Alex Massie is Scotland Editor of The Spectator.
Tony Blair’s political legacy was making “progressive” the contested ground in British politics. Hence “progressive Conservatism” and “progressive Liberalism” and, I suppose, “progressive Labour”. George Osborne once even talked about “progressive austerity”. It shouldn’t be a surprise that some voters are turned-off by this marketing triumph. Yet this apparent consensus masks the real differences between
There was almost as much hackery as brilliance in Johnny Cash’s career and even his terrific late American albums are pretty uneven. But when he was good he was very good…So here he is lamenting – or celebrating? – those old Folsom Prison Blues...
It’s official: Tsars have jumped the shark as surely as the phrase “jumped the shark” has itself jumped the shark. We’ve reached the end of an era since, frankly, I’m not sure you can beat the Obama administration’s appointment of, wait for it, an Asian Carp Tsar: The White House has tapped a former leader
Sandy Arbuthnot in The Three Hostages: “Lord!” he cried, “how I loathe our new manners in foreign policy. The old English way was to regard all foreigners as slightly childish and rather idiotic and ourselves as the only grown-ups in a kindergarten world. That meant that we had a cool detached view and did even-handed
The annual memorial service at Flodden. Photo courtesy of Grant Kinghorn. Today marked the 497th anniversary of the battle of Flodden, perhaps the gravest military disaster in Scottish history and a fiasco that’s still keenly recalled in these parts where Flodden is a bigger deal than Bannockburn. The story goes that some 50 men from
Is William Hague finished? That’s the sub-text to this interesting, even intriguing, Ben Brogan post in which The Telegraph’s man in Cameronland goes so far as to suggst the Prime Minister “should fear for his colleague’s state of mind.” That’s not all: In a series of Commons conversations this morning I was struck by the
I enjoyed Arthur Herman’s romp through the Scottish Enlightenment and his book on the Royal Navy, though derivative, was a breezy read. But this piece for Commentary is truly bizarre: according to Herman, you see, Barack Obama and Bob Gates are preparing to throw away American military supremacy. Yes, really. Despite the reality of a
During the election campaign, Labour MPs and their supporters were most put out, offended even, by the suggestion that the rotten state of Britain’s public finances placed us next to Greece in the basket-case category. And to be fair, these Labour MPs had a point: the structural deficit is serious but Britain, whatever its faults,
I don’t know. I really don’t. It can’t go on. But it will. It bloody will. There are times when watching Scotland play international football produces the sensation that one’s actually trapped inside a Beckett play. It might seem a tragicomedy to you but it’s no fun in here. A game of two halves,
David Lloyd George is, I think, the only Welshman to have become Prime Minister but he was born in Manchester. Does this mean that Julie Gillard is the first Welsh-born person to become Prime Minister (or its equivalent) anywhere on earth? Surely Wales must have spawned someone who has been in charge of somewhere before
Quick public service announcement*: you’ve only got a few hours left to register to avoid having to pay £9 every time you want to enter the United States. Yup, even the Visa Waiver programme costs these days. (And even registering to avoid the fee offers but partial relief since in two years time you’ll have
Though the London press has barely noticed the fact, it’s possible that Andy Coulson will be in court later this month at which point, presumably, he will be asked, under oath, about the News of the World’s newsgathering methods. Coulson may be asked to testify during Tommy Sheridan’s perjury trial. This may just be a
And not so flat as a certain Thomas Friedman Jr had us believe not so long ago. Nevertheless, Friedman has a point: American leadership may look rather different in the future: In recent years, I have often said to European friends: So, you didn’t like a world of too much American power? See how you
He also needs more of them. Of course Labour are hyping the Coulson Affair to the maximum. Any opposition party would. As tends to be the case in such stories it’s useful, I think, to ask how you’d feel if it was all the other way round. If this were a story about Alastair Campbell
Stephen Pollard argues that this piece by Antonio Maria Costa, formerly Executive Director at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “simply rips apart the dangerously sloppy thinking from those who argue for the legalisation of hard (and soft) drugs.” Well, that’s one way of looking at it. Alternatively, one can think it profoundly
Let us concede that the MoD has been under-funded and over-stretched in recent years. Let us also concede that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair should have been aware of this and done something about it. But let’s also remember that the armed forces’ thirst for funds is essentially unquenchable. There is always something more, something
This is a subject that one could – and may! – return to frequently. David Cameron, not unreasonably, seems to have decided that there’s no point to the Scottish Tories at all. This is not a great surprise given that the Scottish Tories have declined to make any meaningful, let alone sensible, case for themselves.
If Labour members really want to vote for Ed Miliband then bully for them. Quite why they think doing so would advance their prospects of regaining power is something that’s lost on me. But if they do want to plump for Miliband Minor then at least they should do so for the correct reasons and
I’ve been listening to George Jones a lot, lately. So here’s video of a younger Possum singing, in his usual style, Things Have Gonel to Pieces which is, I suppose, a decent-enough summary of an entire school of country music.
The answer may not be what you think. It seems that South Lanarkshire council have embarked upon the most idiotic defamation action of the year. Over to Jonathan Mitchell QC to explain: South Lanarkshire Council has long had a certain reputation for Brezhnevism. Recently it seems to have excelled itself by bringing proceedings for defamation