Alex Massie

Alex Massie

The GOP Declines to Rump Status

The good news for the Republican party is that it can’t get much worse; the bad news is that it’s pretty bad already. As Rod Dreher points out, a new Washington Post poll finds that just one in five Americans are prepared to identify themselves as Republicans. That’s some achievement in a two-party system. With

Alex Massie

Snooper Britain

Many thanks to Iain Dale for digging up this Tory poster from 1929. Prescient and useful though it may be, I cannot share his confidence that the Conservatives will be very much better. That is, we may modestly expect an improvement in degree but not in kind. Alas. Here, at least, is an opportunity for

How Serious are the Tories about Localism?

This chart, pinched from Burning Our Money, shows how much work needs to be done if the Conservatives’ talk of handing power back to local communities is actually likely to amount to anything. As you can see, local government raises more of its own money in almost every other leading country. Only Ireland, Greece and,

Alex Massie

Stickies vs Provos

Tory Bear is upset with the continuing brouhaha over the Conservatives’ pals in the European parliament. Well, fair enough. I find it hard to believe that anyone, apart from euro-obsessives, cares about the european parliament but perhaps I’m mistaken. Accordingly he wants, not unreasonably, to draw attention to some of Labour’s less than wholesome allies

Alex Massie

Dancing to a Scottish Jig? Aye, Right.

Och, David, dinna fash yersel’. The chances of Alex Salmond playing a tune for anyone to dance to next year are a good deal slimmer than the First Minister himself. His speech was, like Gordon Brown’s in Brighton, a parochial affair, designed to appeal to the lumpen party memebership, not convince anyone who ain’t already

Alex Massie

A Parliament of Doctors

So, it seems that if you want to win a primary contest in the modern Tory party it helps to be a GP. Having selected a local GP in Totnes the Conservatives have selected another local MP in Bracknell. As Liberal Vision’s Mark Littlewood says, Phil Lee may well become an admirable Member of Parliament

Barack Obama the Writer

Robert Draper, chronicler of the Last Days of Bush, has another very interesting piece in GQ this month, this time looking at Barack Obama the writer and how the President’s writing shapes and informs his style. Andrew Sullivan rightly highlights the part that deals with the famous “race speech” in Philadelphia last year, but I

Alex Massie

Monarchy is Better than a Republic, Part XIX

At a town hall meeting in New Orleans yesterday, ABC News reports that: President Obama, like any other President, has his fair share of critics. Even fourth-graders have noticed. Why do people hate you?”, a fourth-grade boy asked Obama at a town hall event in New Orleans today. “They’re supposed to love you. And God

Diego Maradona Lives to Fight Another Day

Argentina’s coach Diego Maradona celebrates his team’s goal against Uruguay during their World Cup qualifier in Montevideo. Argentina won 1-0 and qualified in fourth position for the World Cup. Photo: Daniel Garcia/AFP/Getty Images. Well, they did it. In the end Argentina didn’t need to win in Montevideo yesterday since Chile’s victory against Ecuador ensured that,

Alex Massie

The Generals & Their Plan of Attack

Actually, the General Staff’s manoeuvres on Fleet Street have, alas, been rather more successful than their efforts in Basra and Helmand province. I commend*, therefore, Paul Robinson’s article in this week’s edition of the magazine in which he argues that the Generals must take their share of responsibility for recent military failures. More provocatively still

Alex Massie

David Cameron, his Goats & his Pocket Boroughs

The other day Pete mentioned David Cameron’s desire to bring in outsiders to staff his government ministries, making it a Tory version of Gordon’s so-called Government Of All the Talents. One can see why this must be an appealling notion. You might share it if you were charged with assembling a government from the parliamentary

Headline of the Day | 14 October 2009

Courtesy of the Australian AP: PM eats biscuit, Twitters about it Good to know that Kevin Rudd enjoyed his visit to a bakery in South Australia. [Hat-tip: Toby Harnden, via Twitter. Obviously. My Twitter feed is here.]

Alex Massie

Department of Equine Hyperbole

Sea the Stars winning the Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp. Photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images. So long, then, Sea the Stars. A shame you won’t run as a four year old or in the Breeders’ Cup but hardly a surprise that you’re heading straight for the stud farm. The BBC News last night suggested you were

Alex Massie

Arabian Chutzpah

No matter what you think of global warming, I think this qualifies as chutzpah: Saudi Arabia is trying to enlist other oil-producing countries to support a provocative idea: if wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers. Good luck with that.

Alex Massie

President David Petraeus?

Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images Until he gives a Shermanesque denial – and perhaps even that won’t be enough to silence the speculation – you can bet that there’ll be people writing about General David Petraeus’s political potential. Can’t be avoided. Too much time before the next election; too much space to fill. The most recent

Alex Massie

Carter-Ruck’s Own Goal

I make no particular comment about this chatty stroll through the ways and means of getting an injunction, save to note that it was written by Nigel Tait, a partner at Carter-Ruck and appears on the firm’s website: In many cases it is clear to the lawyer, within minutes of taking instructions, whether or not

A Good Day: Geert Wilders May Now Visit Britain

Against all the odds, this is turning into a rare fine day. First the Guardian wins the Battle of Trafigura; now the courts have over-turned the order prohibiting Geert Wilders from entering the United Kingdom. Another small, if doubtless temporary, victory for liberty. Long-time readers will know that I’m not one of Mr Wilders’ fans

British Press Banned from Reporting Parliament. Seriously.

This time, perhaps even the lawyers have gone too far. It’s hard to recall, even in the long history of appalling gagging orders, a more disgraceful injunction than this: The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688