Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Tuesday

Alex Massie

If Liam Fox is to be sacked, let it be for the right reasons.

Since Liam Fox's lawyers are busy, twitchy buggers I'll make a point of saying I have no idea whether he's guilty of much more than foolishness in this Adam Werrity business. Certainly, Fox does not lack for friends and he owes George Osborne a favour (to be cashed doubtless in the event of an Osborne tilt for the party leadership). He might also buy Jim Murphy a pint since yesterday the Shadow Defence Secretary inexplicably failed to target Fox's "judgment". That said, if you judge a "scandal" by whether or not you think the accused should or would have to resign were he or she playing for the other team then I think honest Tories would have to admit that Fox is kippered now.

Monday

Alex Massie

An Ad We’ve Been Waiting For

As far as I can tell Mitt Romney has been hoping that everyone will be fed up with health care reform by the time the primary season rolls around. That way perhaps people will forget that his Massachusetts bill - once much-praised by the Heritage Foundation and other conservatives - is not wholly dissimilar to the bill President Obama signed for the rest of the United States. Rick Perry ain't about to let Romney forget this: First thing to be said about this: it's way cool. Second, let's have ads like this in the UK too. Thirdly: Romney's case is about pragmatism not principle. In a way, then, this ad makes that point for Romney too even as it argues he should be "unacceptable" to mainstream conservatives.

Friday

Alex Massie

Lessons in How Politics Works: Chris Huhne Edition

Presumably Chris Huhne didn't send this Tweet either? Clearly this was supposed to be a private message text message sent to some lobby hack, presumably with Huhne complaining about George Osborne or something like that. It's getting to the stage where it's more embarrassing - that is pitifully humiliating - to keep Huhne hanging around in the cabinet than it would be to send him off into the wilderness of the Lib Dem backbenches.

Alex Massie

Yesterday’s Men for Tomorrow’s Woman

If Murdo Fraser can boast that a bare majority of his colleagues are backing his leadership campaign, Ruth Davidson enjoys the support of many of the party grandees. Indeed with the likes of Michael Ancram and Lords Forsyth and Sanderson in her corner it's tempting to suggest her campaign amounts to Yesterday's Men for Tomorrow's Woman. The best thing Ruth - whom I've known for many years - has done in this campaign is pledge to support cutting income tax. Not because there's any prospect the Tories will be able to deliver this any time soon but because it sends an overdue signal about what the party believes in. It offers a contrast with the other parties that, however fledgling, has the chance of taking flight one day. There needs to be much more of this.

Alex Massie

Murdo Fraser’s Eightsome Reel

With one notable exception most of the Tory "establishment" appears to be backing Ruth Davidson in the Scottish Conservative leadership election. That exception is David McLetchie. The former leader has announced he is endorsing Murdo Fraser. But, as befits an Edinburgh lawyer, McLetchie's support is not perhaps quite as forthright as Fraser would like. Although he praises Murdo's "ability, experience and vision" he adds: “So far this campaign has been dominated by discussion of Murdo's proposal to realign the centre right in Scottish politics in a new party of which the present Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party would be an integral part. Indeed it would be an essential and necessary part because only with the approval of our members will this happen at all.

Alex Massie

The Case for Compromising

My friend Will Wilkinson, mischievous and provocative as ever, reacts to the Steve Jobs mania in a typically interesting way: Ever since Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO, the video of his 2005 graduation address at Stanford has been in wide circulation and has been unavoidable since yesterday. It's a nice enough sermon. It's the usual litany of American banalities about being yourself and chasing your dreams and never ever ever settling for anything less than a universe bent and hammered into the shape dictated by your utterly unique authentic will. It's more or less the message the lithesome young contestants of "So You Think You Can Dance?" weekly impart to their fans in TV-land because they can't think of anything else to say. [...] As an undergrad I was an art major.

Alex Massie

Where Form Met Function

Aesthetics matter. Form matters. Form matters even more when it enables function. In this respect Apple and Steve Jobs really did help create modern computing. Nevertheless, as Kevin Drum explains here there were very good reasons why PCs trounced Apple in the computer business (I write this as someone who loves my Mac). In time, however, we'll probably look back on the development of personal computing as a messy, collaborative affair in which many companies played important roles. They all helped "change the world". As Tim Berners Lee puts it, Jobs' most important insight was: [T]o insist that computers could be usable rather than totally infuriating! Steve was a champion of usable technology - even sexy technology.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Where Do Asylum Seekers Come From?

A useful chart of the "Top Ten" nationalities of asylum applicants to the UK in 2010: I suppose one mildly happy consequence of the fuss over immigration from eastern europe (and elsewhere) is that there is less talk than there used to be about Britain being "flooded" by "bogus" asylum seekers. Doubtless there remain some claims that could be thought questionable but one need not be blessed with too much imagination to accept that there might be excellent reasons for fleeing Iran or Zimbabwe or China or Sudan or any of the other countries on this list. Soft-touch Britain? That's not something supported by these numbers.

Alex Massie

Catflap Latest: Sack Theresa May!

Good god, #Catflap shows no sign of abating. And people are losing their minds over it. Poor old Tim Montgomerie is the latest fellow to see the rumpus as an excuse to get rid of Ken Clarke. Apparently a "Cabinet minister should never publicly attack a colleague" and so Ken must be sacked as soon as possible. Personally, I'd rather Cabinet Ministers ceased behaving like idiots and since May is the idiot in this case, if a head must roll it should be the Home Secretary's. She started the Catflap after all and only in the topsy-turvy political land could Ken carry the can for telling the truth while May escapes without censure despite wilfully (or, if you prefer, carelessly) misleading the public. And what is Ken's crime?

Alex Massie

The Cult of Jobs

The immediate beatification of Steve Jobs, the visionary Apple chief who has been killed by pancreatic cancer aged 56, fulfills all the criteria for mass delusion and is evidence of some kind of quasi-religious quackery. The Book of Jobs, indeed. Sky News report that Apple-obsessives are "flocking" to Apple stores, presumably to "pay tribute" to the man behind the iBook, iPod, IPhone and iPad. Here again we may pause and wonder at the Mania of Crowds. There are live-blogs and vigils and everyone is iSad and all the rest of it. Strewth! To say this does not diminish Mr Jobs' achievements. It merely asks that we keep them in some kind of perspective and by doing so might better honour his life, work and legacy.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Sarah Palin Aborts Kamikaze Mission

Six months ago I'd have said Sarah Palin was more likely to run for the Presidency in 2012 than pass on the chance. But as the summer turned to autumn it became ever clearer that time was running-out and that her moment of superstardom was waning. Her decision not to run is no longer the surprise it would once have been. All that's left is the celebrity and the money and while there'll still be plenty of the latter the former quality may have a shorter half-life than she suspects.  The more important news today may prove to be Marco Rubio's suggestion* that he does not desire the Vice-Presidency.

Alex Massie

The Live Aid Tories

If one hype video was weird, the other shown to delegates in Manchester this afternoon (but designed to be seen on blogs and Facebook and so on) was good politics in the service of a good cause. Or, if you really must, vice versa. As Matt d'Ancona tweeted, the Cameroons aren't just Maggie's children, they're  Live Aid kids as well...

Alex Massie

One Nation Dave

Jim Murphy's tweeted verdict on David Cameron's speech to the Tory conference seems accurate: Bits I saw seemed written by 4 different people in 4 different rooms and merged just in time to be fed into the autocue. Such is the fate of conference addresses and today's was no different. This is a tired format in dire need of refreshing. A speech that was half as long but four times as concentrated would work better. Instead, there are the usual dreadful "jokes", the usual attempt to cover far too much ground, the usual blather about British spirit or promise or greatness and the familiar flabby mess of a speech. But a couple of things are clear and worth noting. David Cameron is more interested in social policy than economics. Much more interested.

Alex Massie

Steve Hilton is still in the building…

I'm not sure I'm sure what this video, shown to the party conference waiting for David Cameron's speech this afternoon, is actually about but it's not the kind of thing you'd have seen in the Lady's day. That is the point of it and it's supposed, I suppose, to be posted on blogs and social media and so on to remind people that the Cameroons aren't your daddy's Tories. It's probably a post-riots thing too. Or something. There was an appeal for aid to famine-struk East Africa too. Again, the point of this is to allow the Tories to move right in other areas.

Alex Massie

On the Centenary of Flann O’Brien

How many times must a man be considered "overlooked" or recalled as a "forgotten genius" before it must become apparent to even the meanest inteligence that he can no longer sensibly be considered "forgotten" or "overlooked"? This is something worth observing in the case of Brian O'Nolan, better known to you perhaps as Flann O'Brien and, to the true cognoscenti, as Myles na Gopaleen too. What with an official stamp available as of this very day, the centenary of his emergence in bonny Strabane, a lengthy piece by Fintan O'Toole to say nothing of puffery in the New Yorker and the Guardian and lord knows where else, you cannot credibly say the old fella has been forgotten.

Alex Massie

The Scottish Tories Need a New Horse, Not a New Jockey

The unexpectedly interesting struggle to lead the Scottish Tories (no-one is interested in the plight of the Scottish Liberal Democrats) rumbles on. In Manchester this week, Murdo Fraser's supporters have done their best to look chipper but the fact is that his brave decision to suggest scrapping the party and starting again is beginning to look like a blunder. It is not that Fraser's analysis is wrong, far from it, merely that asking the Tories to endorse a withering critique of their past and probable future failures is asking more of them than it is reasonable to expect. If Murdo had run an orthodox campaign, his supporters say, he'd have won the leadership at a canter.

Saturday

Friday

Alex Massie

Scotland vs England

For obvious reasons and though I harbour no* ill-will towards our southern neighbours, it would be grand if tomorrow morning's Scotland-England game unfolds much as did the 100th meeting between these ancient combatants... For reasons even I cannot quite fathom, I'm oddly confident Scotland can prevail tomorrow. Admitting this publicly is obviously, then, to open oneself to much mockery. But there you have it. Then again, Ruaridh Jackson is not John Rutherford and, when it comes to enjoying the match, ITV's commentators are no Bill McLaren either. *Well, not much.

Thursday

Alex Massie

A Unionism That Does Not Deserve to Prevail

Regarding Mr Miliband's hapless interview with BBC Scotland David, like James Kirkup, expresses what is the conventional view in London: But, as James Kirkup notes, the Scottish Labour Party is a serious issue. It is the only check on Alex Salmond, which makes it essential to the future of the union. And it’s important for Labour’s electoral recovery, not that you’d realise that listening to the senior party. As I revealed on Sunday, Labour shadow minister Ivan Lewis displayed extraordinary complacency about Scotland at a fringe event, implying that Labour will return to power in Holyrood as a matter of course, no effort required. Miliband’s ignorance only compounds that sense...

Alex Massie

Ed Miliband Comes to Scotland

I suspect it can only be bad news for poor old Tom Harris that he's the only candidate to lead Scottish Labour whose name Ed Miliband can a) remember and b) pronounce correctly: Another reminder that Scotland is already and semi-formally a semi-detached part of the United Kingdom.