Category Archives: Gordon Brown
How would Braveheart Vote on Scotland?
Actually Mel Gibson, and even William Wallace, were minor figures in Scottish independence. Robert the Bruce (click the WSJ Michael Penman book review) was the real Braveheart in 1320.
Scotland eventually joined the UK in a merger of equals. In fact the Scots ruled England when King James King IV inherited the throne in 1603.
Nial Ferguson was born in Scotland and he doesn’t get the 21st century independence movement. He thinks it will be an economic disaster.
The economic risks are so glaring that even Paul Krugman and I agree it’s a terrible idea. What currency will Scotland use? The pound? The euro? No one knows. What share of North Sea oil revenues will go to Edinburgh? What about Scotland’s share of Britain’s enormous national debt?
American Braveheart
King James wasn’t the only ruler with Scottish breeding. Gordon Brown is a Scotsman and, according to Wesley Pruden, most American presidents have had Scottish blood.
Three-fourths of the presidents, including Washington, Jefferson and Madison, were of Scottish descent. So have been half of the secretaries of the Treasury, a third of the secretaries of State. Both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, like Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, were of Scottish blood. So, too, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart and Ambrose Burnside, and later John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton. America would not have a military tradition but for the sons of Scotland the Brave.
Slapstick Scandal
Mrs. Murdoch slapped silly her husband’s Parliament pie assailant yesterday. No word on whether the guy smuggled the fully assembled shaving creme concoction in his pants or if he assembled it on site. In any case he managed to achieve the impossible – not by outsmarting security – but by turning Murdoch into a victim, for a moment.
David Cameron is now calling for more media regulation. Here’s an LA Times editorial.
UN Follies
Ahmadinejad gave a speech at the UN last night to empty seats and a smattering of empty suits. The Canadian delegation led a walk-out as he took the podium. Delegates were outraged by the Iranian leader’s anti-semitism. Or maybe they needed a bathroom break following Gaddafi’s stemwinder.
