Tweet of the Day
Courtesy of an Anglo-Italian historian in lovely New Hampshire.
Alex Massie
Wednesday
An Execution in Tehran
Cranmer is right about this: It really is quite incredible. Last week, a convicted murderer, Troy Davis, was finally executed in the United States, and it seemed as though the entire British (and EU) Establishment arose to denounce the barbarism. Even Pope Benedict XVI appealed for clemency. Yet today, Iran is scheduled to hang a Christian pastor for 'apostasy', and the collective silence from our scurvy politicians, trappist churchmen and hypocritical media is positively deafening. Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was found guilty two years ago of 'apostasy', even though he was never a practising Muslim. His guilt was determined because he 'has Muslim ancestry' (which is a kind of convenient catch-all in a place like Iran), and he was sentenced to death.
No, Martin McGuinness is Not a Fit and Proper Person.
Since I've always thought Shaun Woodward a nasty little toad it's reassuring to discover the man will do nothing to earn a reassessment. Is anyone surprised he is entirely relaxed about Martin McGuinness's campaign for the Irish presidency? Of course not. why would ayone be surprised? As the dreadful Woodward made clear, speaking at a fringe event at the Labour conference, McGuinness's campaign is in some sense the next step in the "peace process". Yes, really, Martin McGuinness, mass murderer, is a "fit and proper" person to be Head of State.
Miliband’s Message: Neoliberalism is Dead. But What Comes Next?
I know one isn't supposed to say this but there was an idea somewhere in the middle of Ed Miliband's confused speech to the Labour party conference. Unfortunately it was smothered by 4000 words of contradictory waffling that, accompanied by Miliband's desperate delivery, made the whole thing almost unbearable. If the Labour leader lacks presence that can't be helped, but nor was he assisted by the tired format of these conference addresses. That is something he could have done something about, so to speak. And the idea was simple: the neoliberal age has ended. He could, even should, have been clearer about this. Had he been so, his speech would have been more coherent and, for that matter, gracious.
The Polish Invasion Was A Good Thing
It seems typical of Labour's reaction to being removed from office after 13 frustrating years in power that it should have decided to disown one of its braver, better, bolder decisions: the decision to permit unfettered movement from Poland and other EU-accession countries to the United Kingdom. It takes a special kind of malignancy to disown your most benign moment in power. But this is where Labour are; trapped in equal measure by their search for populism and their weakness for authoritarianism. First it was Ed Balls, then it was Yvette Cooper and then Ed Miliband himself. Each apologised for decisions that did their party - and their country - credit.
Tuesday
Ivan Lewis’s Comedy Act
So the shadow Culture Secretary thinks journalists should be licensed (by whom?) and rotten hacks guilty of "serious misconduct" (how is that to be defined?) should be "struck-off". Well, that's a proposal guaranteed to go down well with the press corps! Ignore the fact that it's unworkable in the internet age and that it's perhaps only meant as a signal to the party faithful that Mr Lewis doesn't like that nasty brute Murdoch any more than the rest of them. Nevertheless signal matter, not least since they often reveal what a politiican or a party really believes. This is one such instance: the answer to any problem, however trivial it may be, is in more centralisation, more regulation, more interference. It misses the wider point too: too many trades are licensed as it is.
An Irish Recovery?
I think it's tiresome the way countries in desperate economic trouble are treated as lab rats by pundits far away whose sole interest in their travails lies in their providing an argument to buttress favoured policies back home. It's a pretty grim game, really. So when Paul Krugman spends a summer writing about Ireland's enforced austerity he's not really writing about Ireland at all. He's arguing about the United States and never mind what the hell happens to the poor, miserable Irish. The worse things go for them, the better they go for the Krugman school. Tyler Cowen documents all this rather neatly. This doesn't mean that a return to economic growth in Ireland (while Spain remains sluggish) demonstrates the wisdom of austerity's advocates.
Monday
Thought for the Day | 26 September 2011
Via Samizdata, here's Jeff Randall on the eurozone crisis: The fallacy at the heart of this crisis is that every financial problem has a political solution. True. And one can make another, related point: the fallacy at the heart of this and every other matter is that every political problem has a financial solution. Or, often, a solution at all.
Wednesday
Scenes From An Execution
It's important to insist that the argument about Troy Davis's execution does not actually really rest on whether he is innocent or not. Nor is it actually the point that there are grounds for wondering if his conviction is entirely safe. We should not execute wrongly-convicted people is a necessary but not sufficient case against the death penalty. Guilt need not matter to the anti-execution party; it must or should matter to the pro-execution party. By way of demonstrating this, I submit that heinous as his crime was and despite the absence of any doubt, it remains grotesque that the state of Texas is executing this man: A white supremacist gang member was headed to the death chamber Wednesday for the infamous dragging death 13 years ago of James Byrd Jr.
President Perry: Hollywood Action Hero
Peter Suderman says Rick Perry's "epic new campaign ad appears to have been shot by Michael Bay and edited by Tony Scott in Domino-esque fit of ADHD frenzy" and, sure enough, that's about right. But it's kinda absurd and awesome too. I can't wait to see Rowan Atkinson star in the Ed Miliband version... If the style seems familiar then that's because it's made by the same guy that did Pawlenty: The Movie. Perry makes a more convincing hero, however.
Who Benefits from School Choice? The Poor.
Responding to research that finds school-voucher lottery winners from poorly-performing school districts in North Carolina do much better than the beleaguered kids who don't get a winning ticket, Matt Yglesias makes the vital point: Note that this is consistent with charter skeptics’ favorite research finding that, on average, public charter schools are about the same as traditional public schools. Many schools and school districts are above average. If kids with low-quality neighborhood schools are able to attend charter schools that are about as good on average as average public schools, then those kids are going to see huge benefits.
Your Lying Eyes
I don't know, just as you don't know, whether Troy Davis is innocent. I do suspect that his conviction would, in this country, be considered unsafe. Not that this, or anything else, matters to the Georgia Board of Pardons who have denied Davis's last appeal for clemency. No-one should be surprised by that. Nevertheless, the case highlights a major problem in criminal trials: eye-witness testimony is often unreliable. According to the University of Virginia's Brandon Garrett: The federal court that finally reviewed evidence of Davis' innocence agreed "this case centers on eyewitness testimony." Yet that court put to one side the fact that seven of the nine witnesses at the trial have now recanted, and new witnesses have implicated another man.
Tuesday
Annals of Self-Awareness: Cristina Odone Edition
I don't think "squeezed middle" means what the lovely Mrs Odone thinks it means: For the past decade, our parental angst, which had my husband tossing and turning at night and me frantic about freelance work (I remember dashing out of hospital within three days of an emergency caesarian to write an article), could be summed up in two little words: school fees. For most of us "squeezed" middle-class parents, our little treasure's education will set us back £30,000 a year (the average* private school bill). For many of us this means not only giving up on luxuries such as exotic holidays and theatre outings, but also remortgaging our home, going begging to the in-laws, and moonlighting and other small humiliations.
Martin McGuinness Asks Ireland to Forget History
Martin McGuinness's campaign for the Irish Presidency is, of course, a disgusting affair. How could it ever be otherwise? But even by Sinn Fein's grim standards, it's off to a loathsome, disingenuous beginning. Speaking on Irish radio this morning, McGuinness complained that a coterie of "West Brits" in the Dublin media are out to get him. Only someone whose loyalty to the Republic might be questioned by the more rancid brand of nationalist, you see, would be vulgar enough to bring up McGuinness's murderious past. Indeed, it's just "people who are hostile to my candidacy" who have the gall to mention McGuinness's IRA past. This is strange since, as Fintan O'Toole observes in today's Irish Times, the IRA and McGuinness himself has never repudiated its past.
The Liberal Democrat Death Wish
If nothing else, this year's Liberal Democrat conference has shown that many party members are content to lurch towards electoral disaster. Broadly speaking, the members seem happier with the Farron-Huhne-Harris view of the coalition as, at best, a necessary if uncomfortable evil than they do with the Clegg-Alexander-Laws belief that it's a happy, virtuous thing. The desire to "distance" themselves from the Conservatives is as understandable as it is likely to be disastrous. It is an approach that cannot and will not work. Running away from your record is a ridiculous approach to take and one that invites scorn and mockery. Just ask Tavish Scott and his Scottish colleagues how well it works.
Monday
Gold, Jerry, Gold
Some politician shouldn't try stand-up comedy. Sarah Teather is one of those politicians.
Sunday
A Drugs Question for David Cameron
Though scarcely the main thrust of James's most recent post, this is still notable: Lib Dem conference delegates have just provided the press with a nice easy story, they’ve voted to set up a panel to look at the legalisation of cannabis and the decriminalisation of all drugs. I know James is tweaking the press corps just as much as he is enjoying the Lib Dems living up to their reputation on these matters. Those wacky dope-fiends in the grow-your-own-pot party! Nevertheless, could it be possible that the sandal-wearing geography teachers (sorry, this stereotyping thing is contagious) are right? I mean, are the drug laws defensible in either moral or practical terms, let alone both?
Saturday
Foreign Policy Hogwash
As a general rule any time you read an article asking that foreign policy be recalibrated to take greater account of the "national interest" you can be sure that you're dealing with blather and hokum and platitudes and a deliberate misrepresentation of whatever the other mob got up to when they were in power. Sadly Dominic Raab's contribution to a new book, presumptiously titled After the Coalition, proves all this all too well. I say sadly because Raab, a freshman Tory MP, is sound on a good number of issues I care about, civil liberties most especially. Nevertheless, his piece, reprinted by the Telegraph, is rotten. Let's count the ways.
The Bleak Business of the Black Diamonds
The death of the four trapped miners in West Wales is obviously a desperate business. Desperate enough that some cads will try and use it to make political points, regardless of the nonsense of that.Anyway, here's Richard Burton on mining and, in some sense, on a Britain we'd mainly thought had mainly vanished until these recent events reminded us that is lingers on yet.
Saturday Morning Country: Steve Earle | 17 September 2011
Here's an improbably, even impossibly, young Steve Earle jamming with a bunch of great old boys at Guy Clark's place way back in the day. It's a groovy side of country and, you'll observe, one fuelled by ample quantities of booze, tobacco and dope. Quality all the way. And, blimey, Steve's just a kid singing the Mercenary Song...