Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Thursday

Alex Massie

How Weak is the Republican Field?

From our UK edition

Very, very weak according to Ezra Klein: Does the 2012 Republican primary field feel a little...thin to anyone else? In 2008, Republicans fielded five candidates who looked, at various points in the process, like plausible nominees and even plausible presidents: Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and Mike Huckabee. [...] Why have so many GOP heavyweights — think Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal and Chris Christie, to name just a few — sat this one out? Clearly there's something to this. But less than you might think. In the first place, I don't think Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie and Paul Ryan sat this one out. They ran, they just didn't make it to the primaries. The "Invisible Primary" is still a Primary.

Alex Massie

Gaddafi’s Warning to Other Dictators: Shoot First & Shoot Them All

From our UK edition

Now that Colonel Gaddafi is dead, there's a lot stuff flying about Twitter along the lines of Are you watching Mr Mugabe/Assad/Ahmadinejad? I'm sure they are. Few people are likely to mourn Gaddafi's death but one should not, I fear, suppose that his eclipse weakens other distatorial regimes or vastly emboldens their respective opposition movements. It would be grand if this were so but foolish to presume it must be. Indeed, one can plausibly argue that a quite different message has been sent by this Libyan uprising and that this message warns other ghastly regimes to crack down harder and faster to ensure that dissent is suppressed before it has time to build. In other words: Gaddafi's fate is certainly exemplary but it may actually work against reform.

Alex Massie

Perry Punches Himself Out

From our UK edition

There appears to be widespread agreement that Rick Perry's performance in Tuesday's debate in Las Vegas was his best yet. Thank heavens I missed the last couple of GOP debates then, because I thought Perry's performance was dreadful. At no point did one look at him and think Hmmm, that guy could be President of the United States. That doesn't mean he cannot win the Republican nomination, merely that Perry needs to find some way of "connecting" with voters that doesn't involve defeating Mitt Romney in an actual debate. Because on this evidence (sorry Jonathan) that ain't gonna happen. Even the ballyhooed tiff on illegal immigrants actually demonstrated Perry's problems with this format.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

The Greek Crisis in a Single Chart

From our UK edition

There are some - especially on the American left - who give the impression of thinking that if only the European Central Bank behaved differently or if only Angela Merkel could be persuaded to do the right thing then somehow there might be a way out of the eurozone crisis. But even allowing for the fact that politics and economics are generally concerned with making the best of less than optimal situations sometimes there really is no way out. Here's a handy chart that basically explains it all: No-one is "solving" this crisis because there isn't a solution to it. Since every choice leads to bad places it is sensible, really, to sit tight and avoid making a choice at all. This might not be noble but it's realistic. Hope is not much but it's about all there is.

Alex Massie

Irish Economic Meltdown: It Wasn’t Fianna Fail’s Responsibility!

From our UK edition

Even by the lofty standards of delusional politicians, Bertie Ahern remains a man apart. The former Taoiseach who once boasted that "the boom times are getting boomier" has a novel theory to explain Ireland's economic bust: it was the fault of the newspapers. Apparently they were too interested in writing about the curious way in which Bertie's life was funded by a number of generous and wealthy pals and businessmen. If they hadn't been persecuting the cutest hoor on the northside perhaps they'd have noticed what else was going on. Really, this is what the man says: Bertie Ahern has called for an investigation into the media for what he said were failures to follow the economy because journalists were more concerned with following his dealings with the Mahon tribunal.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Stephen Birrell’s Conviction Shames Scotland

From our UK edition

Sectarianism, we are often told, is "Scotland's Shame" though there's also ample evidence it's actually "Scotland's Pleasure". For some at least. The prosecution and conviction of Stephen Birrell for comments he posted on a Facebook page entitled "Neil Lennon should be Banned" marks a new low. Not because of anything Mr Birrell wrote - his fevered outpourings being merely the ravings of a disturbed mind - but because Scotland now imprisons people for the crime of disliking other people and making that dislike apparent in any kind of public forum. This is a shameful moment that demeans the country far more plainly than anything said, sung or written at or about any damn football match.

Monday

Alex Massie

Dept of It’s Always the Jews: FIFA Edition

From our UK edition

Yikes: Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has blamed Zionism for the circumstances that led to him and former Asian Football Confederation chief Mohammed Bin Hammam being forced out of world football. Warner, 68, resigned from FIFA after ethics investigations were begun into a meeting he held with Bin Hammam where FIFA say payments were made to Caribbean football officials ahead of the election for FIFA president in June. Qatari Bin Hammam was handed a lifetime ban by FIFA for his role in the affair while a number of Caribbean officials were given suspensions last week. Bin Hammam was not immediately available for comment.

Alex Massie

This Year’s Booker Rumpus: Just As Ridiculous As Every Other Year’s Booker Rumpus

From our UK edition

The annual tiff about the Man Booker Prize is a reassuringly perennial feature of the British autumn. It is also almost always ridiculous. This year, apparently, the prize has been "dumbed down" as the judges (including the Spectator's Susan Hill) neglected a number of fashionable names in favour of a shortlist that, Julian Barnes excepted, features relatively little-known authors. Worst of all, it seems, the judges are said to have treated "readability" as an important factor when considering their favourites. Crivvens! This, it is further alleged, is part of longer-term trend favouring "accessible" novels above those of so-called genuine literary merit.

Alex Massie

How important is the Ministry of Defence?

From our UK edition

How important is the Ministry of Defence? Not, according to Fraser, important enough to this government to appoint a Secretary of State who has any great interest in Defence issues. This is fairly remarkable. You might have thought - and the MoD's particular problems might have persuaded you - that defence would be an issue demanding a specialist but that reckons without the managerial habits of modern politics. This is not a criticism of Philip Hammond. He will doubtless be, as they say, a "safe pair of hands" at the MoD.

Alex Massie

Is Cameron Too Quiet on Europe? Blame the Tory Right.

From our UK edition

When it comes to covering American politics the foreign press loves nothing more than gawping at the excesses of the right-wing of the conservative movement. Some of this is reasonable, even fair; much of it descends into caricature. Implicit in much of this stuff is the idea that these Americans should be figures of horror and amusement. Meanwhile, it is quietly suggested, we should congratulate ourselves that our politics has little room for such eccentric or even dangerous obsessives. This smugness is unwarranted. Consider the views of Rupert Matthews, the successor to the dreadful Roger Helmer as a member of the European Parliament. He has a thing about Panzers in Britain. As Bagehot explains, he warns that the EU gives the Germans permission to invade Britain.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Mitt Romney, of all people, shows David Cameron a way ahead

From our UK edition

Whatever may be said about his difficulties with the Republican base, there's no doubt that Mitt Romney is a much more formidable candidate in 2012 than he was in 2008. It turns out that having form over course and distance really does matter. And, of course, it helps that he's running to replace a Democratic, not a Republican, President. Indeed, Romney's confidence is such that he's already testing lines and strategy for the general election. This may yet prove presumptious but, while he's at it, he's inadvertently offering some good advice to David Cameron and George Osborne too.

Alex Massie

The Voters, Damn Them, Refute the Tory Right

From our UK edition

At the risk of careering round an old argument, Jonathan, the graphs you've produced on political affiliations are yet another reminder, if ever one were needed (and it is) that the Tory right's argument that Cameron would have won a majority if only he'd run a blue-meat campaign is dreadfully mistaken. As you can see, more voters identify with the left than the right. This was Tony Blair's legacy and the ground upon which Cameron was compelled to fight. I suppose it is possible that Cameron could move right without alienating voters who consider themselves - accurately or not - centrists but I suggest this is not probable.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Mitt Romney’s Haggis Problem

From our UK edition

Michael Kinsley begins his latest Bloomberg column with an observation so old it's even been made in these parts: If Mitt Romey ever becomes President, it will be because his supporters are convinced that he's a liar. True enough. Kinsley continues: Romney’s campaign is hoping he gets through the primaries without losing his appeal to independents and moderate Democrats in the general election. Meantime, his attempts to enlist the right are like serving haggis (sheep’s stomach stuffed with oatmeal -- yum!) to your distant cousins from Scotland when they visit. You can’t stand the stuff, but they’re supposed to like it. If you can ignore that ignorantly sarcastic "yum!" you'll agree that Kinsley's haggis-point is accurate.

Alex Massie

The Costs of Closed Borders

From our UK edition

There are many reasons to read James Fallows' Atlantic article on what happens when your email is hacked (and anyyone who uses gmail should definitely read it) but buried within it is this snippet on the In “The Chilling Story of Genius in a Land of Chronic Unemployment,” this past May in TechCrunch, Sarah Lacy portrayed a number of the hackers she had met in Lagos. In other circumstances, she said, the best of them might have been like Sergey Brin or Max Levchin, the immigrants who co-founded Google and PayPal, respectively. They were that clever and technically gifted. Or, more modestly, they could have been like the engineers and managers I’ve met over the years at Google, Microsoft, Intel, and other companies, at least half of whom were born and raised overseas.

Alex Massie

The Human Rights Act Protects the Innocent

From our UK edition

Meanwhile, in the day's other Supreme Court judgement, the justices struck down the government's ban on non-EU spouses under the age of 21 coming to live in Britain. This legislation was, it should be noted, well-intentioned and aimed to make it harder to arrange forced marriages in this country. So far so admirable. But, as is so often the case, the law cheerfully entrapped the innocent as well as the guilty. And so, as is so often the case, there's a balance.

Alex Massie

The Case of Hope vs Salmond

From our UK edition

I'm not convinced the Scottish parliament's 2009 bill permitting individuals with pleural plaques to sue for asbestos-related damages was a good law. Nor ca one be wholly comfortable with retrospective legislation. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court today upheld the Court of Session's judgement that the insurance companies could not credibly claim their human rights had been breached nor that the Scottish parliament lacked the standing to legislate on such matters, even when that legislation was a case of overturning or reversing previous Westminster* decisions.

Alex Massie

Three Cheers for the House of Lords | 12 October 2011

From our UK edition

As a general rule complaints that the opposition are too beastly for words should not be taken too seriously. They reflect a sense of entitlement on the part of the governing party that, whenever it may be modestly frustrated, quickly becomes peevish, sour and silly. If this is true of parliamentarians it is even truer when considering the bleatings of partisan pundits cheering on Team Red or Team Blue. Again, if you judge these squabbling teams by different criteria then you forfeit some right to be taken seriously. So it's depressing to see a commentator as urbane and generally sensible as Benedict Brogan make such an ass of himself in this piece about how nasty Labour types and "organised" Crossbenchers are - the beasts - frustrating the government in the House of Lords.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Does Alex Salmond Fear Ruth Davidson?

From our UK edition

The ballots for the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party's leadership election have been posted to members and few people, I think, have any real idea as to what the result will be. In general terms, as readers know, I'm sympathetic to Murdo Fraser's analysis of the woes afflicting conservatism in Scotland and unpersuaded that Ruth Davidson's campaign has been as good as it should have been. These concerns were scarcely assuaged by Ruth's article in last week's Scotland on Sunday. Choked with cliches and boilerplate it was a depressingly thin analysis of the state of the party. "We need to change ourselves, not our name" she wrote which is, well, fine but part of the point of the name-changing idea is to demonstrate once and for all that the party has changed itself.

Alex Massie

Are You a Terrorist or Just a Paedophile?

From our UK edition

UPDATE: Strathclyde Police have responded to all this and their version of events is quite different. So much so, in fact, that they dispute every aspect of what's related here. Hark at this terrorist threat! The photograph above was taken by Chris White at Braehead shopping centre near Glasgow last Friday. It may look an innocent family snap to you because, well, that's what it is and that's his daughter in the picture. But that reckons without the blessed vigilance of the staff at this retail-hellhole who, wisely, considered Mr White a threat and duly called in Strathclyde police. The police duly hassled Mr White, reminding him that they were empowered to do so thanks to the provisions of anti-terrorism legislation. Cue much outrage on Facebook and amongst sensible people everywhere.