Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Thursday

Alex Massie

Charm City Cricket

Accounts of cricket in the United States are always endearing, generally on account of the enthusiasm of the converts to the greatest game and the manner in which the poor old journalist charged with scribbling this account labours to explain the game to a generally uncomprehending audience. This piece from the Baltimore Sun about a school in Charm City that has taken up cricket, is an excellent example. Best bit? A former pitcher, Cardinal Gibbons senior Will Foy says the national pastime simply can't compare with the age-old sport of cricket. "It's pretty much baseball, minus the boring parts," he said. Despite its mainstream popularity in dozens of countries, cricket in the U.S. is largely viewed as a relic.

Alex Massie

MPs to Media: You’re On Notice

This week's (latest) head-in-hands, what-the-hell-is-going-on? moment comes courtesy of the Intelligence and Security Committee at Westminster. The Independent reports that: Britain's security agencies and police would be given unprecedented and legally binding powers to ban the media from reporting matters of national security, under proposals being discussed in Whitehall. The Intelligence and Security Committee, the parliamentary watchdog of the intelligence and security agencies which has a cross-party membership from both Houses, wants to press ministers to introduce legislation that would prevent news outlets from reporting stories deemed by the Government to be against the interests of national security.

Alex Massie

The African (Beauty) Queen

Oh dear. I been had. Then again, pretty much everyone else was fooled too. Remember the amusement - the frightening hilarity, you may say - occasioned by Sarah Palin's apparent African confusion? Country or continent? Well, it turns out that the whole brouhaha was an elaborate ploy, cooked up with some flair and wolfed down by greedy hacks and bloggers everywhere. It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent. Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor.

Alex Massie

Four Characters in Search of an Author

In his latest Life&Letters column for the Spectator, my father has some fun imagining how different novelists might have treated the Curious Affair of Mandelson, Osbourne, Deripaska and Rothschild. For instance: Somerset Maugham, for instance, would have told it straight, dead-pan, through his favourite disillusioned, mildly cynical, narrator — old Mr Maugham himself, scarcely disguised — and would have presented it as an example of human folly. His focus would have been on Osborne, depicted as a callow young man of dangerous sincerity.

Alex Massie

Choice is for me, not for thee

Gabriel Sherman's written a very entertaining piece on the furious competition between Washington's elite private schools to enroll the Obama daughters next term. Enjoyable as it is, you may find yourself wishing they could all lose. However, the piece reveals one of th egrubbier, more ghastly sides of the city. Nonetheless, the issue of where the Obama girls go to school is interesting. Back in 1992 the Clintons toyed with the notion - perhaps even promising? - that Chelsea would attend a bog-standard public (ie, state) school. That didn't survive a recce of the DC public school system (though I suspect that the Secret Service had a say too) and I doubt many people really think the Obamas are going to put their kids into a public school.

Alex Massie

Bush Saves Saakashvili…

Well, sort of. According to this report from Charles Bremner in the Times: With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia, Mr Levitte [Sarko's chief diplomatic advisor] said. "I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls," Mr Putin replied. Mr Sarkozy responded: "Hang him?" "Why not? The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein," said Mr Putin. Mr Sarkozy replied, using the familiar "tu": "Yes but do you want to end up like (President) Bush?" Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: "Ah, you have scored a point there." ...President Mikhail Saakashvili, who was in Paris to meet Mr Sarkozy today, laughed nervously when a French radio station read him the exchange.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Newspapers and the Credit Crunch

Some numbers that terrify anyone with any skin in the newspaper game, particularly in Scotland: Sales of the Sunday Herald are down 15% this year. More worrying still, if not altogether surprising given the state of the global economy, the Johnston Press, owners of the Scotsman and hundreds of local papers, report that advertising sales are down 15% this year. Expect that number to get worse. Two years ago the companies share price was £4.20; yesterday it closed at 19p. These numbers happen to come from the Scottish and UK (local) market. But they won't be that different from the numbers elsewhere.

Alex Massie

On Federalism and Subsidiarity

John Schwenkler makes the case for modesty and humility in politics. That's to say, he'd like the United States to embrace federalism once again. As lont-time readers may recall, this is an old, well-worn, favourite hobby-horse of mine too. Presenting themselves, not as a single-minded party with an inflexible platform and no place for disagreement, but rather as a group that is focused on enabling local governance and a consequent sensitivity to regional particularities, can help Republicans to overcome their internal conflicts without having to throw the dissenters overboard. The flip side to this is that adopting a federalist approach to governance will also entail abandoning the attempt to make federal policy decisive on issues like abortion, marriage, drug policy, and euthanasia.

Alex Massie

Obama and Iran

Jonathan Freedland warns Guardian readers today that Obama is not a dove but, rather, a "smarter hawk". Fine. Here's how he summarises Obama's approach to Iran: The new disposition on Iran is similarly nuanced. The noises are much less warlike. Obama promises diplomacy and dialogue, and relegates force to where it should be: a last, not a first, resort. But his own advisers counsel that Obama is firm on this matter. He has concluded that Tehran cannot be allowed to become a nuclear power, not least because it would trigger a regional arms race. He will use negotiation to thwart that possibility. But if that fails, the use of force remains an option. And that's when the new global context could make all the difference.

Alex Massie

Obama! The Opera!

A friend emailed me this today. Some internet sleuthing tracked the original source to this forum. L’Obama, ossia L’Avvento del Messia Opera in Tre Atti Personaggi: Barracco Obama, Il Messia, Redentore del Mondo............................Tenore Miracoloso Santa Micaela della Revoluzione, sua sposa............................................Soprano Amaro Giovanni Maccheno, Senatore, Avversario dello Obama..............................Basso Buffo Sara Palino, Governatrice del Alaska e Reginetta di Bellezza..............Coloratura Buffa Guglielmo Priapo, Ex-Presidente........................................................Tenore Mentitore Hillaria, sua Sposa, altra Avversaria dello Obama...........................Soprano Ambizioso Elena Tomasso, una strega...................

Alex Massie

Quote of the Day

David Davis, in an interview with the New Statesman: "I mean you know what it's like, you've worked here, making a speech in the House of Commons is a very good way to keep a secret." There's some interesting stuff too, on Afghanistan, civil liberties and David Cameron.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

Alex Massie

War and Memory

"Take a trip through the British countryside and note the number of war memorials and be struck by the number of names on each of them. Once, these hamlets and villages coughed up their sons and sent them off to France. And as the long lists of names attest, many of them never came back. To take one example from thousands: my own home town of Selkirk in the Scottish Borders lost no fewer than 292 men during the Great War. This from a town with no more than 6,000 people." From my latest piece at Culture11, remembering the First World War.

Monday

Alex Massie

Big Jacqui’s Just Looking Out For You

All Home Secretaries are ghastly, of course. But Jacqui Smith may be an even greater nuisance than previous holders of the office. That's tough competition when you recall that the field also includes Michael Howard, David Blunkett and Jack Straw. The latter, of course, shopped his own son to the police. But here's the lie being peddled by the gruesome Smith today: Jacqui Smith says public demand means people will be able to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months.The cards will be available for all from 2012 but she said: "I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long." Does anyone believe this? The sooner there's an election the better.

Sunday

Alex Massie

The Verona Daily Mail

Condensed Shakespeare: nation's tabloids report modern repeat of story of Romeo & Juliet under headline: KNIFE CRIME TOFF IN PAEDO SUICIDE PACT.

Alex Massie

Is it ‘cos he is black?

Like Clive Davis, I don't much mind that Peter Hitchens has some fun with the more extravagant claims being made for an Obama presidency. But then there's this: I was in Washington DC the night of the election. America’s beautiful capital has a sad secret. It is perhaps the most racially divided city in the world, with 15th Street* – which runs due north from the White House – the unofficial frontier between black and white. But, like so much of America, it also now has a new division, and one which is in many ways much more important.

Alex Massie

Further Adventures in Brave New Scotland

Can this really be true? Why yes my friends it can. A teenager from Ayrshire who was caught posing with a sword on the social networking site Bebo has been fined £200 at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.Anthony Bowman, 19, pleaded guilty to displaying the image on Bebo between January 2006 and July 2008.His case came to light after police conducted a trawl of the internet in a bid to cut crime and disorder.Bowman was then identified by officers from the Strathclyde force's Violence Reduction Taskforce.The teenager's case was reported to prosecutors as part of Operation Access - an ongoing campaign against violence.

Saturday

Friday

Alex Massie

Glenrothes By-Election Stunner!

It's all very well and good getting excited about the American elections. But let's face it, they were but the appetiser before today's Westminster by-election in Glenrothes. The Kingdom of Fife is a strange place indeed, a sentiment confirmed by the whispers we now hear that Labour have managed to hold the seat. On the face of it, defending a seat against the 14 point swing needed for you to lose is no great triumph. And yet on this occasion it is, in fact, a rather spectacular victory for Gordon Brown. True, it's his back yard (he represents the neighbouring constituency) and both he and his wife have campaigned in Glenrothes. In such circumstances it would be highly embarrassing for Labour to lose.

Alex Massie

Tales from the House of Commons

It's time for a new occasional series! I've been reading a collection of parliamentary sketches written by the Irish nationalist MP T.P O'Connor that chronicle the course of the Second Irish Home Rule bill through the Houses of Parliament in 1893. Much of it is delightful and, I thought, worth sampling from time to time here, both on grounds of entertainment and as evidence that many of the essential rules of political engagement remain unchanged. Here, for instance, is O'Connor describing the general attitude and character of political life in the era of Gladstone, Disraeli, Chamberlain, Asquith and Balfour. Mr.