Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Wednesday

Alex Massie

The First 2012 Debate

From our UK edition

Will be held next spring at the Reagan Library. So soon! What joy! Andrew Sullivan notices that Hugh Hewitt thinks it's terrible that the questions will be asked by "mainstream journalists". Hewitt wants "different kinds of journalist" to set the agenda. By different he means the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity Mark Levin and Michael Medved. Andrew complains, hyperbolically to be sure, that this is "like Stalin being grilled by the Politburo". But actually, I would be interested in watching a Presidential debate moderated by the likes of Limbaugh and Levin and co. Lord knows, there will be plenty of opportunities for Wolf Blitzer and Brian Williams and the rest to ask dumb questions.

Alex Massie

Blaiming the Euro for Irish Woes

From our UK edition

On the other hand, Philippe Legrain makes the case that too much blame is being apportioned (perhaps opportunistically) to the euro and not enough is being fixed to the Irish government: The problem is not that savings flowed from Germany to Europe’s periphery. It is that they funded property bubbles rather than productive investment. But the blame for that lies with herd-like investors, flawed banks and foolish governments, not the euro. After all, America, Britain, Iceland and other non-euro countries all had huge property bubbles too. Granted, joining the euro did slash Irish interest rates, creating cheap borrowing that fuelled the boom. But at a macro level the Irish government could have tightened fiscal policy – in effect, run large budget surpluses.

Alex Massie

To Solve The Irish Question, Ireland Must First Admit there Is a Question

From our UK edition

Alas, poor Hibernia. According to RTE, Brian Cowen Denies Any Bailout Talks. The rest of the world is not so easily fooled, however. These may be "technical" discussions but they're not discussing the finer points of hurling, are they? Among the more creative solutions to Ireland's predicament: rejoin sterling. According to Mark Reckless, Tory MP for Rochester: Every MP I have spoken to says they would be happy for Ireland to have a guaranteed seat on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee. This would mean that, unlike before 1979, Ireland as a sovereign country would have a proper say in setting sterling interest rates.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Au Revoir, Tom Harris

From our UK edition

Blogging is a risky business for any MP*. There are some whose blogs would persuade one to cast a vote for almost any other candidate, regardless of party. But if I lived in Glasgow South I'd be quite happy to have Tom Harris as my MP. Hell, I might even vote for him despite disagreeing with him on many issues. Admittedly, since it's a safe seat this is not such a sacrifice but I think electing good people to parliament is as important as the colour of the rosette they wear. So it's disappointing, even a shame, that he's decided to stop writing his blog. (At least for now.) He must be one of the few people to find blogging less fun in opposition than in power.

Alex Massie

Eliminating the US Deficit is Easy

From our UK edition

If you're a dictator, that is. The New York Times has a fun silly thingy whereby you too can take a machete to the US budget deficit. It's easy! My Cunning Plan even produces surpluses in both 2015 and 2030. 65% of my proposals are achieved by cutting spending; 35% by taxes. And I didn't even use the Fantasy Catch-All of "capping Medicare growth". I even let the Congress peeps keep their earmarks. Just for fun. So, yes, balancing the budget is easy. Provided you never need to run for election yourself. No-one would win if they promised my, or anyone else's, plan - at least not given the choices offered by the NYT. It is, again, a problem of scale. In a continent-sized country of 300 million people, every interest is a powerful interest.

Monday

Alex Massie

Lionel Messi’s Greatest Talent: Joy

From our UK edition

Goals don't come much better than this. Part of Lionel Messi's charm - and his football really is charming - comes from the impish glee that runs through his performances. There's an almost childlike joy to Messi's game that leaves you smiling and feeling just a little better about the world. Some of that, no doubt, comes from the fact that he still looks as though he's a 12 year old playing amongst men, but there's a purity about Messi too that raises his football far above his erstwhile rivals for the title of Greatest Footballer of His Time. Aesthetics are not the only fruit, but they matter. Is there anyone who actually dislikes Lionel Messi? Even when he does something spectacular you don't, somehow, get the sense of a player who enjoys showing off.

Alex Massie

Lexicographers for Palin

From our UK edition

Her reach - and ability to generate traffic - knows few bounds: The Oxford English Dictionary has just named “refudiate” word of the year. The Oxford link seems to be crashing at the moment, from volume, no doubt. Last year, apparently, it was "unfriend" and the year before "hypermiling" (whatever that is). And actually, "refudiate" isn't a bad neologism/malapropsim at all. It has a certain something to it, even if it also suggests that the refutation in question may well be based upon hyperbogus assumptions. UPDATE: But what about malamanteau?!

Alex Massie

Another Irish Loser: Alex Salmond

From our UK edition

There are precious few heroes in Ireland today and no gods either. But not all the losers are Irish either. Some are Scottish. Chief among them, Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party. Not because an independent Scotland would necessarily have been destroyed by the financial tsunami that swept the globe (though, to put it mildly, it would have been "difficult" to cope and might well have required a humiliating begging-trip to London) but because an independent Scotland would have made some of the same mistakes and unfortunate assumptions that have helped cripple poor Hibernia. Europe, you see, was an important part of the SNP's slow rise to power. At the time, it seemed a masterstroke: "Independence in Europe" offered the best of all worlds - sovereignty and safety.

Alex Massie

“It’s a Very Bad Thing When Economists Start to be Interesting”

From our UK edition

Yes it is. Despite what the Irish government says, it's now surely a matter of when Ireland has a bailout forced upon it. We left "if" behind some time ago. Even the non-denial denials are specific enough to be revealing. As Shane Ross put it on Sunday, "The game is up."  Perhaps it won't happen today and pehaps it won't be tomorrow but it will happen soon. And the worst of it is that it's not really about Ireland at all. The history of the Greek and Irish experiences (for all their differences) suggests that saving one patient merely endangers the next sickly country in the waiting room. None of the doctors seem well-qualified though perhaps none of the patients can be saved anyway.

Alex Massie

Tales from an Older Ireland

From our UK edition

Lord knows, in matters such as these the Catholic church can enforce it's own disciplinary regime. But, really, didn't this particular horse bolt some time ago? An Irish Catholic priest has been banned by the Vatican from publishing any more of his writings after he suggested homosexuality is “simply a facet of the human condition”. This follows an article on homosexuality by Capuchin priest Fr Owen O’Sullivan, published in last March’s edition of the Furrow magazine. Described as “a journal for the contemporary Church”, the Furrow is published at St Patrick’s College Maynooth. [...

Friday

Alex Massie

The Poetry of Opposition

From our UK edition

Hosannas are due to Danny Finkelstein and Iain Martin for finding and publicising this poem written by Chris Bryant, Labour MP for the Rhondda and a shadow justice minister. It's about The Cuts and why They Are A Bad Thing. Make of it what you will. Supine by Chris Bryant One arm stretched out behind my head, dipped back, I push the other through the water’s swirl And past my thigh before the next attack, Propelling me, with languorous aqueous grace I could not possibly repeat at pace. The rhythm of the stroke, as lengths unfurl, Calms down my daily work obsessions, Inspires free-style inquisitive reflections, About what happens when we all cut back. Above me, on the polycarb’nate roof A single leaf is twisting in the gale.

Alex Massie

Remembering Neville Chamberlain

From our UK edition

70 years ago today, Winston Churchill reported to the House of Commons that Neville Chamberlain had died. Since Chamberlain is so often traduced these days, it's worth republishing Churchill's balanced, moving verdict: Since we last met, the House has suffered a very grievous loss in the death of one of its most distinguished Members and of a statesman and public servant who, during the best part of three memorable years, was first Minister of the Crown. The fierce and bitter controversies which hung around him in recent times were hushed by the news of his illness and are silenced by his death.

Thursday

Alex Massie

The Epic Justice #Fail in the #Twitterjoketrial

From our UK edition

Remember Paul Chambers, the poor sod tried and convicted for making a joke on Twitter? (See previous posts here.) Well, he lost his appeal this afternoon: Paul Chambers, a 27-year-old accountant whose online courtship with another tweeter led to the "foolish prank", had hoped that a crown court would dismiss his conviction and £1,000 fine without a full hearing. But Judge Jacqueline Davies instead handed down a devastating finding at Doncaster which dismissed Chambers' appeal on every count. After reading out his Tweet – "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" – she found it contained menace and that Chambers must have known that it might be taken seriously. [...

Alex Massie

The Ashes: Post-War XIs

From our UK edition

Ahead of the Times revealing its post-war XIs, Norm has made his own selection. As you'd expect, they're pretty strong teams. It's a little depressing to realise that selecting a Greatest Post-1945 Australian side is much, much more difficult than doing the same for England. In fact I don't think I can disagree with any part of Norm's England XI: 1. Len Hutton, 2. Geoffrey Boycott, 3. Ken Barrington, 4. Denis Compton, 5. Peter May, 6. Ian Botham, 7. Alan Knott, 8. Jim Laker, 9. Fred Trueman, 10. Derek Underwood, 11. Brian Statham. You could, mind you, make a case for Frank Tyson. Alec Bedser is also unfortunate to miss-out. (Hammond is excluded because his post-war career was a sad and limited thing.) As for the Australians, well, it's more difficult.

Alex Massie

At the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

From our UK edition

Tynecot Cemetary, Flanders. In Sunset Song Lewis Grassic Gibbon has a minister - himself an old soldier - address his congregation at the unveiling of the War Memorial: "They went quiet and brave from the lands they loved, though seldom of that love might they speak, it was not in them to tell in words of the earth that moved and lived and abided, their life and enduring love. And who knows what memories of it were with them, the springs and winters of this land and the sounds and scents of it that had once been theirs, deep, and with a passion of their blood and spirit, those... who die[d] in France? With them we may say there died a thing older than themselves, these were... the last of the Old Scots folk." And not just in Scotland either, but across an entire continent.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Do Newspapers Influence Elections?

From our UK edition

Alex Barker notes that despite the Guardian's endorsement of the Liberal Democrats this year (still richly amusing!), the Lib Dems actually won a smaller share of the Guardian-reader vote in 2010 than they had in 2005: Chart from Kavanagh & Crowley's The British General Election of 2010. Some other things to note: Daily Mirror readers were much more motivated to vote than Sun readers. The SNP can have won the support of just 15% of Daily Record readers. Nothing happened between 2005 and 2010 to make Independent readers change their minds about anything. Times readers, by contrast, are the well-read swing-vote. Meanwhile, the Tory share of the Daily Mail vote only increased by 2% - a reflection, perhaps, of Paul Dacre's lack of enthusiasm for David Cameron?

Alex Massie

Social Conservatives vs Fiscal Conservatives, Part CXIV

From our UK edition

When Mitch Daniels, the Republican governor of Indiana, proposed a GOP "truce" on social issues it was clear that a) he was interested in running for the party's presidential nomination and b) that his moderate views on said social issues would most probably be a significant handicap. Lo and behold, South Carolina's Jim DeMint - sometimes seen as the senior Tea Party figure in the Senate and a potential 2012 candidate himself - pipes up to claim you "can’t be a fiscal conservative and not be a social conservative.” This would be news to Milton Friedman, among others. (Though you can argue the extent to which Friedman, like Hayek, was actually a conservative.

Alex Massie

King Coal Will Reign For Years Yet

From our UK edition

Like Andrew says, James Fallows' Atlantic article on clean coal - and China's advances in developing the stuff - deserves to be read in full. But it's also a useful corrective to the notion that "alternative energy" sources (with the exception of nuclear power) can come at all close to meeting our energy needs either now or in the foreseeable future. For all that relatively few people talk about coal anymore (and of course we no longer mine the stuff ourselves) it's still the King of Energy: “Emotionally, we would all like to think that wind, solar, and conservation will solve the problem for us,” David Mohler of Duke Energy told me. “Nothing will change, our comfort and convenience will be the same, and we can avoid that nasty coal.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

This Island Story

From our UK edition

I half-agree with James's (dangerously!) quasi-Whiggish view on the teaching of British history but would put it slightly differently: pupils in England should learn how Britain became a United Kingdom. (So should Scottish pupils. And Welsh ones too.) Simon Schama's Guardian piece contains a good deal of sense but the most important passage, I think, certainly as regards the teaching of history is this: My own anecdotal evidence suggests that right across the secondary school system our children are being short-changed of the patrimony of their story, which is to say the lineaments of the whole story, for there can be no true history that refuses to span the arc, no coherence without chronology.

Alex Massie

Bush: Damn Right, We Torture

From our UK edition

And so here it is: the final confirmation of something we've long known - the Bush administration's apparently enthusiastic embrace of torture. George W Bush's memoir (£) is merely the final confirmation of this. No-one need trouble themselves pretending that the United States does not torture (at least some of) its prisoners. Nor is there any need to dance daintily around the question of what is and what is not torture. Not when the former President of the United States boasts about it.  Should Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be waterboarded? "Damn right" says President George W Bush. They knew they were torturing prisoners and they didn't care. Indeed, that was the point of the exercise.