Alex Massie is Scotland Editor of The Spectator.
Broadly speaking, there are two ways of viewing the eurozone crisis: it’s a problem of economics or a problem of politics. Neither explanation quite suffices, of course, since it is both but the emphasis you place on economics vs politics plays a part in how you’ll view the situation and how likely you are to
Will Inboden is frustrated that Barack Obama so rarely has anything nice to say about President George W Bush even when his administration has benefitted from US policies Obama inherited from his predecessor or when he has found it convenient to adopt and sometimes even take further Bush-era views on a given subject (such as
Ben Brogan’s latest post offers a revealing glimpse into the oddness of the eurosceptic mind. He begins: To the dismay of many of his colleagues preoccupied by the euro crisis, the Prime Minister has been adept at nurturing strong personal relationships with Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. Instead of confrontation he has engaged constructively with
Inexplicably, this series failed to note that Gillian Welch and David Rawlings finally released a new album this year. Better late than never, here they are again this time performing Dark Turn of Mind…
Gosh! Jeremy Clarkson – a muckle tube, for what it’s worth – said something silly/stupid/offensive/boring and now everyone’s twittering that he must be sacked or arrested or hung, drawn and quartered. Who cares? Plenty of people, it seems, but the mustering of outrage is itself becoming an outrageous feature of British life. We are becoming
Our local paper, the Southern Reporter, reports that “2,000 public service workers” took the day off work yesterday. Sorry, withdrew their labour to protest against a monstrous government regiment that should horrify and disgust all sensible people. Soon, you know, armed resistance will be necessary. Fine. But, in these parts at least, it is interesting
In the midst of a futile* call for partisans on either side of Scotland’s great constitutional debate to avoid twisting history for their own ends, Professor Richard Finlay and Dr Alison Cathcart write: One feature of a mature democracy is the respect it accords to its past, which means accepting it in its entirety, warts
My old chum and occasional cricket skipper Peter Oborne is at it again. Causing mischief, that is. Peter – who once compared David Cameron to Disraeli and still, I think, has great hopes for the Prime Minister – thinks the time will soon come for Cameron to sack his Chancellor. That’s not quite what he
A splendid ad released by Ron Paul’s campaign: Youtube has been great for political ads and while ads alone can’t kill or win a campaign they greatly increase the gaiety of the circus. British politics may not enjoy (or, if you prefer, be afflicted by) TV advertising on the American scale but surely the creatives
In the midst of a piece explaining how Jon Huntsman bungled his Presidential campaign, Ross Douthat offers this: Voters don’t necessarily need to like a candidate to vote for him, but they need to think that he likes them. This is good, though really a small twist on the need for politicians to have some
I know Ed Miliband isn’t trying to persuade me or, for that matter, many Spectator readers but I still don’t understand what he’s up to or trying to achieve. At PMQs today he had an obvious choice: attack the government on the economy or on today’s strikes by government-paid workers. Bafflingly he chose the latter,
Via Norm, Verso are publishing a very silly book by Marc Perelman titled Barbaric Sport: A Global Plague. Norm reports what the publishers promise: Marc Perelman pulls no punches in this succinct and searing essay against the global phenomenon of sport, which he describes as both a “recent form of savagery” and “the opium of
Amidst the economic doom and gloom (though all the forecasts are always wrong so who knows how things will look by 2015?), the politics of the coalition government remain interesting. So Danny Alexander’s performance on Newnight tonight was very interesting. The Chief Secretary of the Treasury told Jeremy Paxman that the Liberal Democrats were committed
The question of who will succeed David Cameron is, in every essential, a pointless parlour game. Obviously, then, it’s great sport for the press and just the kind of thing to entertain hacks and everyone else at Westminster. The “rivalry” between George Osbore and Boris Johnson is the sort of thing that, if it did
There’s really no need to switch off your phones and iPods and iPads next time you are on a plane. Over to James Fallows: – 100% of the pilots making those landings and approaches have GPS receivers right there next to them in the cockpits, of the kind you would have to turn off if
Meanwhile, the New York Times’ Gail Collins makes the case for Ron Paul: Paul says he believes that the federal government (“the wealth-extracting leviathan state”) shouldn’t be doing anything that’s not specifically enumerated in the Constitution, which once caused him to vote against giving a Congressional medal to Mother Teresa. He doesn’t really believe in
British politics is pretty depressing at the moment so thank god for the entertainment provided by the Republican candidates squabbling to become their party’s Presidential nominee. Dark times demand dark comedy leavened by appropriate measures of farce. Hurrah for Newt Gingrich, then. We are advised that he must be taken seriously now that he’s been
The Democrats come to the GOP party with this reminder that Mitt Romney’s the most credible general election candidate the Republicans have. That doesn’t make Mitt some kind of Captain Invincible. But this is not actually some kind of double-bluff. Democrats really would like to run against Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry. Mitt has his
This series is back after a dreadful, loved-up, hiatus. Here’s the official video of Glen Campbell’s last, splendid, album released for his final tour as the awfulness of dementia takes its toll. Thanks for the music Glen. This is Ghost on the Canvas:
Few things on Fleet Street are as reliably embarrassing as the Daily Telegraph’s efforts to appeal to the Yoof market. Experience is a tough dominie however and, unabashed, the paper still strives to attract a younger, hipper type of reader even though said types of reader should sensibly be banned form purchasing the Telegraph. It