August 13, 2004
Theodore Dalrymple: Blogger
It is an open secret that the real life identity of famed social commentator Theodore Dalrymple is Dr Anthony Daniels. There is some very good news for fans of his (even if I disagree with the depths of his pessimism) that he is going to be writing regularly for the Social Affairs Unit blog.
August 11, 2004
The right man for Darlington
I was delighted to hear at lunch today that my old friend Anthony Frieze is likely to be the Tory candidate in the Darlington by-election. I couldn't recommend him higher. Anthony is a genuinely nice chap with a winning smile and a self-deprecating manner that make him very approachable. I wish him the very best of luck should he be officially adopted (not sure if that's happened yet).
UPDATE: Of course, there is no by-election in Darlington. It's in Hartlepool. Since my earliest days, I have always got the two towns confused. Many apologies to Peter Cuthbertson, a distinguished Darlingtonian.
August 09, 2004
Health & Wellbeing of . . .
Goldfish?!?
I thought it was nuts but it's in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44117-2004Aug5.html).
Apparently, "the town council of Monza, Italy, banned citizens from keeping goldfish in bowls." Now I'm all for taking care of your pets but really?
It's a goldfish. Instead of making up useless laws, how about dealing with actual problems in the here and now. Work on developing more jobs than persecuting law-abiding citizens who may not know how to best "love" their goldfish.
Crazy. I blame the EU. But then again, I always do.
Kris Murray
Iain's Wife
August 06, 2004
American Aristo
Over at the Commons Blog, Amy Ridenour, Jonathon Adler and I all have a go at Robert F Kennedy Jr for his bizarre interpretations of the free market, constitutional history and Magna Carta. I can't wait for Prof. Adler's review of RFKJ's new book...
Obviously a new definition of science
A word of warning. Whenever you see some form of the words "Scientist says X is Atlantis," you can be pretty sure that the last thing the source is is a real scientist.
My favorite along these lines is "Where Troy Once Stood," a book based on the proposition that Troy isn't in Turkey at all, but on the A11, just South of Cambridge.
August 04, 2004
The perfect response to Marxism
My colleague Sam Kazman just gave me the perfect one-line response to the Marxian maxim, "From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs."
As Sam says, "What better incentive does someone need to minimize his abilities and maximize his needs?"
Ludicrously busy
As this busy period shows no signs of stopping, I'm considering whether to mothball the site. My collaborators are also all busy for various reasons, so regular content looks to be a while in coming. I'll try to post some thoughts on the situation on here soon and would be grateful for feedback on that post.
In the meantime, I have an article up on Climatology on National Review Online.
July 28, 2004
The BBC in denial of history: exhibit one
On the BBC news site, there's currently a story entitled Wish you weren't here? that asks the question:
It's notoriously expensive, over-crowded, grubby and bewildering to out-of-towners. So why do so many foreign visitors bother with London?The very fact that they feel a need to answer that question tells you all that needs to be known about BBC journalists.
July 26, 2004
Crushing of Dissent, Old Chap
So busy last Friday I forgot to point to my latest article on National Review Online. The title wouldn't have been my choice, but it's a tale of a beligerent Western power trying to tell another country that it doesn't care for its interpretation of the science of global warming and using its political muscle to try to get the scientific agenda changed...
What I did on my holidays
A lot of the time I devote to blogging has over the past couple of weeks been devoted to the massive revamp of The Commons blog that I run for the nation's free market environmentalists. Designed by the magnificent Stacy Tabb of Sekimori, who really is a pleasure to work with, the new Commons blog is now open for business. There are some (many) things to add, but the basic structure is now there. I'd love to hear what you think.
Some thoughts on the Tory Party
Someone at work asked me about the current state of the Tories. Here's what I said.
The paradigm of British politics has changed and they can't understand what's happened (neither can Labour, but they're in power and the Tories aren't). This means that they're floundering at the moment.
Basically, all the ingredients that need to be in place for a change of government are there: unpopular government, even more unpopular prime minister, high tax rates, a governing party split on many important issues (the war, private involvement in government, Europe etc) and, most importantly according to the polls, a government that has failed to deliver its promises on improving public services.
Yet the Tories still cannot get a consistent lead in the polls, let alone the 10% plus lead they need to be sure of getting a working majority.
Why? This what the Tories can't understand. They have a respected, heavyweight leader for the first time in years. They have a set of policies that have been carefully crafted to appeal to those who want better public services while at the same time not compromising too much on the Tories' historic pillars of cutting taxes and encouraging private sector delivery. They are even doing well in local elections, being the largest party in local government.
The problem is that none of these matter any more. "Swing voters" don't really exist any more, having been so disillusioned by the dashed hopes and broken promises of the Major years and the subsequent Blairite miasma that they simply don't vote any more (hence the massive drops in electoral turnout). Labour, meanwhile, has done to the middle classes what the GOP did to the South - take the enemy's heartland and make it your own. They have presided over a vast increase in the number and salaries of public sector employees. To be middle class now, all you have to do is be a "Gender Equity Manager" and you'll be earning $60,000 a year. Your partner is likely to be in the same sort of 'profession.' You don't have to struggle with the vagaries of business. Middle management positions in the large British firms were decimated during the 90s. The rural middle classes remain, after a fashion, but they are dwarfed by the publicly-financed urban middle classes. The Tories will continue to get the votes of most of those employed in trade or the professions, but they're a much smaller proportion of the electorate than they were. The middle class battleground is now between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, and the central issue for them is, in Peter Hitchen's words, that your moral worth is determined by how much tax you are willing to pay. Egalitarian arguments rule the roost, but the Tories, not having the egalitarian track record that the other two parties have, are ignored in this debate even when they have an egalitarian argument.
Meanwhile, the Tories have done nothing to appeal to the working class, who are still solidly Labour. The current Blair stance, seen from the working class viewpoint as patriotic in the war in Iraq, defending jobs in continuing to be involved in Europe (the working class would long to be out of the EU, but is terrified by the paper tiger of job losses) and tough on crime (even though he isn't) has co-opted virtually all of the Tories' historic appeals to the working class. Their talk about better public services just doesn't do the trick. Meanwhile, their perceived softness on the Europe issue has lost them a huge number of votes and activists to the forces of the UK Independence Party, which would be a good thing if it wasn't controlled by people with a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot and not notice. The result is a massive squeeze on the Tory vote.
The Tories have also been unlucky. The two by-elections (special elections) where they came third the week before last happened to be in constituencies where in each case 18% of the electorate was Muslim. So the war was a huge issue and the Liberal Democrats profited as a result. They would probably have done much better in different constituencies. Yet it all adds to an aura of being irrelevant.
Nevertheless, they're not finished yet. They still have 30% support in the polls, compared to Labour's 35% and the Lib Dems' 25%. This is probably rock bottom for them. A good portion of the "other" support of 10% is probably UKIP, natural Tory voters, I'd suggest, and should start coming back as UKIP shoots itself in the foot (as has already started) and the Euro elections grow more distant. If, on the other hand, the Tories are caught by the Lib Dems regularly in polls, then they really are finished and a new right-wing party will be needed.
