Alex Massie is Scotland Editor of The Spectator.
Well, whaddyaknow, turns out that a rise in obesity is one of the costs of government-sponsored attempts to make smoking tobacco less appealing. Swings and roundabouts. Acording to Chris Snowdon, a study* published in this week’s British Medical Journal reports that non-smoking women are twice as likely to be obese as smokers and three times
A good column by Johann Hari on the distractions – many of them wonderful but distractions nonetheless – of the wired age and how that has changed his ability to just sit down and read a bloody book: In his gorgeous little book The Lost Art of Reading – Why Books Matter in a Distracted
It has to be Glen Campbell this week what with the announcement that, on account of Alzheimer’s, his forthcoming tour will be his last. So here he is with a lovely stripped-down (no bloody strings!) version of Wichita Lineman. Jimmy Webb’s song is still a mighty one and Campbell does it justice here: [This post
It’s New Jersey so nothing should surprise anyone. Still, it turns out that the problem is that the cocaine has been cut with levamisole, a drug traditionally used to deworm livestock. So caveat coker if you’re in America this summer. Also, of course, one of the problems with illegal but popular markets is that the
You’d need a closed heart not to feel great sympathy for the family of poor Milly Dowler. Her killer Levi Bellfield is a vile, appalling creature and one can understand why the Dowler family would wish him executed. Many will share their sentiments. Among them is Guido who writes: The political class complains that the
As Presidential no-hopers go, Gary Johnson continues to demonstrate that he’s a refreshing change from – and cut above – the actual front-runners: “Presidential candidate Gary Johnson took a slightly unorthodox approach regarding job creation on Thursday. “I didn’t create a single job,” said the former Governor of New Mexico. His statement came in response
Whenever an American conservative uses Winston Churchill to make a cheap political point you can be sure there’s nincompoopery on the way. Hats off to Peter Kirsanow for this contribution to the file: In 1940, Churchill appeared before the House of Commons and described Britain’s goal in World War II: “I can answer in one
On the other hand, some policy retreats are simply depressing. One of the telling and therefore ignored scandals of our time is the apparent veto the Sun newspaper has over large parts of criminal justice policy. When the Tories were in opposition the paper demanded Dominic Grieve’s head on a platter as a price for
Sometimes changing course is the prudent option. The SNP’s grim plans for their Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Bill have been put on hold for the next six months. The government still wishes to legislate on this matter by the end of the year but at least we are saved the unseemly scramble
For all the talk of Cameron and his grasp of detail the fact remains that Miliband may, as Swot of the Lower Fourth, have the nuts and bolts but he’s wrong – hopelessly, utterly wrong – on policy. To recap, today he asked the Prime Minister: “Around 5,000 people each year are arrested on suspicion
You can imagine, I think, the outrage there’d have been had Tony Blair or, god forbid, Gordon Brown slapped down the service cheifs in this fashion. But there was the Prime Minister, exasperated by repeated complaints from the heads of the Army, Royal Navy and RAF that their resources are perilously close to snapping-point, telling
Meanwhile in happier news for Alex Salmond and his merry throng, the latest GERS figures are out and you can expect to see the Natiionalists trumpet them to all who care to listen: Government and Expenditure Revenue Scotland 2009-10 figures show that, including a geographical share of UK North Sea oil and gas revenues, Scotland
Perhaps the most horrific battle of them all began 70 years ago today. Here’s Orwell: The Germans invaded the U.S.S.R. this morning. Everyone greatly excited. It is universally assumed that this development is to our advantage. It is only so, however, if the Russians actually intend to fight back and can put up a serious
Here’s a clue for politicians: when you’re asked if you’ve just criminalised the national anthem and all you can do is say “Er, maybe, it all kinda depends on the circumstances” the chances are you’ve produced a bill that tests even the patient, hard-to-exhaust, limits of parliamentary absurdity and you should probably put it through
The most important thing about Jon Huntsman is that he’s a much better general election candidate than he is a contender for the Republican party’s nomination. His job is to persuade the Republican electorate that even if they don’t much like him or can’t be quite sure they can trust him, he’s the guy with
On the one hand, it’s good that Ed Vulliamy is in the Guardian today highlighting the appalling miseries of the Mexican Drug War; on the other it’s unfortunate that his piece is so very desperately confused. But this is not just a war between narco-cartels. Juarez has imploded into a state of criminal anarchy –
Better still, it’s only three minutes long! Sadly the video can’t be embedded so you’ll have to hop over here to watch and enjoy it. Norm, mind you, was ahead of the game as far back as 2007. Previous Curtis-sniping here. *Not to be confused with that other Adam Curtis of course.
How do you measure a place? A community? A spirit? It is a media-driven cliche that all communities, especially when struck by disaster, must be deemed “close-knit”. Politicians, meanwhile, give speeches suggesting that chaos is running amok and destroying these supposedly confident communities, leaving us with nothing better than an atomised society in which the
As yer man said “a good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub”. A better puzzle would be why anyone would think this a good idea or profitable use of their time. That said, avoiding Davy Byrne’s is generally sound advice and never more so than today when it will be filled
Bruce Bartlett offers this chart (via Andrew) demonstrating that the United States is the only NATO country basically to have maintained it’s Cold War defence spending. Indeed, the US accounts for roughly 43% of global defence spending. Bartlett is not the only conservative who thinks domestic fiscal concerns – to say nothing of foreign policy