Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Thursday

Alex Massie

JFK: The Nastiest President of the Twentieth Century?

Who was the most reprehensible US President in the twentieth century? That's a tough question, though not one related to policy, political preferences or job performances. I mean instead: who was the nastiest piece of work to occupy the White House at any point during the last century. There are, I think, five contenders: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, John F Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Richard Nixon. Mimi Alford's new memoir, relating how she had an affair with JFK while working in a junior role at "Camelot" offers more form proving that the drug-wracked, priapic Kennedy is a leading contender in this grim contest.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Scottish Labour Embrace the Logic of Independence

One of the problems with the Scottish parliament is that all gathered there must pretend it is more influential and vital than it really is. In fact, as has been observed often enough, it has few powers that were not previously available to the Secretary of State for Scotland. What the parliament did, then, among other things, was establish a clear and plainly Scottish link between the electorate and the people charged with those responsibilities. Now the parliament is here there is a tendency to argue about, for example, the annual budget as though the Finance Minister at Holyrood is in some way comparable to the Chancellor of the Exchequer at Westminster. Thus Ken MacIntosh - remember him, Mr Miliband?

Alex Massie

Size Matters: Dysfunctional Government Edition

Via Andrew, Francis Fukuyama has a new gig at Stanford University running a Governance Project. Introducing it, he lobs a hand grenade at one aspect of American Exceptionalism:   I would argue that the quality of governance in the US tends to be low precisely because of a continuing tradition of Jacksonian populism. Americans with their democratic roots generally do not trust elite bureaucrats to the extent that the French, Germans, British, or Japanese have in years past. This distrust leads to micromanagement by Congress through proliferating rules and complex, self-contradictory legislative mandates which make poor quality governance a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Alex Massie

The Public Health Racket

A fine catch by Tim Worstall who rightly scoffs at this passage in today's Telegraph report on the (Westminster) government's plans to "tackle" alcohol consumption: [M]inisters are expected to unveil measures to increase the price of alcoholic drinks according to how strong they are. This could be done through higher taxation per unit, minimum pricing per unit or simply higher levels of duty for strong drinks. Ministers will also encourage companies to produce weaker alcoholic drinks. Prime Minister David Cameron is known to have sympathy with the idea of minimum pricing, which medics say could save nearly 10,000 lives per year if set at 50p per unit. Emphasis added.

Alex Massie

Does Iran Actually Want the Bomb?

The obvious answer to this is, Yes of course it does. Were I advising the Iranian regime I'd probably be pretty keen on developing a nuclear capability too. At the very least I should certainly want Iran's opponents to think Iran has serious nuclear ambitions. And yet, I'd also appreciate that if Iran's opponents really believe Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear weapon then the game enters a new and complicated phase that is dangerous for Iran too. So I might actually want Iran's opponents to be unsure or confused and prefer it if the question of Iran's nuclear desires remained ambiguous. That way, I might argue, Iran could enjoy some of the benefits of being a would-be nuclear power without taking on the risks of being so. All this, of course, is entirely speculative.

Alex Massie

Santorum for America! Really?

It figures that Rick Santorum would eventually have his turn in the sun in this crazed Presidential beauty contest. He's Mitt Romney's latest bum of the month, albeit one with more of a record than some and, by virtue of still being in the race, some staying power too. His victories in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri last night, added to his performance in Iowa, show one thing is certain: outside Nevada, Mitt Romney has a problem in any state that holds a caucus. (Missouri was a non-binding almost-nonsense last night; the other pair were caucuses, not primaries.) Does this make Santorum the comeback kid? Up to a point. The catholic vote over at National Review is breathless and excited this morning and that's their prerogative.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Halftime in America

Is this Chrysler ad, aired during the Superbowl, political? Sure it is, in the way that almost any call to ur-American greatness ends up being political. But it's not necessarily an endorsement, even of the dog-whistling variety, of the present administration. You can make a substitution too, after all. Mind you, it is tricky to imagine a British equivalent of this advert that would not be subjected to much mockery and laughter. Cue the old saw about two countries divided by a common language.

Friday

Alex Massie

Two Nations; One Calcutta Cup

Flower of Scotland is really a dreadful dirge. The one time it is acceptable, however, is when England come to Murrayfield. 'Tis 30 years since I first attended the Calcutta Cup. That was a 9-9 draw courtesy of the English prop Colin Smart who, in the dying moments, yapped at the referee causing a Scotland penalty to be advanced into the English half and therefore just within Andy Irvine's range. The great man duly kicked the goal to earn a draw. Happy, relieved times. The following year I visited Twickenham for the first time and, lord, if you had told my eight year old self that would be the last Scottish victory in south-west London for 30 years, that wee boy would have wept.

Alex Massie

Mike Russell and the Mythical Anti-Scottish Conspiracy

Mike Russell is a genial chap who, most of the time, is not much of a fool. Most of the time is not all the time, however, and this week he has, inadvertently, illuminated some of the reasons why the SNP struggles with what the Americans call "high-information*" voters. Mr Russell, the Scottish government's education minister, became the latest senior SNP figure to accuse his opponents of being "anti-Scottish". This is an increasingly tedious line of attack and one suggesting both a certain defensiveness and a bleak lack of imagination. There is also a Boy Who Cried Wolf problem: kneejerk suggestions that policy differences are motivated by anti-Caledonian spite or treachery diminish the salience of the real thing.

Alex Massie

Falklands Talks? There Is Nothing To Talk About.

So much for today's Guardian. In the Independent, Philip Hensher has a grand solution for the "Falklands Problem": we should jst sell the islands to Argentina. [I]t might be worth raising the question with the Argentinians. We've got absolutely no money. I really doubt we have much stomach for another Falklands War, and then another. They are clearly passionately keen to acquire some territory with rich resources, high GDP and as much sentimental value as you can maintain for something 300 miles from your coastline. It might be worth a lot of money in the future, but actually we could quite do with some money now, this second.

Alex Massie

Sir Simon Jenkins Is Peddling Weapons-Grade Tripe. Again.

Via Norm, I see that Sir Simon Jenkins is up to his old tricks, publishing yet another meretricious column on the Afghan war which, all too conveniently, manages to ignore the reason why US and allied troops ever landed in that benighted country in the first place. That's right: Sir Simon never mentions 9/11. Not even in passing. Reading his column you could be forgiven for thinking US generals (and their British accomplices) sat around discussing the need to give their troops some proper entertainment. A kind of Club Hindu Kush M16. What a jolly wheeze! Anyone who knows anything about the Americans would know better than to describe the Afghan war as "a neocon fantasy". Sir Simon Jenkins does not fall into this category.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Is Ed Miliband Really a Debate-Changer?

According to Nick Cohen Ed Miliband is Britain's Greatest Leader of the Opposition. Blimey, that's quite a statement. He's a plucky wee chap too: Ed Miliband is a geek, a failure and a loser. All the press says so, so it must be true. Yet the apparent no-hoper retains the ability of the boy who confronted the naked emperor to change the terms of debate. But what debates has he changed? Nick suggests Miliband was brave to stand-up to Rupert Murdoch and that he's been right to lead the way in banker-bashing. Perhaps so. But few people outside Westminster (and parts of north London) actually care very much, if at all, about Rupert Murdoch even if they do deplore (or pretend to deplore) the tabloids. It's not a vote-harvesting issue.

Alex Massie

Education is not rocket science

The other day John Rentoul, that noted Blairite scallywag, suggested David Cameron could improve his lot by binning Andrew Lansley and replacing him at the Department of Health with Michael Gove. I dare say this is true. It would, nevertheless, be a depressing, avoidable error. Mr Gove's education revolution - built upon Blairite foundations - may be the shining star in an otherwise cloudy coalition firmament. This will not, alas, bring much electoral benefit but some things are more important than winning votes. Education policy is one of those things. Mr Lansley is floundering and the government's confused and confusing approach to the NHS will cost it votes for it is a sad truth that the Department of Health is, politically speaking, more important than the Department of Education.

Alex Massie

Alex Salmond’s problems with women (and the wealthy and the old)

Like the Peat Worrier and Kate Higgins, I think the headline figures on polls asking Scots whether they fancy independence or the Union are much less interesting than the numbers lurking beneath the surface. For it is these that reveal where Alex Salmond has the upper hand (at least for now) and where he most certainly does not. The latest Ipsos-Mori poll reports*, as Brother Jones noted the other day, that 39% of Scots certain to vote in the referendum favour independence. That's dandy but not all that intriguing. Poke beneath the surface, however, and you find this: 45% of men back independence; just 30% of women do so.  45% of 18-34 year olds back independence; just 30% of Scots over 55 do so.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Sir Fred Should Have Kept His Knighthood

So poor old Fred Goodwin has been stripped of his knighthood. Apparently, betting big on a Dutch bank and getting it catastrophically wrong means you end up bringing the honours system into some kind of disrepute. At this point let me remind you that Alan Sugar has a peerage. As with the question of bonuses at RBS (which, if memory serves turned a £2bn profit last year), so the outrage and ordure chucked at Sir Fred was enough to make one feel slightly sorry for him. Not, of course, that he needs much sympathy but there's something unedifying about seeing even rich men and bankers throw to the Daily Mail and other members of the wolf pack in quite this fashion. Mob "justice" is mob "justice" even when it is notionally in a good cause.

Monday

Alex Massie

Scotland: A Land Where Conservative Principles Die

For some time now we have been told - by the editor of this magazine among other, less distinguished, commentators - that David Cameron and the Downing Street machine view Scotland as a rum, far-off place about which they know little and which, on the rare occasions they pay attention to it, perplexes them mightily. One would like to think this were not the case but it seems a dispiriting and accurate appraisal. Why - indeed why-oh-why - do Conservatives abandon the principles of Conservatism when discussion turns to Scotland? On Sunday "sources close to the Prime Minister" apparently ruled out any talk of fiscal autonomy, devolution plus, devo max or anything else you care to call the useful accumulation of greater revenue powers at Holyrood.

Alex Massie

Astonishing Scenes as Sarah Palin Says Something Useful…

Sarah Palin has provided us with a helpful distillation of what Newt Gingrich's campaign is all about: At the weekend the ex-house speaker, Newt Gingrich had an endorsement from the former front-runner, Herman Cain, and the Florida Tea Party. But his biggest backing, and probably the most influential, has come from the 2008 V-P candidate, Sarah Palin who went on Fox TV yesterday to say, "if for no other reason, rage against the machine, vote for Newt; annoy a liberal, vote Newt. Keep this vetting process* going, keep the debate going". Since annoying liberals is Mrs Palin's secondary** aim in life she knows well of what she speaks.

Alex Massie

Can Home Rule Solve Scotland’s Problems?

This is not a Question To Which the Answer Must Be No. I too saw the headline Now 51% Back Independence and thought, "Well, that's interesting but implausible". Then I noticed it was a Sunday Express splash and revised my appraisal to "That's obviously cobblers". And so it is, making it mildly foolish for SNP types to boast of a breakthrough on the back of a sample of 200 Scots that's harldy more dispositive than polling, say, my Facebook pals. Nevertheless, Fraser's post yesterday won't quite do either. For instance, the boss writes: My hunch is that Cameron’s intervention will not have helped Salmond.

Friday

Alex Massie

Ed Miliband Surpasses Himself

Miliband Attacks Cameron Over Chocolate Oranges might win a prize for the headline that best summarises Ed Miliband's stewardship of the Labour party. In case you still can't believe this is the case, let me repeat it: Miliband Attacks Cameron Over Chocolate Oranges. It is so dire, so naff, so excruciatingly hilarious that I thought it had to be a joke. But no, this is the BBC not the Daily Mash. Here's what Brave Sir Miliband told the House magazine: Ed Miliband has attacked David Cameron for failing to stop the sale of cut-price Chocolate Oranges - something the PM complained about in opposition. In 2006, Mr Cameron criticised WH Smith for discounting chocolate rather than fruit despite the UK's obesity crisis.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Newt: Ronald Reagan is as Dangerous as Neville Chamberlain

There are many reasons why Newt Gingrich remains a preposterous candidate for the Republican party's presidential nomination. Among them the fact that just about anyone who has ever had dealings with him - including a majority of his wives - hate him. Here's Elliott Abrams dredging up some gems settling some scores from the 1980s back in the days when Newt thought Ronald Reagan a dangerous pinko-namby-pamby: The best examples come from a famous floor statement Gingrich made on March 21, 1986. This was right in the middle of the fight over funding for the Nicaraguan contras; the money had been cut off by Congress in 1985, though Reagan got $100 million for this cause in 1986.