Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Inauguration Rules

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.

Alex Massie

Thomas Friedman’s War Against Writing, Logic, Readability…

One of the first rules of punditry is Thou Shalt Disdain New York Times Columnists. Some of this, naturally, is a product of some jealousy; rather more of it a consequence of the sheer gawd-help-us ghastliness found on the Gray Lady's op-ed page every day. Still, connoisseurs of this particular (minor) genre will enjoy Matt Taibbi's (pleasingly profane) takedown of Thomas Friedman. Wisely, Taibbi remembers that it's vital to play the man as well as the ball: I’ve been unhealthily obsessed with Thomas Friedman for more than a decade now. For most of that time, I just thought he was funny. And admittedly, what I thought was funniest about him was the kind of stuff that only another writer would really care about—in particular his tortured use of the English language.

Monday

Alex Massie

Moving Day

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?

Friday

Alex Massie

John Mortimer RIP

Ach, Sir John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole of the Bailey and leading champagne socialist, has died. Sad. From a piece I wrote about him way back in 2002:      Mortimer belongs, I think, in the vanguard of the supporting cast, a second lieutenant rather than a leader himself. He’s too reticent to play the heroic lead and too aware of life’s absurdities to cast himself as a tragic figure. "I suppose my favourite characters are people like Kent and Horatio - decent, honourable, chaps who don’t make a fuss. I think the stoical person who receives very little praise is still the person you should aspire to emulate. They’re more important than heroes." If you can recognise and respect your limitations, life is likely to be a more comfortable experience...

Wednesday

Alex Massie

The United States and the IRA

Responding to Stephen Walt's hypothetical (What if Gaza were full of jews?), Megan McArdle compares the Israel lobby to the Irish-American lobby. Ross Douthat says, OK, but the IRA was still considered a terrorist organisation. Daniel Larison dives into the weeds of US attitudes towards Irish terrorism. He writes: The IRA was a genuine terrorist group, but it was listed as such by our government most of all because it was a sworn enemy of one of our closest allies. The record seems clear: terrorist groups that are useful to us or harmful to states we officially oppose are given a pass, while those that target us or our allies are condemned in the strongest terms.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

This Britain. Again.

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.

Alex Massie

The Perils of Punditry

Thinking about recent posts on the Republican party's problems prompted this mildly disconcerting thought: So, isn't it just a little too convenient that the Republican party might be able to solve some of its problems if only it were inclined to view matters in much the same way you do? That is if it were, shall we say, more "relaxed" about gay marriage and more open to some kind of comprehensive immigration settlement? That's an audacious claim, ain't it? The problem with the party is that it panders to all these other people rather than to people like you. What gives you - a foreigner to boot - the right to be quite so presumptious? It's a fair question, guv. No doubt about that.

Alex Massie

“Socialism in one clause”?

Peter Hoskin is right to be suspicious of the government's latest ploy: mandating that all public bodies have a statutory duty to narrow the gap between rich and poor. As you might expect Polly Toynbee is tickled a deepish shade of red by the notion. Nonetheless, consider this snippet from her column today: Poor children might need to have much more spent on their education per head than the better-off do. Sure Start toddlers might need more funds than older children. It might mean local lotteries to see that all children get equal access to the best schools.

Alex Massie

Campaign Books

The first book-length accounts of the campaign will be out shortly. Ian Leslie's book To Be President arrived this morning and my friend Mike Crowley's "graphic diary" (drawings by Dan Goldman) of the campaign is also published this month. It will, I'm sure, be entertaining even if, unaccountably, I haven't received a copy yet...

Monday

Alex Massie

Annals of Punditry

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.

Alex Massie

The Countdown Conundrum

Since I live-blogged a darts match, I'm in no position to chuck rocks, but can I just point out that the Guardian is live-blogging Jeff Stelling's debut as presenter of Countdown*. New media; new rules I guess. As a friend says "This makes me happy!" And so it should. *Note to American readers: a long-running tea-time letters and numbers quiz show popular with pensioners, students and the bedridden.

Alex Massie

George W Bush and Immigration

George W Bush seems to agree with me. This isn't as alarming as it might sound. Here's some of what the President had to say at his final press conference this morning: I am concerned that, in the wake of the defeat, that the temptation will be to look inward and to say, well, here's a litmus test you must adhere to. This party will come back. But the party's message has got to be that different points of view are included in the party. And -- take, for example, the immigration debate. That's obviously a highly contentious issue. And the problem with the outcome of the initial round of the debate was that some people said, well, Republicans don't like immigrants. Now, that may be fair or unfair, but that's what -- that's the image that came out.

Sunday

Alex Massie

Meanwhile, in Scotland…

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".

Alex Massie

Where Did It All Go Wrong?

I suppose it must have seemed a neat idea at the time, but Dan Drezner is absolutely correct: Bono's debut column for the New York Times is simply gibberish*. I guess one of the perks of celebrity is being able to find a publisher for nonsense that would, quite correctly, be rejected out of hand were it submitted by an average hack. Like Dan, I've no idea what point Bono is trying to make beyond a) he knew Frank Sinatra and b) people like Sinatra's songs. *And that's after it was edited. Did no-one at the NYT pause to ask "Hang on, why are we printing this tripe?" Or did they say: "This will be great blog-fodder...

Saturday

Alex Massie

Tales from a Convert

A friend of mine, once armed with impeccable progressive credentials, recently came out s a Conservative - much to the bemusement of his family and many of his friends. With Neill's permission, here's the explanation he published on his Facebook page. Sure, this is just one person's story, but I wonder how many other people might have come to similar conclusions after 12 years of Labour government. Anyway, I think this a pretty persuasive critique of Labour in power: I grew up in a Tory-hating family in Thatcher's Britain. In those divided times, we were definitely not "one of us" - Mum was a teacher, Dad brought up the kids and we lived in a council house. In fact, the shocked response of my family on this wall has been a relief, because it means they are still speaking to me!

Friday

Alex Massie

The Way We Were

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.

Alex Massie

The Cult of the Presidency

Peggy Noonan is perhaps my favourite American political columnist. She's on good form today, not least because she takes some time to make a point this blog has long favoured: During the postspeech coverage, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell spoke to a journalist about how presidents get advice and information. Mitchell noted that people often mean to speak hard truths but then "they walk into the Oval Office and get tongue tied." She was referring to the awe with which we view the presidency, the White House, and the famous office with no corners in which presidents so often feel cornered. Here is an idea for everyone in Washington: Get over it. It's distorting the system.

Alex Massie

Karl Rove and the SNP

I doubt many Nationalists would welcome the comparison but facts are stubborn things and the fact is that the SNP and Mr Rove have quite a bit in common. Just as Rove orchestrated campaigns in 2002 and 2004 that portrayed the Democratic party as being, in some odd sense, fundamentally unpatriotic (principally for the crime of not being Republicans) so the SNP's default presumption is that any opposition to any of their policies is somehow an attack on Scotland itself. They are the only patriots in town. No-one else really has the country's best interests at heart. How can they, after all, when they're in thrall to a "foreign" power (ie, Britain)?

Alex Massie

Et Tu Grover?

Granted, no-one in their right mind would choose Michelle Malkin as a political standard-bearer. Or gate-keeper for that matter. Nonetheless, there is the awkward fact that she's extremely popular amongst a certain class of American conservative. I've already suggested that organisations such as the Club for Growth and Americans for Tax Reform are just as much a part of the conservative problem as they are likely to contribute to any solution. Frighteningly Michelle Malkin agrees with me; thankfully her reasoning is different. The problem with Grover Norquist, you see, is that he's insufficiently right-wing. No, really. Which brings us back to Grover Norquist and the unpleasant realities that these strategists and rebranding gurus and RNC candidates don’t want to talk about.