Yesterday I suggested that Europe may well end up destroying David Cameron’s ministry and that, consequently, some of this week’s maneouvering has been designed to delay that until a putative second term. So, it’s interesting to see James reporting that: The Euro-sceptics are quietly confident. The overwhelming mood among those I have spoken to is
Because, frankly, from Afghanistan to Texas to the corridors of Whitehall and the Bank of England, it’s been a pretty bleak week it’s appropriate to bring Saturday Morning Country forward by a few hours. This Lyle Lovett song – If I Had a Boat – always cheers me up. Added bonus: with its dreams of
I don’t mean to pick on David Kerr, the SNP’s candidate in the Glasgow North-East by-election, because, frankly, every single one of the candidates would say something like this: “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 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,
Timothy Garton Ash’s piece recalling his adventures in central and eastern europe for this magazine is just as enjoyable as you would expect. Which is to say that it’s very enjoyable. But, mischievously, he ends with a provocative question: Now, 20 years on, the enlargement of the European Union to include most of the post-communist
The peerless Mariano Rivera. Photo: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images. 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
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
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
This is ridiculous. Apparently Gordon Brown has been paying a DC firm of speechwriters for help “tailoring” his speeches to an American audience. West Wing Writers have been paid more than $40,000 by Downing Street. This included $7,000 for “tweaking” Brown’s dull, blindingly-obvious and banal speech to Congress earlier this year. According to the Guardian:
My old chum Toby Harnden says yesterday’s election results produced a “miserable night” for Barack Obama and clearly losing the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia was hardly good news for the White House. But if the GOP has grounds for crowing there, then the result from NY-23, where Doug Hoffman’s conservative candidacy was
Photo: Germain Moyon/AFP/Getty Images Plenty, according to Matt Yglesias. Not least the fact that, like its southern brother, it exists at all. The Roughrider State celebrated the 120th anniversary of its accession to the United States yesterday. Congratulations. Matt, however, sees the Dakotas, and their brethren on the plains, as a problem obstructing the Greater
There are times when Twitter is a bit like playing I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. Today, for instance, folk have been frittering the afternoon away thinking of Unseen Prequels that have mysteriously disappeared from cinema history. Some of my favourites: All About Adam, Gremlin, Build the Bismarck!, Duck Stock, Le Depart de Martin Guerre,
Rod Liddle reminds us that he’s no liberal. This will not, I imagine, trouble him unduly. Nevertheless, his disaste for the middle-classes gets the better of him when he writes: The mantra of consumer choice was co-opted by New Labour and applied to all sorts of perfectly unsuitable things. Children should go to their nearest
I don’t think there’s much doubt that 1989 was the best year of my life. Not so much for me personally, but for the world. True, there aren’t many contenders for that bauble, but even if there were 1989 would be tough to beat. In fact, 1989 was probably the last and best year
Deficits aren’t necessarily the end of the world but they’re not your best chum either. This chart, pinched from Burning Our Money, is a handy reminder of where we are and the pickle we’re in. Worse than Spain! Worse than the United States! Worse than Iceland! Worse than Ireland! Gordon Brown FTW. Sure, in the
Elections today in the USA. Here’s a reminder, published 61 years ago today, not to get carried away… [Via, The Corner]
Nate Silver says that while the Democratic “brand” is of marginal value in about half the country, the Republican “brand” is pretty toxic across two thirds of those United States. So, he has an idea: You can actually make the argument — although maybe it’s not a good one — that Republicans should in fact
On the whole, Washington cynicism may be preferable to Washington’s special brand of bemused naivete. Consider Jackson Diehl’s remarkable column in this morning’s Washington Post in which he seems astonished to discover that the Iranian opposition is made up of Iranians, not all of whom share the west’s analysis of what Iran should do next.
So, tomorrow’s off-off-year elections looks as though they will provide encouraging news for the Republican party. The special election in upstate New York may have been chaotic – it’s not often that GOP bigwigs endorse the Conservative challenger to the GOP candidate, nor that often that the Republican candidate drops out and endorses the Democratic
Earlier I posted a compellingly weird video addressed to Gordon Brown. Upon reflection, frankly, the woman responsible for it seems quite disturbed and, consequently, laughing at the fruits of her derangement is in poor taste. Commenters were right to say that I shouldn’t have posted her video and so I’ve deleted the post.