At Culture11 today, I’ve a piece offering, however impertinently, some advice to the Republican party.That is to say, I suggest five lessons they could learn from the Conservatives’ revival in Britain. The extent to which they are applicable, let alone replicable, in the United States, may differ of course. But they are notions, not policy
Peers reject the notion that it’s fine to lock people up for six weeks without even telling them why and how does the Home Secretary respond? Well, yet again, by impugning the motives of those opposed to granting the state these extraordinary powers: “I deeply regret that some have been prepared to ignore the terrorist
Here’s video of Jacqui Smith’s contemptible performance in the Commons last night. Basically, she says that if you don’t support giving the police carte blanche then you’re on the terrorists’ side. At the very least, if you dare to question the government you don’t care about security. And of course all you yoghurt-munching civil liberties
The big news, obviously, is the collapse of RBS as an independent entity, now that the government is going to pump in as much as £20bn and take 60% of the company. In the long-run this is probably a good deal for taxpayers. At least in as much as that 60% ought to bring a
Quote of the day comes from Chris Dillow: Everyone knows centrally planned economies are a stinkingly bad idea. The lesson of the collapse of many banks is that centrally planned companies are also a bad idea. And they’re a bad idea for the same reason – that, in complex organisms such as economies or big
This is going to upset a lot of people… Paul Krugman wins the Nobel Prize for Economics. I can’t wait for the loopy-right to complain that even when the Nobel committee awards prizes to Americans they only give them to Americans who hate America. Or something like that. UPDATE: Tyler Cowen, as you might expect,
The issue of whether the state can lock-you up indefinitely for up to 42 days without even the courtesy of telling you why is back. Happily, the House of Lords seems certain to reject the government’s plans, sending them back to the Commons where, again hopefully, they will finally die. Here’s Labour MP Tom Harris,
Autumn. Mists and mellow fruitfulness and all that. The River Ettrick, as seen from the bridge at Selkirk.
Commenting on this post, a reader asks: What does this do to Gordon Brown’s political future? He sure looks like a world leader as the rest of the world falls in behind his bailout plan. Neither McCain nor Obama seem to have a clue what to do for the financial crisis, so I’m wondering if
Like Norm, I am entirely unsurprised by this: The Phrase “it’s not cricket” is reverberating again around state school classrooms. Good old-fashioned cricketing values have prompted an improvement in behaviour in schools, according to the evaluation of a project to promote the sport in schools to be published later this week. The “Chance to Shine”
Is this the most famous presidential ad of all? Perhaps! Anyway, we’re back in 1964 and LBJ wanrs that Barry Goldwater will end up incinerating your children. Tough stuff.
Can anyone explain why Apple thinks it’s fine* to charge one £800 for a new MacBook that arrives without a proper freakin’ word processing programme? This seems to be a new development, since my previous two Apple computers were so equipped. Why, Steve Jobs why? *I suppose it’s because brand loyalty and convenience – ie,
Michael Brendan Dougherty, splendid as always, brings it: At the end of the day, the arguments all seem to boil down to something similar: If it were more like me, the Republican Party would be better off. It’s failing because it’s like you. (From a while ago, for sure. But it is even more true
I’ve been down on John McCain for quite a while (but, heck, so have a lot of people!) but despite the ugliness of his campaign he shows the better side of his nature in this film. Then again, it’s hard not to be struck by the boos that greet him. Boos, of course, from audiences
There would have been more – and better – blogging in these parts recently if I hadn’t been helping to look after my niece, Florence, lately. She was, alas, suffering from abandonment issues as her mother was in London. Even the pastoral delights of the Borderland offered but a temporary reprieve. Still, here she is
Sarah Palin on Barack Obama and Bill Ayers today: This pattern raises serious questions about Senator Obama’s judgment. It raises serious questions about his truthfulness. But there is no question about his ambition. Ambition explains launching your political career in the living room of an unrepentant terrorist. Indeed. Because you too would start your decades-long
The most depressing thing I’ve read today (so far): Many large US cities, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and Seattle apparently never thought to ban the domesticated fowl within city limits. That’s from a Christian Science Monitor article on the increasing number of urban Americans keeping chickens. Why do depressing? Because
Frank Sinatra cuts an ad for Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and they don’t even ask him to sing? And what’s with the Mafia Don setting? Strange.
Unionists of course. That. at any rate, is Alan Cochrane’s argument in the Telegraph today. With his acknowledged acumen in this field, Mr Salmond has tried to put himself at the very epicentre of this crisis but with every day that passed he has looked more and more like a spear carrier in a major
Will Wilkinson has some fun with Naomi Klein’s latest nonsense. Naomi Klein says [the financial crisis discredits neoliberalism]. Or she wants it to. She thinks it discredits Milton Friedman in particular, because for Klein not a sparrow falls without Friedman’s having somehow strangled it. Hers is a tiny intellectual universe containing, on the one hand,