Alex Massie

The best article I've read on Presidential Inaugurations remains Ted Widmer's piece in the American Scholar from 2005. The entire thing is a treat but he handily summarises the essential rules of Inauguration Speeches as: 1. I am not worthy of this great honor. 2. But I congratulate the people that they elected me. 3. Now we must all come together, even those of us who really hate each other. 4. I love the Constitution, the Union, and George Washington. 5. I will work against bad threats. 6. I will work for good things. 7. We must avoid entangling alliances. 8. America’s strength = democracy. 9. Democracy’s strength = America. 10. Thanks, God.

Hello Spectator readers! It's a great pleasure to be here. My thanks to the boffins for all their work in transferring this blog from its old home at The Debatable Land to these plush new surroundings. I've been reading the Spectator since I was a teenager and, in fact, spent a couple of weeks' worth answering the phones work experience at the magazine way back in, I think, 1992. So what may you expect from this blog? Well, I generally write about American, British and Scottish politics from a jaundiced libertarian perspective (is there any other kind of libertarianism?

We're getting used - alas - to the idea that smokers will not be allowed to adopt children (abuse!) but, as always, that proves to be but the beginning, not the end of this sort of thing. To wit, a couple in Leeds have had their application to adopt denied on the grounds that the husband is, wait for it, too fat. Leeds Council writes: I am writing to confirm that we are unable to progress an application from you at this time. This is due to the concerns that the medical advisers have expressed regarding Mr Hall's weight. I have discussed this with our medical adviser... who considers that it is important to alter lifestyle, diet and exercise in a sustainable way so that any weight reduction can be maintained in the long term.

Lord knows, we all blunder from time to time. Still, this is pretty impressive: "Each year, in my last Economic View before Christmas, I try to shed some light on economic events of the previous 12 months by comparing what has actually happened with expectations published here in early January. This year, even more than usual, reading back through January's predictions has been a shock. Almost all have turned out to be wrong". Anatole Kaletsky, The Times, 18/12/06."My last article of every year looks back on the predictions I made in early January to shed some light on the economic and financial events of the previous 12 months. This tends to be a humbling experience, and this year it is even more so than usual." Anatole Kaletsky, The Times, 31/12/07.

Sometimes Scottish politics is far too exciting for its own good... An SNP pledge to give children free access to swimming pools is not being delivered, according to Labour.Scottish Labour sport spokesman Frank McAveety said only two councils provided school children with free, year-round access to pools...Mr McAveety said: "The SNP have been in power for 18 months now and we have seen absolutely no progress on their pledge to ensure that youngsters have free access to council swimming pools." No wonder the Scottish parliament's dealings are, quite reasonably, characterised as "Hamster Wars".

Mickey Kaus digs up an NYT article ($ needed for full access) from 1981 comparing the manufacturing of Ford Escorts at plants in Germany and at Halewood on Merseyside. It is, as you might expect, exceedingly grisly stuff: This [German] plant produces some 1,200 cars a day, more than the 1,015 that Ford planners had anticipated, and requires 7,762 workers. Its counterpart at Halewood, with virtually identical equipment and production targets, has averaged only about 800 cars a day this year, and 10,040 workers have been needed to achieve even that production level. ''Our standards say it should take something like 20 man-hours of labor in both the body and assembly plants to make an Escort,'' said Bill Hayden, vice president of manufacturing for Ford Europe Inc., in an interview.