Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Tuesday

Alex Massie

The Way of All Tory Flesh

There are three things to be said about Murdo Fraser's willingness to put his own party out of its misery: this is not a new idea, it is not enough, on its own, to spark a centre-right revival in Scottish politics and it is a brave way to begin a leadership campaign. Tactically it is a risky ploy; strategically it makes sense. Put all this together and there's every chance, yet again, that nothing will come of it.  For that matter, it may be a mistake to make this the crucial issue in the leadership campaign. The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party may be feeble but it is also stubborn and most of the time it is guided by a kind of paleounionism that will lead to its extinction.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Annals of Legal Affairs; Not Proven Edition

Anent legal affairs in Auld Reekie, there's a stushie brewing about the acquittal of the Hearts fan accused of assaulting Celtic manager Neil Lennon in a notorious and passably disgraceful incident at Tynecastle last season. The jury - seven women, eight men - deliberated for nearly three hours before returning a Not Proven verdict on the charge of Assault, Aggravated by Religious Prejudice. On a seperate charge, the jury found John Wilson guilty of a breach of the peace. Given that the episode took place on national television and Mr Wilson clearly seemed intent upon attacking Mr Lennon the verdict has, predictably, been met with equal parts derision, disbelief and outrage.

Alex Massie

Scoop of the Year

One for Coffee House's weekly Local Interest feature: congratulations to the editor and staff of the Folkestone Herald for having the courage to splash on this... Can your local paper beat this?

Wednesday

Alex Massie

The New State Religion

Regardless of the merits of Nadine Dorries' attempt to re-open the abortion debate, consider this depressing-but-revealing part of Zoe Williams' critique: There are two main problems with Nadine Dorries's amendment to the health and social care bill: the first is that it looks innocuous. Who could object to independent counselling for women seeking abortions? It sounds so generous and caring, like getting free dental work when you're pregnant. The second problem is that any discussion of the abortion amendment risks drawing fire away from the rest of the bill, which desecrates the NHS. There is no answer to that, apart from to carry on protesting against the whole thing. Emphasis added.

Alex Massie

Our Crazy Drug Laws, Part XVI

As legal entertainments go Man facing jail after reporting his cannabis plants stolen is a pretty good one. The Edinburgh Evening News reports: Police were called to David Williamson's home to investigate reports that he had been assaulted and robbed. But after Williamson volunteered that it was two of his prized cannabis plants which had been stolen, suspicious officers got a warrant to search the 34-year-old's Edinburgh home and discovered a further 20 plants. Williamson was immediately arrested. The case caused barely disguised mirth among lawyers and officials at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today, when Williamson admitted producing a controlled drug at his Sighthill home in May this year. So far, so mirthful.

Alex Massie

Nationalist Measures for Unionist Aims

John McTernan's latest Telegraph column has an entertainingly provocative headline -Tell the Truth: Scotland has been indulged for far too long - but is, in fact, less a blast against Alex Salmond's monstrous regiment than an assault upon Mr McTernan's colleagues in the Scottish Labour party. This attack is disguised by John's observation - scarcely controversial and, anyway, being addressed, in part, by the Scotland Bill - that the Barnett Formula is no longer working as originally intended. He's right that much of Scotland has prospered since Margaret Thatcher came to power; it's also the case that the Labour party, above all others, has persistently denied this.

Friday

Alex Massie

Let the English Defence League March

Speaking of the Black Shorts, there are two ways of dealing with the English Defence [sic] League: ruthless suppression or equally ruthless public mockery. So, with all due and deserved respect to Brother Bright I'm unpersuaded that it's possible to be a "freedom of speech fundamentalist" and support banning the EDL's proposed march through Tower Hamlets. That the EDL wants to stir up trouble is not in doubt. But unless the view is taken that their organisation should be proscribed, they have rights too and the grimness of their views is not of paramount concern. Indeed, it may be that banning their marches is more useful to them than anything that might happen were they permitted to make their meagre point.

Alex Massie

Plum Imprisoned

There is not much that's new, I think, in the release of the MI5 files on PG Wodehouse and his wartime broadcasts from Germany. The Guardian headline reads I was not a Nazi collaborator, PG Wodehouse told MI5 and, of course, Wodehouse told MI5 he wasn't a Nazi collaborator because he was not, in fact, a Nazi collaborator. Naive? Perhaps. Foolish? Certainly. But a collaborator? Don't be ridiculous. And yet, one way or another this stuff keeps resurfacing even though you'd have thought Plum's knighthood - delayed by the whiff of There's Something Not Quite Right About Those Radio Programmes - might have settled the matter. If that weren't enough then Robert McCrum's masterly biography should have ended all doubts. And yet perhaps there is one fresh wrinkle.

Thursday

Alex Massie

A Compliment to Britain

Responding to the latest migration figures Fraser writes: The inflow to Britain has stayed steady [...] but the number emigrating from Britain has fallen. This is a compliment to Cameron: the most sincere vote people can make is with their feet. And in our globalised world, countries have to compete for people. Britain is as attractive as ever it was to immigrants, and more natives are staying put.  I agree! But isn't this also a compliment to Tony Blair since, on his watch, Britain was evidently a very attractive place to come and work and live and prosper? (Of course, it may be that some temporary immigrants have decided to stay in Britain or that Britons tempted to leave are staying put as economic conditions in other countries deteriorate.

Alex Massie

President Tin Cup

It's August so you could be forgiven for thinking Thomas Friedman's latest column offering pony-in-the-sky advice to Barack Obama is a parody or, perhaps, written by some Friedman-bot while the great moustache takes a week off from soliciting couthy advice from Intel executives and Cairo cab-drivers. Anyway, you see, apparently... He’s Tiger Woods — a natural who’s lost his swing. He has so many different swing thoughts in his head, so many people whispering in his ear about what the polls say and how he needs to position himself to get re-elected, that he has lost all his natural instincts for the game. He needs to get back to basics.

Alex Massie

The Eurocrisis Squeezes the SNP

What does Independence in Europe mean in 2011? That's one of the questions Alex Salmond and the SNP have preferred not to ask, far less find an answer to. Way back in the dog days of the Thatcher-era Jim Sillars coined the slogan as a way to demonstrate that Scotland, small and on the periphery of the continent, would not be cut adrift and helpless were her people persuaded to back the Scottish National Party's vision for independence. It was a canny move: reassuring and progressive and other nice and cosy things. That was then and this is now. The ongoing crisis in Euroland necessarily means things have changed. The euro is not the safe harbour it once promised to be and this awkward fact, like so many other troublesome details, is a problem for Salmond.

Friday

Alex Massie

Death of a Campaign

Jon Huntsman was never likely to win the Republican nomination anyway but this Tweet suggests he's decided to say "Sod it, let's just have some fun." These views are fine inside the Beltway and in Foggy Bottom but they butter few parsnips out in the country. Here again, the suspicion lurks that Huntsman 2012 is really a reconnaisance mission for Hntsman 2016. At present, mind you, that seems a long-shot too. Yeah, that's crazy talk. But fun!

Thursday

Alex Massie

A Dangerous Summer

This England cricket team is rather like the great German football sides of the past: a collective rather greater than the sum of its parts. Hard, determined, efficient, ruthless, organised and together. There's quality too, for sure, but that's not what stands-out. They thoroughly deserve their success. Nevertheless, their success comes at a price. Or, rather, much as one relishes the novel notion that England might be the best side in the world at present, there is a gloomier picture to be considered too. India's feebleness in this series, combined with the nature and preferences of their governing board, is bad news for the future of Test match cricket. It's evident, I think, that cricket now needs India to be strong.

Alex Massie

Creating British Jobs for Non-British Workers?

Will Straw takes issues with Fraser's post on the matter of just how many "new" jobs have been filled by foreign-born workers. As Straw says, foreign-born is one metric, British-national another. If you measure these things by the latter yardstick then, apparently, 69% of new jobs in the last year have been filled by non-UK nationals. This is interesting and that is, evidently, a hefty percentage. (It would be interesting to see a regional breakdown of these figures too.) The better and more important question is why businesses appear to favour employing foreigners. Because this is the better, more important question it's the one that's best left unasked. I don't pretend to know the answer either. In some sectors a shortage of skills may be part of the answer.

Alex Massie

Department of Sentencing: Riots Division

I dare say some of the sentences handed down in the aftermath of the riots are on the stiff side of things. Some people are likely to be harshly punished for moments of stupidity as they were carried away by the thrill of running with the mob. But, though readers know I tend to take a pretty liberal line on criminal justice matters, I also think that this is one of those occasions when a measure of exemplary sentencing may often be appropriate. Whether this is the case or not, it's useful to read what those passing judgement are actually arguing. This being so, here's the full judgement of four cases in Manchester. Make of it what you will.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Perry Derangement Absurdity

Earlier this month Joe Biden was in "trouble" for referring to the Tea Party as "terrorists", now Rick Perry's getting it in the neck for suggesting loose monetary policy "between now and the election" is "treasonous" and that if Ben Bernanke turned-up in Texas he's be treated "pretty ugly". This might have been phrased better and on the merits of the policy question Perry's more likely to be mistaken than not but, please, let's not pretend this is, um, a hanging offence. Right Andrew? I mean, sorry, but this is silly: Here's the actual quote: If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Notice the obvious physical threat: "do to him".

Alex Massie

Irish Green Shoots?

Could it be that Ireland has passed through the worst of the storm? Writig in the Financial Times yesterday David Vines and Max Watson argue that maybe, just maybe, it has. [T]he first and most important thing about Ireland is that it is swiftly restoring its competitive edge. Indeed it is moving rapidly towards a sizeable current account surplus – in a range of 3 to 4 per cent of gross domestic product. Of course, recession has also played a role in turning external accounts around, but a steady uptrend in exports has been underway for some time. The second element is that Ireland’s net public debt will probably peak at somewhere around 110 per cent of GDP.

Alex Massie

Yes Virginia, There Is A Texas Exception

It's long been obvious that a large part of Rick Perry's campaign would be built on a simple message: It Worked In Texas. Perry is fond, understandably, of claiming that 40% of all new jobs in the United States lately have been created in Texas. That's a powerful soundbite. Consequently, it's important for Democrats - see Paul Krugman for example -  to debunk the idea of a "Texas Miracle". True, unemployment in Texas is more or less the same as in Massachusetts. True, Texas's oil and gas (and wind) industries have helped the state through difficult times. True too that the state has a looming education problem and that one in four Texas are without health insurance.

Alex Massie

Our Revolting Youth (Have Always Been With Us)

The problem with the Prime Minister's "Broken Society" meme is that it's not obvious society is more broken now than it always has been. Sure, there are serious problems and some of them are deep-rooted and, perhaps, the overall level of hopeless venality is higher than once it was but, tempting though it is to conclude this might be likely, the fact remains we are much more likely to be aware of contemporary problems and equally likely to gloss over the problems of past ages. This is especially obviously the case if we pause to consider aspects of modern Britain that, once unthinkable, have become so commonplace we sometimes forget how much better life is now in so many ways for so many people.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

16.8.77

My mother doesn't read blogs but if she did this is the kind of thing she'd like to see:   Appropriate, not just for the anniversary today, but for Riot Week too.