Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Thursday

Alex Massie

A Grim St Patrick’s Day

From our UK edition

St Patrick's Day is often pretty grim, not least on account of the American habit of suggesting the poor old boy is actually the patron saint of uncooked hamburgers. It is St Patrick's Day or Paddy's Day and "Patty's Day" is an abomination. True, the pubs tend to be stuffed with insufferable amateurs today but in general Ireland is a decent place to pass St Patrick's Day and a better one than most. At least there are proper Irish people there. But this is not an especially bonny St Patrick's Day and not even a new government that can scarcely fail to be some modest improvement upon its predecessor can alter that drab fact. The Irish Times publishes a rallying leader today, arguing that solidarity and optimism can lift Hibernia from her present predicament.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

This Country Needs More Daffodil Police

From our UK edition

You will notice that the little girl pictured here is a) in a park and b) skipping merrily through the daffodils. Being a well-brought-up type she is not c) pulling up daffodils just for fun. She is not, that is to say, one of Jane Errington's children. Miss Errington, a resident of Poole, is most aggrieved that her children - aged four, six and ten - were cautioned by police and warned that destroying daffodils in a public park could be construed as criminal damage and, were said flowers then removed from the park, theft. The Daily Mail uses the story to have a go at the Peelers who, we are meant to presume, should be doing more important things than policing this kind of juvenile vandalism. I must say that it's odd to see the Mail so relaxed about this sort of anti-social behaviour.

Alex Massie

The Limits of British Influence

From our UK edition

To be fair to Gary Gibbon, he's not the only member of the lobby to have lost the plot when it comes to David Cameron, Libya and Washington. Ben Brogan has a sadly-fatuous piece today asking "Does Anyone in Washington Listen to David Cameron?" He writes: Robert Gates was far from flattering when he dismissed the PM’s initial no-fly suggestion as ‘loose talk’. The Coalition made a virtue of putting the US-UK relationship on a more low-key footing. There was to be none of the cosyness of Blair-Bush or the neediness of Brown-Obama. But Britain’s post-war strategic interest relied in part on its position as the one ally with the clout to influence the White House. At some point Mr Cameron will have to explain if that has changed.

Alex Massie

A Realist Straw in the Republican Wind?

From our UK edition

With all the attention on Libya and the rest of the middle east at present, it's easy to forget (again) about Afghanistan. so I think Ben Smith is right to argue that Haley Barbour's call to bring American troops home from the Hindu Kush is interesting and, possibly, telling. Barbour, the Boss Hogg governor of Mississippi, remains a long-shot for the GOP Presidential nomination but he's not someone noted for policy boldness or imagination. True, his ideal timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan may not differ from the platonic ideal of withdrawal imagined by the Obama administration; that's not the important thing here. What matters - though this is but a tea leaf into which too much should not be read - is the hint that Republican enthusiasm for the Afghan mission may be waning.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Sir Fred Goodwin’s Penance

From our UK edition

If we were not permitted to report parliamentary proceedings we would not be able to observe that, protected by parliamentary privilege, the Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming revealed the existence of a superinjunction taken out by Goodwin to prevent reporting on, well, who knows what? But for Mr Hemming's actions, revealling the existence of this superinjunction would risk being held in contempt of court. Two things arise from this: what kind of judge thinks it appropriate to grant the kind of injunction that includes an injunction on revealing its existence? Is the judiciary not troubled by the apparent ease with which rich public figures can purchase protection from being inconvenienced in any fashion by the press or, eventually, public?

Monday

Alex Massie

Oliver Goldsmith Refashioned for the 21st Century

From our UK edition

A stunt on Spanish TV goes horribly wrong and ends in tragedy as the innocent party here bites off more than it can chew and perishes in short order. The snake makes the mistake of feasting upon one of Israeli model Orit Fox's improbable breasts only to discover that where once lurked flesh there's now a super-sized bag of silicone. Silicone is not good for snakes.Not good at all. End of snake. It is, as Kieran Healy says, yet another example of Everything New Being Very Old. Recall, as you will, Oliver Goldsmith's* Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog: Good people all, of every sort, Give ear unto my song; And if you find it wondrous short, It cannot hold you long. In Islington there was a man, Of whom the world might say That still a godly race he ran, Whene'er he went to pray.

Alex Massie

The Execution of Admiral Byng

From our UK edition

It took place, as James Kirkup reminds us, on this day in 1757. As James puts it: To this day, his family argue – with considerable justification — that he was wrongly treated and should be pardoned. Every year on the anniversary of his death, bells sound in Southill, Bedfordshire, where his descendents still live. Voltaire immortalised Byng’s death in Candide with a scathing summary of the British attitude to its military commanders: il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres. Sadly, those days are gone. For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not arguing that it was right to kill Byng, or that such brutal injustices should be visited on others.

Alex Massie

When the Sea Invades

From our UK edition

Plenty of folk have posted this video of the Japanese tsunami but if you haven't seen it yet then check it out. It's not gruesome but it is extraordinary and, to use the word properly for once, awesome. Make sure you watch right to the end. UPDATE: Ooops. Should be the right link now.

Alex Massie

Are the Liberal Democrats a Serious Political Party?

From our UK edition

Obvious John Rentoul bait as this may be, the answer is still a definite No. Actually that's not quite fair. Nick Clegg and at least some of his parliamentary colleagues are serious; much of the party membership and, above all, the people who often vote Lib Dem are not. That's one thing to take from the revealing exchange James reports: The most political part of the Lib Dem electorate is, I suspect, the lefties scunnered by Tony Blair who thought they were buying into a more radical, truly left-wing, party when they hitched their colours to the Lib Dem mast. For all his occasional sanctimony, these people severely misjudged Nick Clegg. But much of the rest of the Lib Dem vote is an apolitical vote. They receive the votes of people like my mother (when she remembers to vote).

Sunday

Alex Massie

The case for a Libyan No-Fly Zone is, at least in part, based on aesthetics.

From our UK edition

I don't know what we - that is Britain/NATO/the West/Whoever - should do about Libya. But while I think Brothers Korski and Nelson make many valid points I'm not sure that the case for any kind of military action has yet been made persuasively. That doesn't mean one must be happy to see Gaddafi blitzing the Libyan rebels, merely that the calls to do something or anything seem long on justified emotion but desperately short on practical application. Andrew Rawnsley, for instance, asks "Are we content to let Colonel Gaddafi win?" But this is a false question. No, we are not content to let Gaddafi win but few, if any, of the measures proposed seem likely to stop the Mad Dog from destroying his enemies. We may not like the notion of Gaddafi's victory but are we prepared to prevent it?

Alex Massie

Fired for Telling the Truth, That’s the Washington Way

From our UK edition

Of course PJ Crowley, the State Department spokesman, had to go for his gaffe. That's what happens when you tell an obvious truth in circumstances that embarrass and even shame your bosses: P.J. Crowley abruptly resigned Sunday as State Department spokesman over controversial comments he made about the Bradley Manning case. Sources close to the matter the resignation, first reported by CNN, came under pressure from the White House, where officials were furious about his suggestion that the Obama administration is mistreating Manning, the Army private who is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, Virginia, under suspicion that he leaked highly classified State Department cables to the website Wikileaks.

Saturday

Friday

Alex Massie

Department of Corrections (New York Times Edition)

From our UK edition

Spot the mistake the New York Times makes here. Unfortunate but amusing. This produced, as it would, a fine correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the new Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as a female. Enda Kenny is a male. As I suspected this was New York's fault, not Sarah Lyall's as a sub-editor changed Mr to Ms. These things happen. A Telegraph sub once inserted "Kenyan-born" into a piece I wrote about Barack Obama's presidential then-fledgling presidential campaign. This was before the Birther movement had got going but, of course, made the whole piece a nonsense since if Obama had been born in Kenya he would not have been running for President.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Votes for Ex-Prisoners? Florida will be having none of that.

From our UK edition

I think it perfectly reasonable for the state to deny prisoners the right to vote and that losing the franchise is one of the consequences of incarceration. But as far as I know no-one in this country has suggested denying ex-prisoners their voting rights. They do things differently in the United States. Over to Roger Clegg* at National Review: Florida governor Rick Scott and his cabinet have ended the policy of his predecessor, Charlie Crist, of automatically reenfranchising felons upon their release from prison. The ACLU et al.

Alex Massie

Mitt Romney and Roderick Spode

From our UK edition

As you all know, one may be a designer of ladies' underwear or a great dictator. But not both. Similarly, one may have passed a healthcare reform that's a mini-version of Obamacare or one may become the Republican party's next presidential nominee. But not both.  That, at least, is held to be Mitt Romney's awful predicment and it's making him do some very strange things to compensate for this dreadful weakness. Politics can be cruel: Mitt's greatest strength was once his technocratic, problem-solving approach. His Massachusetts healthcare reforms were a Good Thing, not a betrayal of conservative first principles. Changed days.

Alex Massie

Who Benefits Most From School Choice?

From our UK edition

Who benefits from school choice? Conventional wisdom claims it's the sharp-elbowed, well-heeled middle-classes that do the best. That's the same CW that thinks the Big Society is all very well and good for Hampstead but it can never work in Hackney. This has never seemed especially persuasive to me, not least because these ideas are really designed to release untapped social capital and, almost by definition, there may be more of that untapped potential in less-affluent areas. Rapid growth and improvement should not be thought impossible. I'm glad to see, then, that there's at least some academic support for this thesis. Overall or on average charter schools in the United States have not always or do not produce the magical gains that some choice enthusiasts claim.

Alex Massie

Tobacco and the Laffer Curve

From our UK edition

Lefties like to think the Laffer Curve never applies; righties are too fond of thinking it must apply to any tax in almost any circumstances. Both views are mistaken. Cutting tax does not always increase revenue, but sometimes it can. As this excellent piece by Donna Edmunds observes, at least 80% of the £6.63 it costs to purchase a packet of smokes goes to the Treasury. At that level of taxation there is no shame in seeking ways to circumvent the Treasury. No wonder at least 10% and perhaps as many as 20% of all cigarettes bought in Britain (and perhaps 50% of rolling tobacco) is contraband, smuggled from abroad. It is quite an achievement to create another lucrative black market to be exploited by organised crime but that's what successive governments have managed.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Newt Gingrich: A Buffoon, Wrapped in a Charlatan, Inside a Cad

From our UK edition

Newt Gingrich's campaign to secure the Republican party's 2012 nomination doesn't deserve to be taken as seriusly as plenty of serious people seem to be taking it. No-one thinks Newt can win but he receives vastly more coverage than other (and sane!) no-hopers such as Gary Johnson. Perhaps that's explained by the fact that Newt can't come within 150 yards of a microphone without making a fool of himself. As a result he provides good copy. Which wins him more publicity. The latest: his marital problems were just the consequence of his patriotism.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Even Goons Have the Right to Freedom of Speech. Especially Goons, in Fact.

From our UK edition

If only Britain had something comparable to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution then we'd enjoy greater freedoms than is currently the case. Three cheers, then, to Bagehot for defending liberalism and liberty from the predations of the law and, naturally, the Sun newspaper. The case? An easy one that might have been designed as a litmus or Rorshach test designed to discover who actually really believes in the "values" we like to congratulate ourselves for holding and those for whom such values and concerns are unimportant and may be abandoned at the first sign of trouble or the dreadful prospect that someone, somewhere is doing something of which you disapprove.