The Obama coattails of 2008 are gone. The expansion of the electorate, the excitement of the young, came in uniquely propitious Democratic circumstances and amid unparalleled enthusiasm for electing the first African-American president.

November '08 was one-shot, one-time, never to be replicated. Nor was November '09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm -- and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.

Now this may be true. But one may also say that with unemployment climbing to more than 10% of the population no incumbent party can expect to escape a backlash. GDP may have grown at 3.5% last quarter and the job-loss rate slowed, but these are still pretty bleak times for the American economy. Just as I didn't think it was George W Bush's "fault" in 2008 so I decline to blame the current President for these more recent grim numbers.

So, if unemployment remains so frighteningly high and confidence hasn't returned by next summer then, yes, the Democrats will]]> Alex Massie 2009-11-06T20:10:39+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/5513256/big-brother-in-big-sky-country.thtml
Not welcome in Montana. For shame.

A sad story of our times: residents of Belgrade, Montana petitioned the town council for permission to keep chickens in their yards. No-one objected to this. Except, of course, the councillors. Why? Because they could. Apparently the chickens might escape and that could be a problem for the police. Meanwhile, one ghastly councillor suggested there just wasn't enough room on a 10,000 square foot plot for half a dozen hens. 

The usual bullying, domineering nonsense from jumped-up little gauleiters of the sort who infest local councils everywhere. But, as Lexington says, it's particularly depressing that such a thing happen in the American west - the very place that's supposed to embody a certain idea of freedom.

And, anyway, why on earth do you need a license to keep hens?

Over to you, Texas Crunchy Con and coop-meister Rod Dreher...

The Euro-sceptics are quietly confident. The overwhelming mood among those I have spoken to is that Cameron either has to get the powers back he said he would and show that his measure to prevent any further transfers of sovereignty are effective or there will have to be at some point after 2014 an in or out referendum. 

Added bonus: with its dreams of boats and ponies and ifs and ans and all the rest of it you may also read it as an arch critique of the promises politicians feel compelled to make and that we, because we want to believe, choose to take at more than face value. Not merely boats for all, but ponies on each and every boat too...

"My commitment to the people of Glasgow North East is that I will always put them first. My priorities are their priorities."

Really? Personally, I'd prefer it if an MP (or even a prospective MP) put his or her judgement first. I want MPs who will "stand up" (and vote) for what they think right, not merely follow the party line or pander to the presumed self-interest of their constituents. I want parliamentarians prepared to tell their electorate to take a hike, not MPs that act as though they're suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. So I want them, on occasion, to treat the Whips' Office with just as much disdain as I hope they will treat their constituents' prejudices and preferences. I'd rather have men and women of independent mind "elected" from Rotten Boroughs than have Parliament be entirely subject to the whims and biases of the electorate. In other words, I want representatives, not delegates.

The accepted rules of politics, of course, demand that we think of these]]> Alex Massie 2009-11-06T02:36:03+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/5508336/drug-war-economics.thtml It seems that Mexican drug cartels, vexed by inceased security at the American border, are sensibly moving production to be closer to their clients. Consequently, they're growing marijuana on Indian Reservations inside the United States. As the Wall Street Journal reports:

The math is tempting. Start-up expense for about dozen plots, with 10,000 plants each, is well under $500,000, U.S. officials estimate, including the cost of hiring 100 workers to plant marijuana and then several "tenders" to water them for three to four months until harvest. Incidental costs might include generators, PVC pipe and food supplies for the growers. Those plants could fetch about $120 million on the open market. With such impressive profit margins, a cartel can afford to have dozens of grows spotted and eradicated for every one that it harvests successfully.

Now, 20 years on, the enlargement of the European Union to include most of the post-communist democracies of central and Eastern Europe, a logical (though not inevitable) conclusion of revolutions that were conducted under the motto of ‘the return to Europe’, has made the dreaded federal superstate of Eurosceptic nightmare a sheer impossibility. It is simply not going to happen, in any foreseeable future, and even Germany, once the motor of federalism, no longer wants it. Indeed, French and Belgian federalists complain sourly that enlargement has given us, increasingly, a Europe à l’Anglaise, a ‘British Europe’. Why is it only the British who can’t see this?

After eight long, gruelling years the Curse of Bush is finally lifted and the universe is once more on an even keel: the New York Yankees are World Series champions again. For the 27th* time. Hurrah!

Fans of other teams may bridle at the notion that nine years without a championship constitutes a famine. But life in Yankee-land is different. In Yankee-years nine titleless years equals half a century of failure by other, lesser, teams.

More than any other American pastime, baseball is unipolar. The Yankees 27 World Series victories eclipse all other contenders: no other team has more than 10. Perhaps understandably, many Americans view the Yankees as a rogue franchise that presumes, with the insouciance that customarily comes with hegemony, the World Series to be their birthright.

Like the United States, the Yanks are gluttonous, impatient, immensely rich, accustomed to getting their own way, suspicious of those who do not share their point of view, and not always especially diplomatic in dealing with their friends and rivals alike. Their attitude towards other teams' players - if we want him, we'll take him]]> Alex Massie 2009-11-05T12:09:52+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/5505866/referendum-questions-the-1707-edition.thtml Now that the Conservatives have promised a referendum on any future transfers of power to Brussels and have, in general, become fans of referenda perhaps the party leadership can address the other looming referendum issue: that pertaining to the Act of Union of 1707.

Perhaps you can be in favour of a referendum on Lisbon and other EU matters and opposed to a Scottish independence referendum but I confess to finding this combination implausible and unsatisfactory. Furthermore, a referendum is clearly popular: polling suggests that roughly 60% of voters want such a vote and that they want it sooner rather than later.

This being so, and in light of recent developments, I'd be interested in hearing David Cameron (and Annabel Goldie) explain why referenda are important on Europe - and why we'd be having one if Lisbon had not been ratified - but out of the question when it comes to the future of the United Kingdom.

The argument, I suppose, is that there's a fear that the referendum wouldn't settle anything. But even Quebec's status was settled after a second vote and, anyway, Alex Salmond himself has repeatedly conceded that an independence referendum would be]]> Alex Massie 2009-11-05T00:42:27+00:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/5505016/petitioning-brown-to-resign.thtml A pointless endeavour, of course, but there was a petition sent to Downing Street asking Gordon Brown to do the decent thing and resign. Today the government decided to respond to that petition:

The Prime Minister is completely focussed on restoring the economy, getting people back to work and improving standards in public services. As the Prime Minister has consistently said, he is determined to build a stronger, fairer, better Britain for all.