Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Friday

Alex Massie

Prisoner: Cell Block Athens

From our UK edition

The Financial Times has a swell story today, demonstrating how Greece, already a ward of Brussels, is not likely to be trusted with even its own pocket-money, far less be allowed out without a chaperone. She is imprisoned: European creditor countries are demanding 38 specific changes in Greek tax, spending and wage policies by the end of this month and have laid out extra reforms that amount to micromanaging the country’s government for two years, according to documents obtained by the Financial Times. The reforms, spelt out in three separate memoranda of a combined 90 pages, are the price that Greece has agreed to pay to obtain a €130bn second bail-out and avoid a sovereign default that the government feared would throw Greek society into turmoil.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Marco Rubio: Mormon!

From our UK edition

It's still too soon for Veepstakes - that game is supposed to be played in July - and, anyway, there isn't a nominee yet. Still, Buzzfeed's scoop that Marco Rubio was a baptised Mormon (and thus is likely still counted, at least by the church, as a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints) is a proper new fact. It's also a story that makes Rubio seem more, not less, interesting: In the compelling personal narrative that has helped propel Florida Senator Marco Rubio to national political stardom, one chapter has gone completely untold: Rubio spent his childhood as a faithful Mormon.

Alex Massie

Did Mitt Romney Really Change His Mind on Abortion?

From our UK edition

Poor Mitt Romney. Once upon a time he aspired to run Massachussetts, a state which backs legal abortion; now he aspires to lead a Republican party which will not willingly be led by a politician who calls himself "pro-choice". No woder Romney's abortion "journey" has been a remarkable one that, in the end, causes as many problem for him as it solves. His "conversion" story is humiliating since it can't possibly reassure those it is meant to convince; it also undermines Romney's credibility with voters who don't actually care very much about these issues. Yet, in the end, faced with an inconvenient history and compelled to dwell, repeatedly, on difficult moral issues that are, lord knows, a million miles from the subjects Romney is actually interested in.

Alex Massie

Iran Hawks Circling

From our UK edition

At National Review, Mario Loyola offers a pretty succinct summary of the conservative (that is, American conservative) case for attacking Iran: [I]n an editorial, the Wall Street Journal makes the same points that I made on the Corner over the weekend, here and here. The only way to convince Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons is to convince it that the risks of pressing on are prohibitive. Almost certainly the only way to do that is to convince them that military strikes are coming if they don’t pull back. If the goal is to deter from getting the bomb in the first place, then we should be giving Iran the impression that we’re prepared for a showdown, with or without Israel.  But we’re very clearly doing the opposite.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Cameron Ducks His Own Scottish Question

From our UK edition

Since the NHS is a subject even more boring than American healthcare, I was more interested by the Prime Minister's response to a question from Angus MacNeill that, though I might have worded it differently, was a perfectly reasonable query that deserved better than the non-answer given by the Prime Minister. This was their exchange: Angus MacNeil: Last week in Edinburgh the Prime Minister said there were more powers on the table for Scotland but couldn’t name any. A few months ago he mocked the idea of Scotland controlling its own oil wealth. In the Scotland Bill, even the Crown Estate was too big. Can the Prime Minister now name one power that he has on his mind from his latest u-turn. David Cameron: I didn’t think that the SNP favoured devolution.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Darling: This is a Greek Versailles Treaty

From our UK edition

Alistair Darling's suggestion that income tax might be devolved (entirely!) to Scotland as part of a new post-referendum "settlement" was, understandably, the headline part of his Scotland on Sunday interview at the weekend. But his views on the Greek crisis were even more candid: His assessment of the Greek crisis is astonishingly frank. “The policy they [European leaders] are pursuing towards Greece is sheer lunacy. Nobody actually believes it will work privately, if you speak to people.” Even if everything worked, he notes that Greece would still have debts worth 120 per cent of its national income. “It will still leave the country so indebted and so crippled that it will never pay its way.

Alex Massie

British Sailors for British Ships!

From our UK edition

Mary Wakefield, writing this week's Diary column for the magazine (remember: subscribe!), deplores the Art Fund's appeal for public subscribers to help purchase Yinka Shonibare's Victory in a bottle so it may be displayed at Greenwich: Every day, except when it’s raining, I cycle to work through Trafalgar Square and pause to gaze at the ship in a big plastic bottle on the fourth plinth. What makes it so horrid? The ship is a scale model of Nelson’s Victory with sails made of an African print and I’m told it symbolises the triumph of ethnic diversity over pallid, monocultural imperial Britain. But that doesn’t make it pretty. To each their own; Shonibare's work seems playful and even fun to me.

Alex Massie

10% of Voters Will Agree With Anything (Except for the Canadian Question)

From our UK edition

Almost no belief is so barmy it can't win the approval of at least one in ten voters. The problem for politicians is that the nutty tenth is not fixed. Indeed, perhaps a majority of the population is, on occasion, likely to be a member of the loopy group. The latest evidence that a tenth of the population is utterly unsound on even the simplest questions comes from a Gallup survey of American attitudes to other countries: Perhaps some of those pleased with North Korea thought they were being asked their views on South Korea. Whatever. That one in ten Americans professes to have a positive view of Iran is, all things considered, quite remarkable. To put it another way: for every American who hates Canada there are three who like Iran and four who like North Korea.

Alex Massie

Rick Santorum’s Passion: A Religious Problem

From our UK edition

There are many, many reason that explain why Rick Santorum will not be the next President of the United States. His religion problem is just one of them. True, many Americans say they wouldn't trust an atheist with high office (and som have their doubts about Mormons too) but I also fancy many won't vote for a candidate who believes mainline, non-evangelical protestantism has been infected and corrupted by Satan. Rick Santorum does. He is an extremist and there's nothing wrong with that except for the tiny detail that extremists very rarely prevail in national elections. Consider this 2008 speech at Ave Maria University in Florida (audio here): This is not a political war at all. This is not a cultural war. This is a spiritual war.

Friday

Alex Massie

Can Cameron Deliver on His Promise to Scotland?

From our UK edition

Well, Pete, I'm not so sure that David Cameron done brilliant in Edinburgh yesterday. To put it mildly, he has complicated an already complex situation. How does the Prime Minister think Scotland should be governed? How much Home Rule does he think is enough Home Rule? What "further powers" does he mean? Neither his speech nor his answers to questions give us any real idea at all. As I said yesterday, at least we have a reasonable - if still imperfect - idea of what Alex Salmond means by independence. Cameron's preferences? An utter mystery. Moreover, if, as he plainly concedes there is a reasonable case for "further powers" then why must we wait until 2015 to discover what they may be or have a proper debate about the next phase of Home Rule's evolution?

Thursday

Alex Massie

David Cameron Abandons The Tory Diehards

From our UK edition

David Cameron's apparent willingness to contemplate greater devolution after an independence referendum (pithily summarised by one SNP MSP as: Vote no to cake today so I might give you some cake tomorrow) really is both sensible and startling. As recently as last month the official UK government position was, if I remember it correctly, independence or nowt. Now it is some kind of souped-up Home Rule or independence. This is quite a dramatic, sudden shift. Has anyone told Ruth Davidson about this or asked her opinion? Those of us on the right of Scottish politics have reason to welcome the Prime Minister's shift. Again, just last month Downing Street "sources" were telling the press that greater fiscal powers for Scotland were simply "inconsistent" with life within the United Kingdom.

Alex Massie

David Cameron Opens the Door to Devo-Max

From our UK edition

At this moment, I dare say industrious hacks are searching for politicians to condemn David Cameron for "selling the jerseys" on the question of further powers for the Scottish parliament after an independence referendum (assuming that Alex Salmond is defeated). Isn't the Prime Minister in danger of conceding what Salmond really wants? Well, maybe. But what if he is? Perhaps Mr Cameron is less beholden to out-of-date Unionist shibboleths than you might think. Or, of course, perhaps he knows not of what he speaks. His speech in Edinburgh today is not, in fact, a bad one. It is better than his article in today's Scotsman. In fact, it was One Nation Dave in excelsis. This is, in policy terms, the key passage: And let me say something else about devolution.

Alex Massie

Alex Salmond, Supply-Sider?

From our UK edition

Today's Chat With Dave is all very well and good but Alex Salmond's speech to the LSE last night was just as significant. Much of the wrangling about Scottish independence has, for respectable reasons, concentrated on matters of process leaving the substance of what an independent Scotland might actually be like for another day. This too is reasonable since so much is speculative at this stage and, in any case, one should not necessarily presume that the SNP would dominate post-independence politics. Nevertheless, it is useful to have an idea of what Alex Salmond considers important. What he emphasises now is the best available guide to what might be emphasised in a best-case scenario in the future.

Alex Massie

Mr Cameron Comes To Edinburgh

From our UK edition

So Dave meets Eck at St Andrews House today. Earlier in the week there had been talk that their tea-time chat was nothing more than a "courtesy call" from the Prime Minister, popping in for a cuppa since, well, he was in the neighbourhood anyway. Perhaps. More importantly, this is the first meeting between the two since Alex Salmond announced he plans to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in the autumn of 2014. The details of that remain unresolved and important but, in terms of mood and optics, Salmond's meeting with David Cameron bears some resemblance to a press conference announcing and confirming an eagerly-anticipated prize fight is announced. This one is going ahead, the purse his huge and this is the contest that will define both fighters' legacy.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Rick Santorum: As Electable As George Wallace

From our UK edition

On the other hand, Jonathan Chait makes an argument that, though "electability" is notionally Mitt Romney's greatest strength, there's reason to suppose he's no more electable than Rick Santorum. It's true that Santorum, as yet unpummelled on the national stage, can conceivably reach downscale voters for whom Romney's Bain Capital background is a significant problem. As Chait puts it: As hard a time as Santorum would have closing the sale among certain moderate quarters, I don’t think it’s sunk in quite how poisoned Romney’s image has become among downscale voters.

Alex Massie

Santorum’s Pill Problem

From our UK edition

The Republican presidential circus continues to offer great entertainment. For this, Mitt Romney is owed many thanks. His weakness as a front-runner are the reason you can enjoy Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum being treated as semi-serious contenders. (Though don't underestimate the impact of the media's evident desire to prolong the race either.) Michigan - of which more later - is Romney's latest firewall. A defeat in the state his father governed (albeit decades ago) and that he won convincingly four years ago is not so easily shaken off as accidents in Colorado or Minnesota. Nevertheless, Rmney remains the only plausible November candidate available.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Abu Qatada Should Stay in Britain

From our UK edition

I am sure Dan Hodges is correct: Abu Qatada is not a great poster boy for civil liberties. He is not a British citizen and seems to have abused the privileges afforded him when he was granted asylum in this country. Deporting him to Jordan, where he is wanted on terrorism charges, must be a popular move. Nevertheless, the European Court of Human Rights has a strong case: sending Qatada to a country in which the evidence against him may well depend upon torture compromises Qatada's hopes of a fair trial. Even if this were not the case you might think the fact he would be put on trial in Jordan is enough to compromise his prospects for a decent trial. Jordan may not be Saudi Arabia or Iran but it is not Canada or Finland either.

Thursday

Alex Massie

The Waugh Scale of Schools: Some Aren’t Even Schools

From our UK edition

As is customary, one prefaces this post with the observation that there are very many fine state schools and many others, a good number of which are also grand, that do tireless work in demanding circumstances. Nevertheless... According to government data released today, in England last year there were: 137 schools where no pupils were entered for geography GCSE 57 schools where no pupils were entered for history GCSE 30 schools where no pupils were entered for a modern language GCSE 219 schools where no pupils were entered for French GCSE 1,067 schools where no pupils were entered for Spanish GCSE 516 schools where no pupils were entered for any of the individual science GCSEs For context: there are 3,100 secondary schools in England.

Alex Massie

Donald Trump: I Am Trying To Save Scotland

From our UK edition

The SNP's other big idea - apart from independence - is to make Scotland a kind of renewable energy pioneer. To that end, something close to open season has been declared on parts of the countryside as developers rush to erect as many windfarms as can feasibly be erected in, well, just about every part of the country within easy cabling distance of the national grid. Like many others, I am not wholly persuaded this is an unmitigated blessing. Tidal and wave power in the Pentland Firth (or Sound of Islay) is one thing; plastering the countryside with windmills another. Enter Donald Trump, harrumphing from stage left.

Alex Massie

The Great Pundit Hope: A Deadlocked Convention

From our UK edition

The Santorum Surge is, plainly, grand news for pundits desperately in search of new ways of spinning out the low drama and even lower comedy of this year's Great Presidential Handicap. Nothing, equally plainly, could be better than a race that stretches into June. Nothing, that is, save a deadlocked convention this summer and all the fun and chaos that would ensue from that. Can Mitt Romney actually win the 1,144 delegates he needs to secure the nomination? The Washington Examiner's Philip Klein has his doubts, reckoning that, should matters continue as they are, Romney could still come up short. That's based, in part, on the fact that many states this year will award their delegates on a proportional basis.