Alex Massie is Scotland Editor of The Spectator.
Since Liam Fox’s lawyers are busy, twitchy buggers I’ll make a point of saying I have no idea whether he’s guilty of much more than foolishness in this Adam Werrity business. Certainly, Fox does not lack for friends and he owes George Osborne a favour (to be cashed doubtless in the event of an Osborne
As far as I can tell Mitt Romney has been hoping that everyone will be fed up with health care reform by the time the primary season rolls around. That way perhaps people will forget that his Massachusetts bill – once much-praised by the Heritage Foundation and other conservatives – is not wholly dissimilar to
Presumably Chris Huhne didn’t send this Tweet either? Clearly this was supposed to be a private message text message sent to some lobby hack, presumably with Huhne complaining about George Osborne or something like that. It’s getting to the stage where it’s more embarrassing – that is pitifully humiliating – to keep Huhne hanging around
If Murdo Fraser can boast that a bare majority of his colleagues are backing his leadership campaign, Ruth Davidson enjoys the support of many of the party grandees. Indeed with the likes of Michael Ancram and Lords Forsyth and Sanderson in her corner it’s tempting to suggest her campaign amounts to Yesterday’s Men for Tomorrow’s
With one notable exception most of the Tory “establishment” appears to be backing Ruth Davidson in the Scottish Conservative leadership election. That exception is David McLetchie. The former leader has announced he is endorsing Murdo Fraser. But, as befits an Edinburgh lawyer, McLetchie’s support is not perhaps quite as forthright as Fraser would like. Although
My friend Will Wilkinson, mischievous and provocative as ever, reacts to the Steve Jobs mania in a typically interesting way: Ever since Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO, the video of his 2005 graduation address at Stanford has been in wide circulation and has been unavoidable since yesterday. It’s a nice enough sermon. It’s the
Aesthetics matter. Form matters. Form matters even more when it enables function. In this respect Apple and Steve Jobs really did help create modern computing. Nevertheless, as Kevin Drum explains here there were very good reasons why PCs trounced Apple in the computer business (I write this as someone who loves my Mac). In time,
A useful chart of the “Top Ten” nationalities of asylum applicants to the UK in 2010: I suppose one mildly happy consequence of the fuss over immigration from eastern europe (and elsewhere) is that there is less talk than there used to be about Britain being “flooded” by “bogus” asylum seekers. Doubtless there remain some
Good god, #Catflap shows no sign of abating. And people are losing their minds over it. Poor old Tim Montgomerie is the latest fellow to see the rumpus as an excuse to get rid of Ken Clarke. Apparently a “Cabinet minister should never publicly attack a colleague” and so Ken must be sacked as soon
The immediate beatification of Steve Jobs, the visionary Apple chief who has been killed by pancreatic cancer aged 56, fulfills all the criteria for mass delusion and is evidence of some kind of quasi-religious quackery. The Book of Jobs, indeed. Sky News report that Apple-obsessives are “flocking” to Apple stores, presumably to “pay tribute” to
Six months ago I’d have said Sarah Palin was more likely to run for the Presidency in 2012 than pass on the chance. But as the summer turned to autumn it became ever clearer that time was running-out and that her moment of superstardom was waning. Her decision not to run is no longer the
If one hype video was weird, the other shown to delegates in Manchester this afternoon (but designed to be seen on blogs and Facebook and so on) was good politics in the service of a good cause. Or, if you really must, vice versa. As Matt d’Ancona tweeted, the Cameroons aren’t just Maggie’s children, they’re
Jim Murphy’s tweeted verdict on David Cameron’s speech to the Tory conference seems accurate: Bits I saw seemed written by 4 different people in 4 different rooms and merged just in time to be fed into the autocue. Such is the fate of conference addresses and today’s was no different. This is a tired format
I’m not sure I’m sure what this video, shown to the party conference waiting for David Cameron’s speech this afternoon, is actually about but it’s not the kind of thing you’d have seen in the Lady’s day. That is the point of it and it’s supposed, I suppose, to be posted on blogs and social
How many times must a man be considered “overlooked” or recalled as a “forgotten genius” before it must become apparent to even the meanest inteligence that he can no longer sensibly be considered “forgotten” or “overlooked”? This is something worth observing in the case of Brian O’Nolan, better known to you perhaps as Flann O’Brien
The unexpectedly interesting struggle to lead the Scottish Tories (no-one is interested in the plight of the Scottish Liberal Democrats) rumbles on. In Manchester this week, Murdo Fraser’s supporters have done their best to look chipper but the fact is that his brave decision to suggest scrapping the party and starting again is beginning to
Well, after the sodding rugby* I think it is time for some George Jones and Things Have Gone to Pieces: *Well done England.
For obvious reasons and though I harbour no* ill-will towards our southern neighbours, it would be grand if tomorrow morning’s Scotland-England game unfolds much as did the 100th meeting between these ancient combatants… For reasons even I cannot quite fathom, I’m oddly confident Scotland can prevail tomorrow. Admitting this publicly is obviously, then, to open
Regarding Mr Miliband’s hapless interview with BBC Scotland David, like James Kirkup, expresses what is the conventional view in London: But, as James Kirkup notes, the Scottish Labour Party is a serious issue. It is the only check on Alex Salmond, which makes it essential to the future of the union. And it’s important for
I suspect it can only be bad news for poor old Tom Harris that he’s the only candidate to lead Scottish Labour whose name Ed Miliband can a) remember and b) pronounce correctly: Another reminder that Scotland is already and semi-formally a semi-detached part of the United Kingdom.