Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Thursday

Alex Massie

G is for Gower

Well, better late than never, here's the long, even keenly, awaited G XI. No excuses for its late arrival, but comfort yourselves with the thought that you'll have less time to wait before the H XI arrives to batter everyone else's bowling to pieces. So, following Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter,  Edrich and Fry, it is time for Gower. 1. Sunil Gavaskar (IND)2. Gordon Greenidge (WI)3. David Gower (ENG) (Capt)4. WG Grace (ENG)5. Tom Graveney (ENG)6. Adam Gilchrest (AUS) (Wkt)7. Tony Greig (ENG)8. Jack Gregory (AUS) 9. Joel Garner (WI)10. Clarrie Grimmett (AUS)11.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Gordon and Hillary’s Shared Agony

I've an op-ed in today's edition of The Scotsman on the similar fixes Gordon Brown and Hillary Clinton find themselves in (right down to rown's reported willingness to hire Mark Penn) and on how they are ill-served by the prevailing political trends in Britain and America respectively. It's behind a (tedious) subscription firewall, but the gist of it is: When Gordon Brown meets Hillary Clinton in Washington this week the pair could be forgiven for consoling one another and asking “How did it come to this?” What a difference a year makes. A year ago, Gordon Brown was preparing to grasp the prize he’d waited so many years to hold. At long last he would be Prime Minister; at long last he’d show the doubters that they were wrong.

Alex Massie

Paddy Hillery RIP

Patrick Hillery, President of Ireland from 1976-1990, has died. From the Telegraph's obituary: As president, Hillery's main achievement was the restoration of stability to the office; this he accomplished largely through invisibility and silence. If only other Presidents - and especially ones with more power - could be persuaded to follow Paddy Hillery's excellent example...

Alex Massie

Cats Lying With Dogs

Or, a rare instance in which Alastair Darling and I appear to be in agreement. Me, this morning: What is Gordon Brown’s ministry for? What does he want to achieve that his party could not achieve in its first ten years in power? Again, the answer is hard to discern. As with Mrs Clinton there is an unfortunate whiff of entitlement about Brown. He doesn’t deserve to be Prime Minister because he has a compelling, sweeping vision for the future but because, well, because he’s waited a jolly long time and it’s his turn to be Prime Minister. But that’s not enough. Is there anything actually there? It’s hard to say.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Strolling the Streets of Baltimore

Attention Wire fans: if you haven't done so already you should really make sure you read Peter Mosko's new book, Cop in the Hood. Moskos, a Princeton and Harvard sociologist actually joined the Baltimore Police Department and spent more than a year patrolling in the city's Eastern District ghetto (where much of The Wire was filmed). The results are fascinating - and gruesome. But then that's your War on Drugs for you, ain't it? Incidentally, does anyone know why neither the BBC nor Channel Four bought The Wire? It could have been a success* in Britain, I think. Instead it's been consigned to the FX backwater with, as best I can tell, next to no effort made to promote the show.

Alex Massie

The End Is Not In Fact Nigh

Gordon Brown flies to Washington today (where, inter alia, he will have meetings with McCain, Clinton and Obama) so, naturally, this is the cue for fresh fretting over US-UK relations. Nile Gardner, currently exiled at the Heritage Foundation, duly volunteers for duty: Divine intervention might be required to improve the state of U.S.-UK relations, which have deteriorated since Blair left Downing Street last June. While the Anglo-American “special relationship” continues at many levels behind the scenes — from intelligence cooperation to collaboration over missile defense — significant signs of strain are beginning to show over the handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the broader war against Islamist terrorism.

Alex Massie

What Goes Up Should Come Down

A splendid piece on elevators - yes, lifts - in this week's New Yorker. Two things make tall buildings possible: the steel frame and the safety elevator. The elevator, underrated and overlooked, is to the city what paper is to reading and gunpowder is to war. Without the elevator, there would be no verticality, no density, and, without these, none of the urban advantages of energy efficiency, economic productivity, and cultural ferment. The population of the earth would ooze out over its surface, like an oil slick, and we would spend even more time stuck in traffic or on trains, traversing a vast carapace of concrete. And the elevator is energy-efficient—the counterweight does a great deal of the work, and the new systems these days regenerate electricity.

Alex Massie

Department of Awkward Votes

I hadn't realised until Sallie James at Cato pointed me in the right direction that neither John McCain, nor Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton voted on the (awful) 2007 Farm Bill. Well, I guess one can see why. Still, it would be nice to hear their answers to the questions: 1.Why didn't you vote on the Farm Bill? and 2. If you had would cast a vote, would you have voted Yes or No? Plus: How protectionist is your candidate? Find out here!

Alex Massie

Tuesday Linkage

Mr Eugenides has a delightful item about everyone's favourite "Viewspaper", The Independent Matt Zeitlin points out a couple of elementary truths to the Weekly Standard It's April 15th, so it's time for Megan's tax plan to get another airing. Stephen Colbert on the candidates. Plus! Who's the real Irishman, Colbert or Bill O'Reilly? The wives of high-ranking Cambodian officials are expected to be angry this year. Is Barack Obama a Marxist? Joe Lieberman says that's "a good question." Sigh. Sign of the times: a Virginia school bans playground games of tig. Double Sigh.

Monday

Alex Massie

Learning from Iran

I'm talking about kidneys of course. Over to Alex Tabarrok: Only one country in the world has eliminated the shortage of transplant kidneys.  Only one country in the world has legalized financial payments to kidney donors.  That country is Iran. In an important report, transplant surgeon Benjamin Hippen argues that the Iranian system has saved thousands of lives and it should be used if not as model then to inform America's efforts to eliminate its deadly shortage. Want to solve the organ donor shortage? Learn from Iran and permit donors to be compensated.

Alex Massie

Wanted: A Revolution

Astonishingly, this story seems to be true: THE railway station bar, once a classic venue for romantic encounters, has fallen victim to the health and safety police. When Michael Leventhal, a London publisher, wanted to impress his date on her birthday, the longest champagne bar in Europe seemed to be the perfect setting. So Leventhal, 35, made a booking at the new St Pancras station, whose 96-metre bar has been promoted as a perfect meeting point for lovers. He also e-mailed a request for help in arranging a birthday surprise. Leventhal asked whether he could bring a candle and have it surreptitiously placed on a cake, brought to the bar and presented to his companion when she was least expecting it.

Alex Massie

The Importance of Being Stubborn

Charles Crawford, formerly Our Man in Warsaw, Sarajevo and Belgrade, thinks we should have told the Saudis to hop off and let the BAE corruption trial proceed. Not because anti-corruption investigations are good in themselves but because it would have been a demonstration of toughness. In the longer term, then, the national interest would have been better served by exposing the Saudis. But that's not our style... The Russians too are outstanding negotiators, but in a different sense. They are taught negotiating technique in a way which is quite foreign to British and European methods. Russian diplomats' First Rule of Negotiating is simple and profound: "Never move position, even when you agree with someone, without trying to extract something first.

Alex Massie

Department of Radio

You don't have to be an Anglican or even especially religious to think that this Oxford Evensong set to jazz is very cool. Beautiful. (You can listen to it again for the next five days by clicking on "Choral Evensong" at the link.

Alex Massie

By Liverpool Street Station, I Stood Up And Sang

You might not be permitted to dance at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, but London's Liverpool Street Station is definitely flashmob-friendly. The world's first-ever RickMob gathered there on Saturday... Groovy, baby: According to the BBC: A British Transport Police spokeswoman said: "We monitored the incident. There were no problems, no arrests. They did what they had to do and then left.

Sunday

Alex Massie

Sabbath Linking

Did you know that you can be arrested for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial? Julian Sanchez explains. Megan also leaps into the fray. Almost no-one writes sensibly about house prices. Thankfully Chris Dillow is a bird of rare common sense. Norm remembers Botham at Brisbane. Happy days. If Clinton could be the "first black President" is George W Bush the "first Roman Catholic President"? Marc Ambinder on "Bittergate" (Can we please stop adding "Gate" to every minor tempest or bouhaha? No, probably not.

Alex Massie

Self-indulgence Alert

This blog is, I just realised, one year old today. Jings, who'd have thunk it? Anyway, thanks to all those who linked and, of course, to all who have visited and read and left comments and all the rest of it.

Saturday

Friday

Alex Massie

Hillary Surrenders on Ulster

Damnit. I'd enjoyed working up a good lather of indignation and righteous fury over Hillary Clinton's claim, repeated ad nauseam, to have played an "instrumental" role in the Northern Irish "peace process" (see several posts collected here, for instance). And now she's gone and spoiled it by, rather strikingly, walking back from her preposterous claims. As Toby Harnden reports: Hillary Clinton has just issued a bland statement marking the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. In it, she salutes “the brave and tireless efforts of the parties” and notes that “the real credit for peace can only go to the brave people of Northern Ireland”.

Alex Massie

The Filleting of Chris Matthews

There's a gauche quality to Chris Matthews, the long-time MSNBC gab-fest host, that could almost be endearing if it weren't for the unfortunate - and transparently obvious - truth that the man is a monumental ass. Anyone who has ever been tempted to throw a brick at the television when Matthews is yapping away will enjoy this delicious profile by Mark Leibovich in the New York Times Magazine. I doubt it's quite what Matthews expected when he agreed - with great enthusiasm I imagine - to be profiled. Granted, it's a peice for cable news junkies and Wahsington hacks above all else, but it's a great article. This is just one of many choice moments: “Hey, you haven’t looked around in here, have you?” he asked, gesturing toward me.