Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Thursday

Alex Massie

Department of Firearms

From our UK edition

Good news from Washington: a common-sense interpretation of the Second Amendment prevails at the Supreme Court:WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history. The court's 5-4 ruling strikes down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. More later, I imagine. It will be interesting to see how Obama responds to this, especially given his ambitions to conquer the Mountain West states where, shall we say, support for gun rights is strong. Most european reaction will, I suspect, have a Would you look at those Crazy Yanks tone...

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Beyond The Lunatic Fringe

From our UK edition

So, yes, there's been a mini-hiatus around these parts. Cricket and an unexpected trip to Edinburgh for a first meeting with my godson were largely to blame. Plus, you know, idleness. Anyway, we return to consider this remarkable passage: The Salmond/Saeed axis is not merely a disturbing sign of Salmond’s own prejudices.  It has a potential strategic significance that goes beyond Scotland. The Brotherhood’s strategy for Britain is to promote separate Islamic development, declare sharia-only enclaves and infiltrate mainstream institutions as a springboard for Islamising the entire society. Since Salmond’s aim is to make Scotland independent from the rest of the United Kingdom, with one leap the Brothers could achieve an Islamised country on England’s border.

Alex Massie

The View from Montparnasse

From our UK edition

In Paris, Byron York ponders the foreigners' view of the American presidential race:“But why wouldn’t you vote for Obama?” I’m having lunch with an Obama supporter at La Coupole, the venerable brasserie in Paris’s Montparnasse neighborhood. The woman who asked me that question, along with her fiance, has come to discuss something else, but the talk inevitably comes round to the U.S. presidential race. And the question here, as all across Europe, is: What reason could there possibly be for Barack Obama not to be the next president of the United States? Put another way, why would anyone vote for John McCain?

Alex Massie

Department of Fatigue

From our UK edition

An email from a friend in Washington who's active in Democratic politics: Honestly, I haven't been paying attention to the Presidential race at all. I'm sick of it and the coverage of it is terrible... Yesterday, MSNBC had a report on what Obama has in his pockets.  It's a lucky poker chip, a lucky arrowhead, and a lucky penny if you must know...all given to him by supporters (I assume they aren't lobbyist donations). I think there must be many people who feel this way. Already. Happily, there are only four more months of campaigning.

Friday

Alex Massie

Labour Party in “meltdown”

From our UK edition

Danny Finklestein reports: Politely talking to one Labour member,  while in the presence of a member of the Shadow Cabinet, I asked him gently to what he thought we owed Labour's decline in the polls. Instead of giving an involved explanation he replied: "Oh that's easy to explain. Our Leader is utterly useless. If you asked him which of the two doors from this room he was going to exit from he would be incapable of choosing. And if someone else chose the door for him he wouldn't be able to make his way there" Well, yes. Once a party starts to unravel, there ain't anything anyone can do to stop it. Certainly, there's not much Gordon can do to rally the troops, calm nerves, plot a new course etc etc.

Alex Massie

Appeasement Watch: Harare Edition

From our UK edition

Michael Ledeen despairs over Condi Rice's condemnation of Robert Mugabe: This is Darfur all over again. And Iran all over again.  And Syria all over again.  Stern language, with the threat of even sterner language if the recipient doesn't behave better.It's an embarrassment.Once upon a time, we had leaders who supported freedom and did everything possible to bring down tyrants.  But not today. Today we give feel-good speeches full of politically correct slogans, wrapped in the mantle of multiculturalism and multilateralism. [Emphasis added]. When did the United States enjoy these leaders? This seems a questionable assertion to say the least, certainly in the post-WW2 era.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Department of Employment: Jobs Scots won’t do?

From our UK edition

Looming crisis in the countryside requires immediate action: Efforts are being made to reverse a decline in sheep shearers in Scotland. The workforce is ageing, with fewer young people entering what is considered one of the most labour-intensive jobs in farming... "There aren't enough young shearers doing the job. Because it is a physical job and involves travel, it is really a young person's job. "We are also competing with other jobs, some of them less physical than ours." He added: "There are an awful lot of us heading into our 40s and the average age of shearers must be in the 30s.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Cricket Notes: West Indies

From our UK edition

The ICC (that's the International Cricket Council) and the authorities in England keep banging on about how they want to ensure that test cricket remains the pinnacle of the game. Then they keep announcing additional one day and 20/20 competitions. You tell me how that adds up. Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire backer of the new England vs West Indies 20/20 challenge matches (for $5m each game) says he finds test cricket "boring". Virgil was right: timeo Danaos et dona ferentes... Stanford sees 20/20 as a way to "crack" the American market. Now I think he is almost certainly mistaken in thinking this is possible but I'm not prepared to even wish him luck in his endeavours.

Alex Massie

How America is just like China…

From our UK edition

James Fallows has a very interesting post about what it's like to be a foreigner in China, in which he writes: I think I now can explain why, despite the pollution and congestion and overall ceaseless hassle of big-city life in China, I always tell friends or visitors that I "like" Chinese people in general. The reason is that, most of the time, people in China treat me as ... a person. Not always and in every circumstance as a foreigner, though I obviously am that. I hear the Chinese words for "look, a foreigner!" and feel the general ripple of outsiderness much less often than I hear or sense the counterparts in (richer and more sophisticated) Japan. In some rural areas, my wife and I have been the first foreigners that locals had ever seen in person.

Alex Massie

Polly’s Britian

From our UK edition

A faithful correspondent emails: "I know it rightly pains you to contemplate the existence of Polly Toynbee, but is she actually saying that the worst thing about New Labour was that it wasn't authoritarian, expedient, or intrusive enough?" I suspect readers know the answer to this but, to give Mrs Toynbee the benefit of the doubt, I thought it only fair to read the column in question. And, why, yes! She does seem to be of the view that now the government's days are numbered it should cast off its feeble moderation and do more - much more! - to tell people how they may, or more probably, may not, lead their lives.

Alex Massie

McCain lobbies for place in Brown cabinet…

From our UK edition

Meanwhile, in America habeas corpus is also in the news, prompting an excellent column from George Will today: McCain, co-author of the McCain-Feingold law that abridges the right of free political speech, has referred disparagingly to, as he puts it, "quote 'First Amendment rights.' " Now he dismissively speaks of "so-called, quote 'habeas corpus suits.' " He who wants to reassure constitutionalist conservatives that he understands the importance of limited government should be reminded why the habeas right has long been known as "the great writ of liberty." True that.

Monday

Alex Massie

Something Must Be Done! This is Something!

From our UK edition

Chris Dillow has a splendid post filleting the Scottish government's plans to raise the age at which one may purchase alcohol at an off-license from 18 to 21. As he rightly says this is the usual mixture of paternalism, petty managerialism and soul-crushing illiberalism trussed up with a justification that there's a problem so, rather than enforce existing laws, the public needs the protection of additional measures that, regardless of their likely effectiveness, demonstrate that the government is listening and doing something. Anything.

Alex Massie

A Wartime Christmas

From our UK edition

All the London papers' obituary pages reward close attention, but the Daily Telegraph remains peerless in tracking the lives and, obviously, deaths, of WW2 servicemen. These accounts of remarkable derring-do and extraordinary achievement under testing circumstances naturally seem more, not less, vital as the number of survivors dwindles. Thus this charming anecdote from today's obituary of Lieutenant 'Polly' Perkins, a motor torpedo boat captain who won two DSC's: On December 18/19 1944, by which time he had been promoted to command the long-range MTB 766, Perkins was hiding in the fjords during an operation to land and recover agents in Norway. He sent a rating ashore to obtain some Christmas trees for the forthcoming festivities.

Sunday

Alex Massie

Transatlantic Differences | 15 June 2008

From our UK edition

The Atlantic has a very interesting, unintentionally hilarious Mark Bowden piece on Rupert Murdoch's plans for the Wall Street Journal. Apparently the newsroom is very troubled by the new proprietor's insistence that reporters uncover "scoops". Heaven forbid! This also made me laugh: “I think he has enough sense not to trash what makes the newspaper so valuable,” said Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute. “He has owned The Times of London for more than 20 years, and it is still a serious newspaper.” Serious, perhaps, but few Londoners would argue that the newspaper is anything like what it once was.

Alex Massie

Great British Moustache Triumph!

From our UK edition

Who dares say the United States never listens to British concerns? An RAF fighter pilot has won his battle with the United States Air Force over the size of his handlebar moustache. Flight Lieutenant Chris Ball, who is on an exchange posting with the USAF in Afghanistan was told to trim his distinctive moustache. The pilot, who is usually based at RAF Lossiemouth, turned to the Queen's Regulations and found the moustache's width did not breach RAF guidelines. The rules state the moustache should not go below the edge of the mouth. Despite Flt Lt Ball serving on exchange with the USAF, the RAF still have some say on the attire and appearance of their staff. The USAF relented and Flt Lt Ball's moustache was left unruffled.

Alex Massie

Asylum Galore! Or, Passport to the Kingsway

From our UK edition

Good grief. This is a terrific, amazing story. Congratulations to Rachel Stevenson and Harriet Grant. It's almost like an Ealing comedy except, of course, you know, serious. And, I think, really rather wonderful: At first sight, the Kingsway seems an unwelcoming place. Wind whips around the 15-storey tower blocks, the windows in the lobby doors are broken, the corridors are gloomy and bare. Remnants of police incident tape flicker from lampposts and prominent surveillance cameras add an air of menace to its pathways. There is little to dispel the sense that this is one of Britain's forgotten pockets of poverty. But when hundreds of asylum seekers were placed there to live - often for years - while their cases were processed, they were warmly embraced.