Alex Massie is Scotland Editor of The Spectator.
There are three things to be said about Murdo Fraser’s willingness to put his own party out of its misery: this is not a new idea, it is not enough, on its own, to spark a centre-right revival in Scottish politics and it is a brave way to begin a leadership campaign. Tactically it is
Anent legal affairs in Auld Reekie, there’s a stushie brewing about the acquittal of the Hearts fan accused of assaulting Celtic manager Neil Lennon in a notorious and passably disgraceful incident at Tynecastle last season. The jury – seven women, eight men – deliberated for nearly three hours before returning a Not Proven verdict on
One for Coffee House’s weekly Local Interest feature: congratulations to the editor and staff of the Folkestone Herald for having the courage to splash on this… Can your local paper beat this? [Hat-tip: Ciaran Byrne]
Regardless of the merits of Nadine Dorries’ attempt to re-open the abortion debate, consider this depressing-but-revealing part of Zoe Williams’ critique: There are two main problems with Nadine Dorries’s amendment to the health and social care bill: the first is that it looks innocuous. Who could object to independent counselling for women seeking abortions? It
As legal entertainments go Man facing jail after reporting his cannabis plants stolen is a pretty good one. The Edinburgh Evening News reports: Police were called to David Williamson’s home to investigate reports that he had been assaulted and robbed. But after Williamson volunteered that it was two of his prized cannabis plants which had
John McTernan’s latest Telegraph column has an entertainingly provocative headline –Tell the Truth: Scotland has been indulged for far too long – but is, in fact, less a blast against Alex Salmond’s monstrous regiment than an assault upon Mr McTernan’s colleagues in the Scottish Labour party. This attack is disguised by John’s observation – scarcely
Speaking of the Black Shorts, there are two ways of dealing with the English Defence [sic] League: ruthless suppression or equally ruthless public mockery. So, with all due and deserved respect to Brother Bright I’m unpersuaded that it’s possible to be a “freedom of speech fundamentalist” and support banning the EDL’s proposed march through Tower
There is not much that’s new, I think, in the release of the MI5 files on PG Wodehouse and his wartime broadcasts from Germany. The Guardian headline reads I was not a Nazi collaborator, PG Wodehouse told MI5 and, of course, Wodehouse told MI5 he wasn’t a Nazi collaborator because he was not, in fact,
Responding to the latest migration figures Fraser writes: The inflow to Britain has stayed steady […] but the number emigrating from Britain has fallen. This is a compliment to Cameron: the most sincere vote people can make is with their feet. And in our globalised world, countries have to compete for people. Britain is as
It’s August so you could be forgiven for thinking Thomas Friedman’s latest column offering pony-in-the-sky advice to Barack Obama is a parody or, perhaps, written by some Friedman-bot while the great moustache takes a week off from soliciting couthy advice from Intel executives and Cairo cab-drivers. Anyway, you see, apparently… He’s Tiger Woods — a
What does Independence in Europe mean in 2011? That’s one of the questions Alex Salmond and the SNP have preferred not to ask, far less find an answer to. Way back in the dog days of the Thatcher-era Jim Sillars coined the slogan as a way to demonstrate that Scotland, small and on the periphery
Jon Huntsman was never likely to win the Republican nomination anyway but this Tweet suggests he’s decided to say “Sod it, let’s just have some fun.” These views are fine inside the Beltway and in Foggy Bottom but they butter few parsnips out in the country. Here again, the suspicion lurks that Huntsman 2012 is
This England cricket team is rather like the great German football sides of the past: a collective rather greater than the sum of its parts. Hard, determined, efficient, ruthless, organised and together. There’s quality too, for sure, but that’s not what stands-out. They thoroughly deserve their success. Nevertheless, their success comes at a price. Or,
Will Straw takes issues with Fraser’s post on the matter of just how many “new” jobs have been filled by foreign-born workers. As Straw says, foreign-born is one metric, British-national another. If you measure these things by the latter yardstick then, apparently, 69% of new jobs in the last year have been filled by non-UK
I dare say some of the sentences handed down in the aftermath of the riots are on the stiff side of things. Some people are likely to be harshly punished for moments of stupidity as they were carried away by the thrill of running with the mob. But, though readers know I tend to take
Earlier this month Joe Biden was in “trouble” for referring to the Tea Party as “terrorists”, now Rick Perry’s getting it in the neck for suggesting loose monetary policy “between now and the election” is “treasonous” and that if Ben Bernanke turned-up in Texas he’s be treated “pretty ugly”. This might have been phrased better
Could it be that Ireland has passed through the worst of the storm? Writig in the Financial Times yesterday David Vines and Max Watson argue that maybe, just maybe, it has. [T]he first and most important thing about Ireland is that it is swiftly restoring its competitive edge. Indeed it is moving rapidly towards a
It’s long been obvious that a large part of Rick Perry’s campaign would be built on a simple message: It Worked In Texas. Perry is fond, understandably, of claiming that 40% of all new jobs in the United States lately have been created in Texas. That’s a powerful soundbite. Consequently, it’s important for Democrats –
The problem with the Prime Minister’s “Broken Society” meme is that it’s not obvious society is more broken now than it always has been. Sure, there are serious problems and some of them are deep-rooted and, perhaps, the overall level of hopeless venality is higher than once it was but, tempting though it is to
My mother doesn’t read blogs but if she did this is the kind of thing she’d like to see: Appropriate, not just for the anniversary today, but for Riot Week too.