Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Tuesday

Alex Massie

The Poor Bloody Infantry Faces More Friendly Fire?

In opposition Liam Fox boasted he could cut the Ministry of Defence by 25% without there being any impact on "frontline" troops. The confirmation that there will be 17,000 fewer men and women in uniform by this parliament's end mocks that promise. To govern is to choose, for sure, but the scale of these cuts leads one to wonder, again, what kind of capability will be left once they are completed. For now, the Gurkhas excepted, the infantry has been spared. But there are already indications that its luck, if you can call it that after all the reorganisations of recent years, will run out when the next "tranche" of cuts is announced. Today's editions of the Scotsman and the Herald each publish warnings that entire infantry battalions are at risk.

Alex Massie

Obama’s Guantanamo Failure

The decision, announced yesterday, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will not stand trial in New York or any other corner of the United States hardly came as a surprise. He will be tried before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay instead. The Obama administration gave up fighting for its own policy a long time ago. Sometimes retreats are sensible. Sometimes it's necessary to acknowledge blunders or superior firepower. But even allowing for those considerations - and a Congress* more than happy to demagogue the issue - there's a tinge of shame to this retreat. Power need not corrupt but it always changes those who hold it. Obama's approach to terrorism and justice once seemed robustly optimistic and liberal. That seems a long time ago now.

Monday

Alex Massie

Explaining the Coalition’s NHS Reforms in Two Sentences.

I'm sure James is right and that the government's NHS problems - a political difficulty that may also be a policy conundrum - ensure that the NHS will be "rewarded" with more money and the coalition will use increased funding as a defence against criticisms of its reforms. It matters little that this accepts Labour's eternal argument that spending=investment=love=ponies-for-all. The NHS is not to be subjected to the usual rules of either policy or politics. Meanwhile, in his Mail on Sunday column James had this: Lansley’s main problem is that hardly anyone understands what he is trying to do. As one colleague laments: ‘Andrew knows everything but can’t explain it in three simple sentences.

Alex Massie

One More Trip on the SNP-Labour Fantasy Coalition Merry-go-round

Crivvens, the idea of an SNP-Labour coalition refuses to die. Here's Iain Macwhirter in the Herald: The rule seems to be that, in Scottish politics it’s easier to work constructively with parties you don’t agree with than with parties you do. Labour and the SNP now agree – independence aside – on most of the big issues, such as NHS privatisation, comprehensive education, free university tuition, more powers for Holyrood. But unfortunately they hate the sight of each other. Could they ever bury their differences? Most polls suggest that this is the coalition partnership Scots would most like to see. A grand coalition, perhaps, against the Tory cuts. Scotland’s two national parties working together for the common good. It’s not going to happen.

Alex Massie

Scotland is a conservative country

The Scottish Centre for Social Research has released its latest survey of Scottish attitudes. It confirms that SNP government at Holyrood has reduced the appetite for independence. For now it's George Robertson 1 Tam Dalyell 0. The financial crisis has doubtless helps explain this but is not the whole explanation. No, the findings (conveniently) offer support for my contention that the SNP vote is as much a cultural phenomenon as a political judgement on what's best for Scotia. Is is an affirmation of identity, not a call for the break-up of Britain (or, if you want to put it this way: independence).

Saturday

Friday

Alex Massie

The Death of Process

From the beginning the Obama campaign and administration has made a point, even a fetish, of process. Judgement matters and good process is considered vital to increasing the chances that good judgements will be made. Hillary Clinton's 3am alarm call advert during the primary was deemed silly because, actually, it's pretty unusual for a President to have to make an instant, sleepy-headed and blurry-eyed call of the kind imagined by the advert. And of course Obama's supporters in that primary tended to think his judgement - cooler, more measured, less flighty - better than Hillary's. Iraq was not the only data point, either.

Alex Massie

The Genius of Myles na Gopaleen

 As Frank McNally says, the sovereignty of Myles na Gopaleen should not be subjugated by the imperialism of Mr Flann O'Brien. The latter fellow had his moments but the first mentioned was really the man of rare genius. There he is on the left there, in the Palace Bar, some time during the Emergency. Those were cold times, as you may discern, for Ireland. As they are again. For more than a quarter of a century he produced a daily column for the Irish Times. In many of those years his column was the only entertaining thing found in that self-consciously noble blatt. By turns satirical, whimsical, loopy, angry, absurd, laced with puns and parody and above all funny, much of The Cruiskeen Lawn still tickles 70 years after it first sidled into print.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Clinton’s Contempt for Congress: We’ll send you a press release…

I rather suspect there'd have been a mighty uproar if Dick Cheney had told Congress he'd send members a few press releases to keep them informed of developments in Iraq. This, however, seems to be the Obama administration's current position vis a vis the kinetic military action in Libya: Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who asked Clinton about the War Powers Act during a classified briefing, said Clinton and the administration are sidestepping the measure's provisions giving Congress the ability to put a 60-day time limit on any military action. "They are not committed to following the important part of the War Powers Act," he told TPM in a phone interview. "She said they are certainly willing to send reports [to us] and if they issue a press release, they'll send that to us too.

Alex Massie

Is the Coalition Drifting to the Left?

Good to see that Tim Montgomerie is keeping his peepers peeled on this, producing his latest edition of Sell-Out Watch* today. He concludes: The Coalition is still doing plenty of very important things that Conservatives can be very proud of. The budget eradication plan. Lower corporation tax. Welfare reform. A massive increase in the number of academies and the introduction of the English Baccalaureate. Over 100,000 extra apprenticeships. At the moment, however, with the Prime Minister focused on international affairs there are signs that in the weekly tug-o-war the Coalition is sadly fulfilling my law and drifting leftwards, inch-by-inch. The evidence for this is mixed to say the least.

Alex Massie

The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama’s Lovely Little Libyan Adventure

Hypocrisy is a necessary condition of leadership in a large, modern democracy. Not just there either, now that I think of it. That's often obviously the case in foreign affairs and clearly so in our present Libyan adventure. It is quite a remarkable undertaking, based on the most remarkable set of circumstances and thanks to a quite remarkable coalition that has given the mission its tepid blessing. Consider... Earlier this week President Obama said he "refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action." Consider that for a moment. It's an interesting choice of words making it clear that this is an Al-Jazeera War. No Al-Jazeera cameras* or pictures of any kind from Libya; no war. Such is the power of the camera.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

AV will not help the BNP and everyone’s vote counts the same.

The Alternative Vote isn't a great voting system but neither is First Past the Post. I suspect inertia and boredom and a lack of outrage will help swing the day for the status quo in the end. Neither side has impressed during the campaign thus far. Claims that AV is some kind of elixir that will "clean-up" British politics are absurd. But at least the Yes campaign is, on the whole, only peddling pie-in-the-sky. They're not, again on the whole, trying to frighten voters. Their exagerrations seem a little less desperate than those made by the No campaign. Take Baroness Warsi's nonsensical claim that AV will somehow help* the BNP. As it happens, FPTP doesn't help them much either and you'd need to switch to an Israeli-style system to give the BNP a real boost.

Alex Massie

Osborne’s Black Gold Populism

James is right to draw attention to the problems arising from the coalition's decision to hike taxes on oil companies. Perhps halting the fuel duty escalator was worth it but there are always costs associated with this kind of populism. Oil companies, like the banks, are friendless enterprises and so easy targets for tub-thumping or magpie politicians. Nevertheless, some North Sea oil fields now face marginal rates of 81% while less-maure fields will be taxed at 62%. No wonder Statoil and other companies are reconsidering planned investments in the North Sea. Osborne should understand why.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Iain Gray’s Remarkable No-Man Band

Meanwhile, STV have a poll asking punters who they think would make the best First Minister. The results are almost entertaining: Don't Know - 37% Alex Salmond - 30% None of Them - 16% Annabel Goldie - 9% Iain Gray - 7% Tavish Scott - 2% Remember that the same poll has Labour and the SNP neck and neck (38% to 37% on the constituency vote and 35% each on the list vote) and so, by my calculations, fewer than one in five Labour voters will tell pollsters their so-called leader is the best man to head the government after this election. Mr Gray complains that the SNP are a "one-man band" which is reasonable enough even if one suspects he'd have been out-polled by Nicola Sturgeon too. But even if he is correct he merely invites the observation that his own party is a no-man band.

Alex Massie

Dogs Will Not Lie Down With Cats.

I'm fonder of wacky political hypotheticals than the next fellow but even I draw the line at Sunder Katwala's assertion that some people can see a path towards a Labour-SNP coalition in Edinburgh. This is splendidly creative but also, alas, untethered to reality. The party leaders - apart from the Green's Patrick Harvie who has been excluded, perhaps unfairly - gather for their first debate tonight. You can, my friends, watch the drama here. You will notice that Labour-SNP relations are chilly. There is not the slightest reason to suppose that either party would have any interest in governing in partnership with the other. Who is going to tell Iain Gray that despite being, perhaps, the larger party Labour will have to settle for the Deputy First Minister's position?

Monday

Alex Massie

Tales from the Big Society: Whitlawburn Edition

Of all the criticisms* of David Cameron's Big Society, the one that makes least sense is the notion that while it might be fine for wealthy parts of the country it's of no use in poorer communities. Nothing could be further from the truth. If it's anything the Big Society is about untapped "social capital" and there's more of that, in more communities, than the scoffers and titterers on the News Quiz would have you believe. Nor, really, is it a new idea. Take this example cited by Lesley Riddoch in her Scotsman column today: In 1988, Glasgow Council was given £6.6 million to refurbish this run-down estate on its southern outskirts. West Whitlawburn had hard-to-fix high rise flats.

Alex Massie

Ed Miliband’s Delusions

Perhaps I'm being a little unfair on Ed Miliband but, no, I don't think I am. Perhaps he's not in denial. There again, he gives every impression of being a man who still doesn't understand why Labour lost the last election. Every so often there'll be a nod to the notion that government spending cannot increase by several points above inflation every year but this is lost in the candyfloss of reassurance he serves (not sells, obviously) to Labour's most devoted supporters. The occasional aside that some spending restraint or retrenchment might be necessary seems dutiful; the thrust of speeches suggests his heart lies elsewhere. That's fine. It's not an illegitimate view. But nor is it persuasive.

Sunday

Alex Massie

Your Newspaper on Your Computer, 1981 Style

Note, please, the wisdom of the man from the San Francisco Examiner who says "We aren't going to make much [money] from this*." *So, yeah, subscribe to the Spectator. Please. It's good for you and, quite importantly, good for us too.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Ed Miliband is an Idiot

I don't think there's any point in pretending that Ed Miliband is not an idiot. All the evidence the prosecution needs comes from this typically self-aggrandising passage in his address to protestors in London this afternoon. We come in the tradition of those who have marched before us. The suffragettes who fought for votes for women and won. The civil rights movement in America who fought for equality and won. The anti-apartheid movement who fought the horror of that system and won. Our cause may be different but we come together today to realise our voice and we stand on their shoulders. We stand on the shoulders of those who have marched and struggled in the past. Aye right. Another reminder that the left is losing its mind.