The MacGrinch Who Stole Christmas

It seems Christmas is still a political football in the States.

The left are trying to destroy Christmas, scream the right.

On the other hand, as Bruce Wilson discusses at the Huffington Post, it was the right that started it all.

In particular the dear old Scottish Protestants.

Fair enough, blame us. In actual fact I’ve always felt the real reason that Christmas took so long to regain a foothold in Scottish life was not a John Knox sized hangover but that New Year appeals more to our national psyche.

Not for the practical reasons of being less expensive. More because maudlin, drink fuelled, barely concealed rage we can do. Goodwill to all men, not so much.

And, as much as Hogmanay offers a chance to look forward, it’s also a perfect excuse to look back with regret. Wha’s like us?

Still, each to their own, I’m reminded of the (tall?) tale of a Japanese department store that fancied a bit of that Western festive shopping frenzy. Something got lost in translation. The centre piece of their festive display: Santa. Being crucified.

The irony now is that we have a son of a Scottish manse, a man who for many is the very essence of Scottish Protestantism, sitting in Downing Street praying night and day that the whole country goes out and blows every penny on the Christmas to end all Christmases.

Run For The Hills

Hillary Clinton Secretary of State

So it looks like Hillary Clinton is going to accept Obama’s offer of Secretary of State.

You just can’t keep that family down.

I think it’s a good choice on the whole.

What will it mean for Clinton’s presidential ambitions? Will they take Bill’s passport off him?

And did Obama ever consider her as a running mate? Clinton v Palin. That would have been a debate worth watching.

Local Heroes

A busy day at the BBC. The tabloids denied their extra pound of flesh, Jonathon Ross free to continue at the BBC. Heavily shackled no doubt but free to continue.

The big news though was the block put on the launch of the BBC’s video led network of local news services.

That move has been applauded by the Newspaper Society, its members claiming that the launch of the BBC service would have put their own local operations out of business.

If that had happened it would have been because a properly funded, well run BBC service would have been in direct contrast to the underfunded, amateurish local journalism that so many of us have to suffer today.

Stewart at Sour Alba has already discussed the disaster that Johnson Press has made of the Scotsman websites, robbing its three titles of a unique online identity, a mess that is reflected in the print editions.

From my own experience Johnston’s Midlothian Advertiser, a paper that, in fairness, was helpful to local charities, had to print an apology a couple of months ago because it printed no fewer than seven mistakes in a three paragraph story about a golden wedding. Apparently a case of a reporter not being able to take notes correctly over the phone.

The general feeling seems to be that we no longer have a local media worth speaking of. Local radio provides nothing. Scottish TV is desperate to jettison any commitment to local news.

Now, and anyone subjected to even five minutes of Jackie Bird’s Children in Need spectacular will agree, BBC Scotland can be dire.

But the BBC Trust appear to be telling the public that they are well served enough already. That’s complete nonsense, this is a victory for the lobbying of media companies who should actually be held to account for the substandard service they provide.

Competition from the BBC may have forced them to up their game. As it is now local media will be left to die out, controlled by companies that either don’t understand or won’t stump up the cash to adapt to a changing world.

And when the local papers have gone, their websites limped into the sunset, commercial regional TV news disappeared what will be left with? Politicians and the BBC Trust screaming at a Director-General telling him to do something about it?

Busted Tories

Question Time tonight: strange to see Melanie Phillips, however grudgingly, agreeing with Gordon Brown’s handling of the economic stramash.

It struck me, watching Tory frontbencher Phillip Hammond (no, I’m not sure who he is either) flounder, that the public are being more sophisticated than the Tories here.

Yes, we know Brown could have handled the economy better. No, we don’t believe that he, and he alone, was the architect of the global meltdown.

But the real issue is not how we got here but how we get out of here. As Cameron and Osbourne wade through treacle trying to find a coherent response Brown’s way looks ever more appealing.

Because, for all their bluster, it looks right now as if David and George were the only people in the country who actually believed the Prime Minister when he told us that he’d abolished boom and bust.

Brown’s Bubble Bounces On

Gordon Brown: Forever Blowing Bubbles?

Much as predictions can be dangerous territory: It now looks as if Labour have held on in the Glenrothes by election.

Couple of things if this is confirmed. It now seems clear that Brown will lead Labour into the next election. When? Sooner rather than later. Spring? Possibly.

Has some of the shine gone off Mr Salmond’s Scottish Government? These are strange times when both Brown and Salmond go into these by elections as leaders of governments. Brown’s come out on top this time. A long term trend? I have my doubts if, in Westminster elections, the SNP can keep up the momentum of Holyrood.

The Scottish Labour Party is not forgiven, far from it, but might Labour still be the overwhelming choice of Scotland at Westminster? Possibly.

This is a good result for Brown and Labour: A by election win at this stage in a third term government with an unelected Prime Minister at a time of global catastrophe is an achievement. And it will further dent David Cameron’s confidence.

As I write Nicola Sturgeon is turning cartwheels on BBC 2 trying to rewrite the history of this by election campaign. There is no doubt that Salmond thought he could win this. Talk of slashed majorities is not a comfort.

Salmond’s honeymoon is now over. He’ll need now to reframe the debate. Where to go? He’s unlikely to look at this result and gird his loins in preparation for pushing the independence agenda forward.

Far from striking a blow against the union the people of Glenrothes have pumped a little more air into that old Brown bubble. They’ve also delivered a kick in the guts to Salmond. His arc of prosperity rhetoric is dead. He no longer acts as a conduit for protest votes because he’s in power himself.

There also appears to be no sign of any lift in the Tory vote. That might be the good news for the Nats. If Cameron does win big at the next election then Scotland will not only feel disenfranchised but he may find some unlikely allies in an England centric Tory Party.

One thing is clear: Tonight’s result will have further shifted Cameron and Salmond from their comfort zones. And that ridiculous grin of Gordon’s might just be becoming ever more genuine.