Earl Scruggs, 1924-2012
The man who was probably the greatest banjo player in history has died, aged 88. Steve Martin says everything that needs to be said here. Here he and Earl are performing the immortal Foggy Mountain Breakdown.
Alex Massie
Thursday
Tuesday
Another Bleak Day for British Liberties
Should you receive a jail sentence for being an idiot on Twitter? Apparently so! Liam Stacey, the 21 year old who tweeted "LOL, Fuck Muamba. He's dead" after the Bolton Wanderers' collapse at White Hart Lane is off to spend 56 days in prison for this and other (unpleasant) "racially offensive" tweets. Cue much outrage everywhere. The boy appears to be a moron, but should that be an imprisonable offence? I cannot see what crime has been committed here, save the trumped-up charge of causing needless and witless offence. Tedious as this may be it ought not to be a matter for the authorities.
What’s Next: Plain Packaging for Booze?
Hats-off to Dick Puddlecote and Chris Snowdon for being quick to notice the latest absurdity being considered by the Commons health select committee: plain packaging for alcohol. Yes, really. The committee is holding a consultation on the government's "alcohol strategy" (and how depressing it is to contemplate the very existence of such a thing) as part of which they are soliciting views on a number of control-measures. These include: Raising the legal drinking age; and Plain packaging and marketing bans. Come now, you may say, this is only a "listening exercise" conducted by a committee of backbench MPs. To which I reply: come off it, are you still that naive? The public health racket specialises in opening Overton Windows. This is another example of that.
Yes, the NHS Must Treat Fat Folk
A truly repellent piece by Cristina Odone in the Telegraph in which she argues for NHS-rationing by liefestyle and wealth. That's not quite how she puts it, for sure, but her suggestion that (middle-class) pensioners are losing out to (lower-class) fat people and that something should be bloody done about this is the kind of classist call for healthcare rationing that well, let her make her case herself... [A]ge comes to us all, and is not the result of lifestyle choices. There are plenty of conditions, though, that are the direct result of bad habits, poor diet, and the wrong choices [Sic]. These conditions range from obesity and diabetes to smoking-related diseases like emphesema.
Naff Britannia, Revisited
Briefly: not content with producing the worst kit in British Olympic history Stella McCartney returns to the well of drivel to tell us that: "I was aware of the fact that it's [the Union Flag] something that might be overused in the build-up to the Olympics, in taxis, on cushions and mugs, so I wanted to do something different with it - but that was still respectful of its beauty," McCartney said. "Actually, the colours of the Union Jack are similar to a lot of other flags and the athletes really wanted to feel identifiable as Team GB, so I just used different colours to say the same thing." Emphasis added and no further comment is required save this: Stella McCartney has certainly managed to differentiate the British team from the French or Americans or Dutch or Russians.
Monday
Osborne, the Master Strategist
According to John Rentoul, the combination of the budget and Cam Dine With Me* has shunted Labour into a ten point lead in the opinion polls. Tuesday's Independent/ComRes poll puts Labour on 43% (+3) and the Tories - as you may have worked out by now - on 33% (-4). How to spin this? 1. It's only one poll. 2. The poll that counts is the general election. 3. Better to take the hit on 50p and Granny-raiding now, not later. 4. This is a verdict on the coalition, not Labour. Voters will change their views when they must think about Ed Miliband. 5. Who cares? Each of these points has some merit. Nevertheless, I'm not sure they will do.
Jocky Wilson, 1950-2012
Jocky Wilson, who died on Saturday night aged 62, was a very Scottish sporting hero: short, fat and toothless he was touched by equal measures of brilliance and self-destruction. Darts is glitzy now but back in its 1980s pomp it needed no rock music or scantily-clad dancing girls to lend an air of semi-ironic gladiatorial mock-heroism to the action. Especially during the World Champioships, three men made darts compulsive television: Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Jocky Wilson. The supporting cast - featuring "Big Cliff" Lazarenko, Leighton Rees. Keith Deller and Bob Anderson ("The Limestone Cowboy") were grand but never commanded the stage like darts' original Big Three.
Friday
Cameron’s Message to the Scottish Tories: Man Up, You Wimps
On the Daily Politics today Andrew Neil asked David Mundell Why are the Scottish Tories so useless? It will not surprise veteran Mundell-watchers that the member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale did not have a great answer to this blunt question. Nevertheless, Mr Neil's question was, in effect, the theme or premise of the Prime Minister's speech to the Scottish Tory Conference this morning. Much of Mr Cameron's speech was the usual conference boilerplate. All very well and good but not especially meaningful. There was one important passage, however: I say it's time we stood up even more strongly for what we believe in. Because when you make a strong argument, you know what? People listen. Not everyone will agree - but those who do will follow your lead.
Bertie Ahern’s Greatest Trick: Shaming the Shameless
My friend Ciaran Byrne is right: If Rupert Murdoch owned Fianna Fail he'd close it down. The Mahon Tribunal's report into the flagrant corruption at the heart of the planning process in County Dublin is a very Irish scandal. It is not surprising that senior Fianna Fail politicians were on the take, yet the extent of their corruption remains revelatory. It's GUBU for the Celtic Tiger era. Now Bertie Ahern, the former Taoiseach once branded "the most skilfull, the most devious, the most cunning of them all" by Charlie Haughey (and he would know!), is set to be expelled from the party he dominated for a decade for "conduct unbecoming a member of Fianna Fail". This is, in its way, an achievement to be ranked with any in a career as murky as it was successful.
The Department of Something Must Be Done & the Drink Police
Even if you accept that the government's plans for a minimum alcohol price in England and Wales are well-intentioned you can be pretty sure that it's a bad idea. How so? Well, the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats each agree that something must be done and this kind of cross-party agreement tends to be a healthy indicator there's bipartisan foolishness afoot. Alcohol consumption is a complicated phenomenon and the price of drink is only one factor in a story that saw booze consumption fall for decades, rise again towards Victorian levels and then, in the past decade, actually begin to fall again. So is this legislation even necessary?
Thursday
Naff Britannia
The Olympic games will, despite everything, be rather fun. This is so even though they will be tediously excessive. The absurdly lavish opening ceremony, for instance, will doubtless be an embarrassment that could have been avoided by keeping it simple. Asking the band of the Grenadier Guards to play a few tunes would have sufficed and been pleasingly British, modest and elegant. It would have offered a nice contrast to the totalitarian excess of the Beijing games. Alas, the indignity will not end there. Consider the outfits the poor British athletes will be forced to wear. Unveiled, if that's the appropriate term, today they appear to be inspired by the corporate branding of one of those insurance companies given a new, made-up, non-name such as Aviva or whatnot.
Soak the Old
So George Osborne has received a kicking in today's press. That's what happens when you try to disguise a tax-raising budget as a tax-cutting affair. This is also a fine lesson in press management. For when you leak everything else in the budget do not be surprised if the press - bastards hungry for novelty and all that - leap upon the sneaky little tax rise that you did not leak in advance. It's that odd thing called "news", you see. And, again, perhaps Osborne has been just a little bit too clever by half. His so-called "Granny Tax" was a classic ploy of the kind oft-favoured by Gordon Brown, slipped into the budget and mentioned only fleetingly in the hope no-one would notice. It turns out that tinkering George is Gordon's son and heir.
Wednesday
The Cost of Living Like This
Brother Jones and Fraser and Pete have already given you some of the useful charts from today's budget. But the truth of this budget can be summarised quite simply: Everyone Pays More. Here's the proof, culled from the Red Book: Conservative Home say this shoots Ed Miliband's fox, proving that the rich will pay more as a consequence of this budget. Up to a point. In pure cash terms, the total impact of the budget may be greater on the wealthiest 10%; in proportional terms it seems to hit those on lower incomes rather harder. Again, however, note this: George Osborne appears to have delivered a tax-raising budget. If Britain is going to "earn its way", Britons are also going to pay their way. Such are the strictures of these astringent times.
Let the Tax Competition Games Begin!
It is not right to say that this is the last United Kingdom budget. Far from it. Nevertheless, the times they be changing. Due to an unfortunate coincidence of parliamentary timing (though doubtless some will see a conspiracy in this) the Scotland Bill will be agreed today. It will, naturally, be lost amidst the budget brouhaha but it is a significant moment nevertheless. The SNP have made their peace with the coalition, recognising that the Calman Commission's recommendations, imperfect though they may be, are another step towards a more independent future. Significantly, the Scotland Bill accepts the proposition that it is perfectly feasible, and perhaps even proper, for the different parts of the United Kingdom to levy different rates of income tax.
Tuesday
The Limits of Political Speech: Talking About Everything Just Makes It Worse
The Sunday Telegraph was sensible enough to publish a pleasing article by Brother Hoskin last weekend in which our man took the temperature of political speech-making in Britain today and, concluded, that it is, well, tepid. The speechwriters Pete talked to seem to agree. The decline of the political speech is, for sure, a minority concern. The people are not troubled by it. In any case, journalists, being in the word business themselves, are prone to over-estimating the power of political speech. Except in unusual circumstances, economic fundamentals are more important than Prime Ministerial or Presidential rhetoric. Perhaps the best advice in Pete's article is that David Cameron should make fewer speeches, not more.
Will the Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up?
Congratulations to YouTube user Hugh Atkin for this mash-up. Nicely done.
The Trouble with George: Politics & Economics Do Not Always Mix
Today's top Westminster read is James Kirkup's article on the Treasury smart set. It builds a good foundation from which to argue that for all David Cameron and George Osbourne dislike being compared to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, there remain good grounds for making that kind of comparison. And already we can see, as James says, some daylight between Numbers 10 and 11. Perhaps we should not make too much of this. Cameron and Osborne remain exceedingly close. Even if most Prime Ministers lose patience with thier Chancellors their relationship is not bound to end acrimoniously. Nevertheless, they begin from a position less propitious than that which faced Blair and Brown when the Labour pair moved in to Downing Street.
Illinois Votes; Mitt Romney Wins; Race Still Over
The Illinois primary is today and looks like handing good news to Mitt Romney and poor news to reporters and pundits desperately trying to rustle-up fresh interest in a contest that has been dying for weeks now and certainly since Rick Santorum failed to make an apreciable Super Tuesday impact on Romney's lead in both actual votes cast and delegates won. This is annoying since Romney is duller than his rivals. No moon-bases or wars on contraception for him, more's the pity.
Friday
How To Lose An Argument: Gay Marriage & Opus Dei Edition
Jack Valero is the press officer for Opus Dei in the United Kingdom. Plainly, his tweet is made in a personal capacity but it's not really so far removed form the kind of talk one hears from the Vatican these days. It is hysterical stuff and hysteria is not the best preparation for winnning arguments. In one sense, sure, gay marriage is quite a large shift but it is also the case that extending civil recognition to homosexual unions is not really such a mammoth change at all. It is, moreover, a logical consequence of the decriminalisation of homosexuality. It is a recognition of commitment, humanity and dignity. Why should catholics, however strict, be afraid of that?
100 x 100
Well he's done it. At last. Surprisingly, this was Sachin Tendulkar's first ODI century against Bangladesh. One hundred international hundreds - 51 in test cricket and 49 in the abbreviated game - is an achievement so astonishing it becomes mesmerising the more time you spend contemplating it. Better still, however, is the fact that it is impossible to imagine how anyone who loves cricket can fail to be pleased today. Tendulkar is a rare creature: a master without enemies or begrudgers. Everyone likes him; everyone feels a little protective of the Little Master. And so we should for we will not see anyone match this mark in many a year. It may, like 99.94, stand unsurpassed forever.