Via Yglesias, here’s a charming leaflet from the Republican Jewish Committee that helps demonstrate just why the GOP deserves – even needs – to lose on Tuesday. Nice touch too, that the photograph used shows Barack Obama speaking in Germany. Obviously Obama is, rather oddly, Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain. Equally obviously, it scarcely needs
Anyone whose had to spend much time in the company of Scottish football journalists and members of the Scottish Parliament could only hope that a “charity” football match between the two groups could end in serious injury, fiasco and with both sides losing. In that last sense, then, it’s just like the Iran-Iraq war. Happily,
Good grief. Needless to say, one of the more depressing elements to this story is the fact that it won’t prove terribly controversial. That’s to say, there won’t be a fuss or a rumpus and you won’t – alas – see any outrage from politicians in any party. Pub-goers in Aberdeen are facing a drugs
Looking west up the Ettrick Valley during the second half of Selkirk’s tremendous 6-0 victory against Boroughmuir at Philiphaugh this afternoon. The defending Scottish champions were rightly favoured before kick-off but proved unable to breach the home side’s line. A terrific game of rugby, however, played in great spirit by two committed, courageous sides. Great
So, back from Dublin. As expected, the students heartily endorsed an Obama presidency. A shortage of McCain backers led to my speaking against the Democratic candidate. That meant standing up for, er, “angry apathy” (whatever that is) and, if pressed, a vote for Bob Barr. Rather like the staff at Reason, I suppose. But it
Cracking obituary in the Telegraph the other day: Julia Pirie, who has died aged 90, spent two decades as an MI5 agent at the heart of the Communist Party of Great Britain, most of it as personal assistant to the party’s general secretary. A small, dumpy woman with the appearance of a confirmed and rather
Simon Jenkins signed off from his Sunday Times column with a spankingly good piece last weekend: Is Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, a pocket dictator? Is there no drop of liberalism in her veins, no concept of personal freedom, no fear of a repressive state? Or is she just another home secretary? This month she
Yup, it’s another game of answer-some-questions-and-discover-how-few-people-agree-with-you. This quiz is better than some, however. Apparently, like John Schwenkler (from whom I lift the format of this post) I am a “hardcore libertarian” but also a “social progressive” who “probably” considers myself a “citizen of Earth first rather than a citizen of my country”. Additionally, I’m a
Regular readers may have noticed – but not necessarily been disheartened by – the absence of much cricket-related commentary here. There are a couple of reasons for its absence. First, I’ve been reading a lot in preparation for what I hope may become a longer-term project. Secondly, so much of the news these days is
More jobs Americans won’t do: write their own novels. Mind you, I wrote this post, so I’m in no position to carp or quibble. Still, this is ingenious: Admit it. Certain things make you desperately unhappy, and you don’t know why–the Sbarro at the mall, the taste of Jolly Ranchers in winter, the woman in
Apart from a couple of pre-prepared items, there’s not likely to be too much blogging in these parts for the next couple of days. The reason? I’m off to Trinity College, Dublin to speak at the College Historical Society’s* US presidential debate on Wednesday. We shall be arguing the motion “This House Would Vote for
Reviewing Thomas Frank’s new book The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, last week, Michael Lind wrote: But “The Wrecking Crew” is a polemic, not a dissertation. With rare exceptions like John Kenneth Galbraith, conservatives — from Juvenal and Alexander Pope to H. L. Mencken, Tom Wolfe and P. J. O’Rourke — have been the best
Oh dear. The days of the free lunch may be numbered: This blog aims to do one thing: track the forecasts of Britain pundits, bloggers and others on politics and elections, foreign affairs and economic trends. It is often said that there is no accountability for newspaper pundits – they can guess wrong time and
On the other hand, occasionally there is some good news. Plans for a “Britishness Day” have been dropped, it has emerged. The plan for a national holiday, like July 4 in the US or Bastille Day in France, was proposed as part of Gordon Brown’s plan to celebrate Britishness. It was one of the key
So, Twitter is the new rock’n’roll. Or something like that. Perhaps it is. Did you know, for instance, that Stephen Fry is a Twitterer? Well, he is and you can follow his feed here. (Mine is here, incidentally.)
Kudos to Frank Foer for alerting one to this priceless passage from David Gelernter’s most recent article in the Weekly Standard: Granting the importance of the topic, the difference in moral stature between presidential candidates has rarely been as enormous as it is today–not (or not only) because Obama’s is so small but because McCain’s
Sure, you could read about an EU investigation into Peter Mandelson’s (dodgy) relationship with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. You might even enjoy the Observer telling Macavity Broon that he cannae escape responsibility for this recession. All fine stuff and worthy and useful and so on. But what you really want to read is this story
Via Clive Davis, I see that Niall Feguson has abandoned John McCain. In a Guardian interview he says: He denies suggestions that Colossus, specifically, was written with half an eye on influencing the White House – but he became, for a time, one of John McCain’s foreign policy advisers. “I must say that since he
This won’t surprise everyone but it turns out that Rush Limbaugh is an idiot. To wit: Going after moderates, independents, and all these yokels is not the blueprint. The blueprint’s there, 1994, taking back the House, the blueprint’s there. Why are these people ignoring it? Of course, as Daniel Larison points out, the GOP won
A cynic might say David Cameron has an interest in a strong SNP. After all, a meaningful Tory revival in Scotland seems as far away as ever (though it would be closer if the SNP withered away) and this being so, the Tories have an interest in seeing the nationalists win Labour seats at the