for British Workers

From our UK edition

I'm indebted to Justin at Chicken Yoghurt for alerting me to this article from La Repubblica: "PORTO VIRO (Rovigo) - 'It's a pity - È un peccato - I love working with the Italians, I love Italy. I just hope this Ssuff about the Grimsby refinery is just a one-off'. Brian has just got back from the oil rig in the Adriatic where one hundred Brits, along with two hundred Italian and foreign colleagues, are working cheek by jowl on a regasifier that will provide 10% of our country with methane. He doesn't want to talk, as he walks out from the Porto Viro base, guarded like  a barracks, where another one hundred employees work, mostly from Exxon Mobil: British, American, Norwegian, Italian... But the news of those walkouts against the "Italians" arrive like a bad omen.

Thursday

Alex Massie

On not doing God

From our UK edition

From Tony Blair's speech to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington this morning: I believe restoring religious faith to its rightful place, as the guide to our world and its future, is itself of the essence. The 21st Century will be poorer in spirit, meaner in ambition, less disciplined in conscience, if it is not under the guardianship of faith in God. I do not mean by this to blur the correct distinction between the realms of religious and political authority. In Britain we are especially mindful of this. I recall giving an address to the country at a time of crisis. I wanted to end my words with "God bless the British people". This caused complete consternation. Emergency meetings were convened. The system was aghast.

Alex Massie

The sky is falling

From our UK edition

Good grief. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and House Speaker William J. Howell announced a deal Thursday morning to ban smoking in restaurants and bars in Virginia, a monumental decision in a state built on the profits of cigarette sales that remains the home to the nation's largest tobacco company. If Virginia falls*, can the Carolinas be far behind? The Outlaw, Michael Heath's brilliant Spectator cartoon strip about the last remaining smoker, becomes ever more prescient. Not for the first time, one can only mutter O Tempora, O Mores... *The proposed Virginia bill is less draconian than most in as much as it exempts private clubs and permits bars to have a separate "enclosed, ventilated" smoking room. But still. Whatever happened to Big Tobacco?

Alex Massie

School Choice Q&A

From our UK edition

Fraser's report from Michael Gove's education reform shindig today is a must-read. I agree with him that this is the key point Gove, Cameron and the Tories need to make: "In your neighbourhood, there will be a new school going out of its way to persuade you to send your children there. It will market itself on being able to generate better results, and it won’t cost you an extra penny." Commenting on my last post on the matter, David asked these questions: What happens when the school is oversubscribed by parents wanting to exercise their choice? Is this really such a terrible problem?

Alex Massie

Did Bush keep America safe?

From our UK edition

Commenting on this post, Juliana raises a talking point one hears quite often. "Bush was not perfect by a long chalk but he kept America safe for his two terms. Now he is gone Obama is handing America to the terrorists and the jihadists and the brainwashed in North Korea on a plate." Leaving aside the point that it seems unlikely Obama can be "handing" the United States to the jihadists and the North Koreans (does this mean the terrorists and Pyongyang will then have an elimination bout to determine the overall, undisputed champion?) there's one awkward fact that merits repeating: more Americans were killed by foreign terrorists on George W Bush's watch than during any other presidency.

Alex Massie

Is Obama A Failure? (Already!)

From our UK edition

It's not been an error-free start for the new President has it? But, really, even for the internet age, some of the reaction to the stumbles is laughably over the top. So much so, of course, that Obama can draw some comfort from that. Here, for instance, is Victor Davis Hanson writing at National Review: We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion—and with no Dick Morris to bail him out—brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking. Right! There's so much wrong with this that there's little point unpacking it.

Alex Massie

Whither Commerce?

From our UK edition

I spent five years in Washington and could not tell you what the Commerce Department really does. Now that i think of it, I doubt I could name any of George W Bush's Commerce Secretaries. Certainly, none have lodged themselves in the memory. Which is another way of saying that apart from the big three offices of State, Defense and Treasury, most cabinet positions are not terribly important. Yes, it's embarrassing for President Obama  that Tom Daschle has had to withdraw from being considered for HHS but this is hardly the mortal wound some are suggesting. The identity of Obama's healthcare supremo is rather less important than the health bill that is eventually passed. That's a better, if more boring, way of judging the President's success. Anyway, back to Commerce.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

England vs West Indies

From our UK edition

Intriguing. Interesting. Fascinating. All words often used to spruce up slightly dull cricket. But the first days' play in Kingston has been intriguing. And interesting. And good. A slow outfield may have cramped scoring, but once England had won the toss and elected to bat there's little doubt Chris Gayle would have been happier than Andrew Strauss had you told the skippers that the visitors would finish the day at 236/5. 350 may well prove a competitive score on this pitch, though there's also every prospect that it will be flattest, and best for batting on days two and three. Not that it was a minefield today, mind you. Who would have anticipated that there'd be nearly 50 overs of spin bowled on th first day of a Sabina Park test?

Alex Massie

Quote for the Day | 4 February 2009

From our UK edition

"One cannot underestimate how widely admired Tom Daschle is in Washington for his integrity."—David Gergen, advisor to every President since Nebuchadnezzar and, er, the barometer of DC's Conventional Wisdom. Of course, Gergen also means one cannot "overestimate" the extent of "Washington's" admiration for Mr Daschle. Verily, greater love hath no man than to lay down the misery of health care reform for the millionaire luxuries of non-lobbying lobbying...

Alex Massie

The Federal Problem

From our UK edition

Conor Friedersdorf makes a point that is too often overlooked: Abraham Lincoln often commuted three miles on horseback so he could sleep on the grounds of a military hospital at night; and that once during the Civil War a British traveler who wanted to meet Lincoln knocked on his door, got invited inside, and ended up spending over an hour chatting with the president. It is hard to imagine a modern president enjoying so much downtime. Perhaps so many early presidents are ranked among the best because though they faced grave problems, their tasks were limited.

Alex Massie

Back from the brink on trade

From our UK edition

At least that's the message Obama seems to be sending to Democrats in Congress. In an interview with ABC News he was asked about the "Buy American" provisions in the "stimulus" bill and said he doesn't want any "provisions that are going to be a violation of World Trade Organization agreements or in other ways signal protectionism. I think that would be a mistake right now. That is a potential source of trade wars that we can't afford at a time when trade is sinking all across the globe." Common sense, of course, but modestly encouraging nonetheless. UPDATE: Not so fast! Ambinder reports that the White House will "clarify" the President's remarks today. How depressing.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Davos Man Plays the Fool

From our UK edition

British tycoon Richard Branson participates among other people and actors in a 'Refugee Run simulation' during the World Economic Forum on January 30, 2009 in Davos. During this event, participants have to face an 'attack from rebels, a 'mine field', border corruption, language incapacity, black-marketeering and refugee camp survival'. Photo: PIERRE VERDY/AFP/Getty Images Simply because it is easy to mock the rich and famous is no reason not to do so. Has even Branson (whose airline I like, incidentally) ever looked quite so ridiculous?

Alex Massie

Choice Matters: Education Division

From our UK edition

There are some policy ideas that one supports while recognising that they may come with costs, in some cases considerable costs (eg, drug legalisation, open borders, etc etc.) But I confess that I remain mystified by the ferocity with which so many people oppose something as seemingly uncontroversial as school choice. Because it's not as though school choice doesn't already exist. It does. But you have to be reasonably well-off to either pay for your kids to be educated in the private sector or pay the mortgage premium to move house to be inside a leading state school's catchment area.

Alex Massie

The Day the Music Died

From our UK edition

Fifty years, then, since Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the "Big Bopper" died. Yet it could have been even worse: Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on that plane too: "I remember the last time I saw Buddy,” Jennings said in his interview with CMT.com. “He had me go get us some hot dogs. He was leaning back against the wall in a cane-bottom chair and he was laughing at me. He said, 'So you're not going with us tonight on the plane, huh? Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up. It's 40-below out there and you're gonna get awful cold. So I said, 'Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes.' “I was so afraid for many years that somebody was going to find out I said that. Somehow I blamed myself. Compounding that was the guilty feeling that I was still alive.