This doesn’t seem like a good idea. It’s true that a Downing Street spokesflunky dismissed the suggestion that Mark Penn might hop across the Atlantic to work for Gordon Brown as “codswallop” but who would choose to believe what Downing Street says? Here’s PR Weekly, reporting that Number 10 is interested in hiring Penn to
Wackiest anti-immigration argument yet (US edition): Hamas wins when Hispanics are allowed into the United States. At least I think that’s what Mark Krikorian is claiming: David Hazony at Contentions points to a new poll that incidentally illustrates an important result of assimilation. (Complete poll here, in pdf.) The survey found that 82 percent of
In the past nine months four pubs in Selkirk, my home town, have closed. It would be simplistic to presume that the liberty-quashing smoking ban was the sole cause of this regrettable trend; it would be idiotic to suppose it didn’t play a part. Still, that’s only one part of legislators’ attempts to run publicans
This is probably the dumbest thing Barack Obama has said all year. “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each
Glenn Greenwald, elitist scourge of the modern media’s cosy elitism, has been on a tear lately. He complains that the media focuses too much on trivial froth and not enough on serious issues. Why, he asks, does the media, ignore (relatively speaking) John Yoo’s now-infamous (and rightly so) “Torture Memo” while devoting acres and hours
From our old friends at National Review: Or, as Bill Bennett puts it: Colombia is the Israel of Latin America. Your nominations please for other unlikely Israels in unlikely corners of the planet. eg, Andorra is the Israel of Europe or Orvieto the Israel of Umbria etc. A prize to the best suggestion…
I’ve missed Silvio Berlusconi and suspect you have too. Sure, I wouldn’t want him running my country but it seems important that he be able to remain on the international stage for some time yet; It is a rather unorthodox argument for being elected, but in image-obsessed Italy it just might work. Famously outspoken Italian
Further to this post on the media and What Readers Want, it’s always useful to have a gander at the New York Times’s most emailed stories. For sure, this is no infallible guide but it is a useful snapshot of reader opinion in as much as it’s a list of the stories readers most frequently
Danny Finkelstein thinks so. Noting that Blair had said that modern politics is more a matter of Open vs Closed than Left vs Right: And then I asked which politicians on the right he regarded as on his side, the open side, of the new argument. He replied:I think you can see the Republicans in
One of the great annual treats is upon us: yes, the 2008 edition of Wisden arrived this morning. As always, the obituaries provide some of the best reading. To wit, Mike Brearley’s father, Horace who died last August aged 94. He was: A batsman who played once for Yorkshire before the war, and twice for
A delicious column by Rachel Sylvester in today’s Telegraph. Some choice highlights: There is a “sulphurous mood” on the Labour benches. Disillusioned Left-wingers, who campaigned for Mr Brown to become leader, are joining forces with triumphant Blairites who say: “I told you so.” Even Tony Lloyd, the chairman of the PLP, warned yesterday that the
After Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter and Edrich it must be time for a bit of Fry. 1. Roy Fredericks (WI) 2. Jack Fingleton (AUS)3. CB Fry (ENG) (Capt)4. Tip Foster (ENG)5. Andy Flower (ZIM) 6. Aubrey Faulkner (SA) 7. Andrew Flintoff (ENG)8. Frank Foster (ENG)9. Bruce French (ENG) (Wkt) 10. Arthur Fielder (ENG) Fazal Mahmood
This article in the New York Times is, I suppose, unintentionally hilarious. No-one should be surprised if it prompts calls for regulation. Growing numbers of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands
Jon Chait is in good form in The New Republic this week, arguing that Hillary Clinton ought to drop out now since, barring cataclysm, she can’t win the Democratic party’s presidential nomination. This is true. Still, I liked Toby Harnden’s take best: It seems that Hillary Clinton is pondering three options: seeking an amnesty deal
The BBC: Paris protests mar Olympic relay This, naturally, is entirely incorrect. The problem would have been if there hadn’t been any protestors. Still, the BBC, which is sending more than 400 staff to Beijing, is heavily invested in the Olympics and keeps insisting that London 2012 is something to be jolly proud of whereas
Hillary Clinton on the proposed US-Colombia trade deal: I am disappointed that President Bush has decided to send the Colombia Free Trade Agreement to Congress. As I have said consistently for several months, I oppose signing any trade deal with Colombia while violence against trade unionists continues and the perpetrators are not brought to justice.
Here’s The Economist reporting developments in France: THE Gaullist backlash against Nicolas Sarkozy’s new Atlanticism has begun in earnest, and its new poster boy is Dominique de Villepin… Not only did he denounce the French president’s decision, which was warmly greeted by George Bush at last week’s NATO summit in Bucharest, to send an extra
April 6th, 2008, 12 noon. Scottish Borders. Bloody April, eh? UPDATE: April 6th, 2008, 5.30pm…
Terrific Nick Cohen column today, decrying the feebleness of a new ITV political satire show that oh-so courageously portrays Gordon Brown as some sort of Scottish miser. The truth, of course, is quite different: Brown couldn’t be further from a Dickensian miser if he tried. For 10 years, he has thrown other people’s money around
The Scotsman today: Page 1: Mystery of Severed Head Found on Arbroath Beach Page 18: The Awe Inspiring Beauty of Scotland’s Beaches