Alex Massie
@alexmassie.bsky.social
Columnist for The Times and The Sunday Times, specialising in Scottish affairs. Also, co-host of The Ponsonby & Massie podcast, available on all pod-platforms.
The Mess We're In : The government won't tell the truth and voters won't hear the truth either.
open.substack.com/pub/alexmass...
open.substack.com/pub/alexmass...
The Mess We're In
The government won't tell the truth and voters won't hear the truth either.
open.substack.com
July 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
The Mess We're In : The government won't tell the truth and voters won't hear the truth either.
open.substack.com/pub/alexmass...
open.substack.com/pub/alexmass...
It hasn’t rained for a month. Which means it is time, once again, for ‘Scotland’, by Alastair Reid.
May 13, 2025 at 6:29 PM
It hasn’t rained for a month. Which means it is time, once again, for ‘Scotland’, by Alastair Reid.
S.T.R.A.M.A.S.H
Implement a 100% tariff and ruin a movie
The Seventy Eight Steps
The Seventy Eight Steps
Implement a 100% tariff and ruin a movie
Nineteen Weeks
Nineteen Weeks
May 5, 2025 at 9:44 AM
S.T.R.A.M.A.S.H
The ruling determines what the law IS and, indeed, what it has always BEEN.
May 1, 2025 at 6:13 PM
The ruling determines what the law IS and, indeed, what it has always BEEN.
This "people will kill themselves" blackmail is increasingly popular (now seen in multiple policy areas) and utterly disgraceful.
A further blow to Ofsted’s school card plans this morning:
Education leaders, teachers, former HMI & Professor Julia Waters, sister of headteacher Ruth Perry, have written to the SoS to urge her to delay the proposals, or risk “further, preventable deaths”.
www.tes.com/magazine/new...
Education leaders, teachers, former HMI & Professor Julia Waters, sister of headteacher Ruth Perry, have written to the SoS to urge her to delay the proposals, or risk “further, preventable deaths”.
www.tes.com/magazine/new...
Delay new Ofsted inspections or risk further deaths, Phillipson told
Coalition of education unions, headteachers and former senior inspectors warns the education secretary about the watchdog’s school report card proposals
www.tes.com
April 28, 2025 at 12:01 PM
This "people will kill themselves" blackmail is increasingly popular (now seen in multiple policy areas) and utterly disgraceful.
This is madness. No way we can trust Ohio State with nuclear weapons.
where we are in 2025: major universities seeking a mutual-protection treaty against the U.S. president
April 24, 2025 at 2:50 PM
This is madness. No way we can trust Ohio State with nuclear weapons.
When ‘Sorry’ is the impossible word.
www.thetimes.com/article/6b46...
www.thetimes.com/article/6b46...
Complacent and cowardly ministers are still failing Scotland’s women
The Scottish government continues to shirk responsibility for its past mistakes with no apology
www.thetimes.com
April 24, 2025 at 6:16 AM
When ‘Sorry’ is the impossible word.
www.thetimes.com/article/6b46...
www.thetimes.com/article/6b46...
Reposted by Alex Massie
The Vindication of Women. open.substack.com/pub/alexmass...
The Vindication of Women
The mills of truth grind very slowly but they do grind exceedingly well
open.substack.com
April 22, 2025 at 6:21 PM
The Vindication of Women. open.substack.com/pub/alexmass...
The Vindication of Women. open.substack.com/pub/alexmass...
The Vindication of Women
The mills of truth grind very slowly but they do grind exceedingly well
open.substack.com
April 22, 2025 at 6:21 PM
The Vindication of Women. open.substack.com/pub/alexmass...
Good lord, hasn’t even California suffered enough?
April 21, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Good lord, hasn’t even California suffered enough?
Reposted by Alex Massie
This is extraordinary given the ideological diversity of the participants.
Check out Free Press symposium on "Is Donald Trump Breaking the Law?" Participants are: @lessig.bsky.social, Ed Whelan, Andrew McCarthy, @jadler1969.bsky.social,
Aziz Huq, Michael McConnell & me. Note very high degree of agreement, despite huge ideological differences. www.thefp.com/p/is-donald-...
Aziz Huq, Michael McConnell & me. Note very high degree of agreement, despite huge ideological differences. www.thefp.com/p/is-donald-...
Is Donald Trump Breaking the Law? Seven Experts Weigh In.
Trump critics say we are in a constitutional crisis. The White House says that’s hysterical. What do our top legal minds say?
www.thefp.com
April 21, 2025 at 12:21 PM
This is extraordinary given the ideological diversity of the participants.
Five days after FWS vs Scottish ministers & far too many people still need to be reminded that the govt position was that quotas for women could be filled by men. How can that be anything other than marginalising, downgrading, even erasing, women?
April 21, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Five days after FWS vs Scottish ministers & far too many people still need to be reminded that the govt position was that quotas for women could be filled by men. How can that be anything other than marginalising, downgrading, even erasing, women?
Reposted by Alex Massie
as soon as someone attributes an opinion/ attitude to an entire jurisdiction (the people of this town “cherish their way of life”) you can stop reading
This from @jdcivicscience.bsky.social nails why small town, red America is not turning on Trump.
April 19, 2025 at 9:34 PM
as soon as someone attributes an opinion/ attitude to an entire jurisdiction (the people of this town “cherish their way of life”) you can stop reading
Reposted by Alex Massie
Classic Guardian correction
April 19, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Classic Guardian correction
Longstanding peeve: I do wish people citing Teddy Roosevelt like this understood that “bully” in “bully pulpit” means “very good”.
Your opinion is of supreme irrelevance. Don’t let your bully pulpit kid you into imagining that you matter.*
*if you think that’s rude or harsh, try being trans for a day, then reflect back on your own smug dismissal of other people’s lives.
*if you think that’s rude or harsh, try being trans for a day, then reflect back on your own smug dismissal of other people’s lives.
April 18, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Longstanding peeve: I do wish people citing Teddy Roosevelt like this understood that “bully” in “bully pulpit” means “very good”.
Interesting, perhaps, but of zero legal or statutory relevance. However expert, the views of a policy official about what a law is ‘intended’ to be are as nothing when set beside the ruling of judges who determine what it actually *is*.
NEW: Supreme court ruling on ‘woman’ at odds with UK Equality Act’s aim, says ex-civil servant who helped write the act - me with @libbybrooks.bsky.social 👇👇
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Ruling on ‘woman’ definition at odds with UK Equality Act’s aim, says ex-civil servant
Giving trans women same sex discrimination rights as biological women was ‘clear premise’, says key figure
www.theguardian.com
April 18, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Interesting, perhaps, but of zero legal or statutory relevance. However expert, the views of a policy official about what a law is ‘intended’ to be are as nothing when set beside the ruling of judges who determine what it actually *is*.
Reposted by Alex Massie
I for one am glad that attacking court judgments seems to be socially acceptable again among people who used to give very tedious lectures on the subject.
April 18, 2025 at 3:13 PM
I for one am glad that attacking court judgments seems to be socially acceptable again among people who used to give very tedious lectures on the subject.
Boss move. Marvellous. No fucks given.
Shelly-Ann racing in her kid's Parents Day race at the school is the funniest thing I've seen all week LMAO
April 17, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Boss move. Marvellous. No fucks given.
A question of supreme irrelevance. The court’s job is to rule on the law, not to rule with a mind to how their ruling will be interpreted by others. This should not be a difficult thing to understand.
How did the Supreme Court imagine this ruling would be taken?
April 17, 2025 at 7:18 PM
A question of supreme irrelevance. The court’s job is to rule on the law, not to rule with a mind to how their ruling will be interpreted by others. This should not be a difficult thing to understand.
This would be a great argument if sex and race were analogous. But they ain’t!
The concept of "sex-based rights" is one of the most insane things I've ever seen. You do not gain rights based on which sex you belong too. If you believe in equality, no sex is entitled to more rights than any other. We don't have "race-based rights" either. That would be apartheid.
April 17, 2025 at 6:41 PM
This would be a great argument if sex and race were analogous. But they ain’t!
Sex is immutable. Sex is not the same as gender.
This is only difficult to understand if you prefer to believe birth certificates are some kind of random sorting hat.
This is only difficult to understand if you prefer to believe birth certificates are some kind of random sorting hat.
April 17, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Sex is immutable. Sex is not the same as gender.
This is only difficult to understand if you prefer to believe birth certificates are some kind of random sorting hat.
This is only difficult to understand if you prefer to believe birth certificates are some kind of random sorting hat.
Reposted by Alex Massie
Very good job here: News Editor for The Times & The Sunday Times in Scotland.
(One downside: the successful applicant will from time to time have to deal with me.)
www.newscareers.co.uk/vacancies/38...
(One downside: the successful applicant will from time to time have to deal with me.)
www.newscareers.co.uk/vacancies/38...
News Editor, Scotland | News UK
The Times and The Sunday Times represent a combined 400 years of covering news and providing comment and analysis on the UK and the world. We are authoritative, credible, responsible, trusted and a p...
www.newscareers.co.uk
April 16, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Very good job here: News Editor for The Times & The Sunday Times in Scotland.
(One downside: the successful applicant will from time to time have to deal with me.)
www.newscareers.co.uk/vacancies/38...
(One downside: the successful applicant will from time to time have to deal with me.)
www.newscareers.co.uk/vacancies/38...
Reposted by Alex Massie
An era of magical thinking comes to an end and vindication is a dish to be enjoyed at any temperature.
So three cheers for the ladies of For Women Scotland.
www.thetimes.com/article/d5f2...
So three cheers for the ladies of For Women Scotland.
www.thetimes.com/article/d5f2...
The hateful and bigoted bag ladies have been proved right on sex
Politicians at Holyrood and Westminster owe women’s rights campaigners an apology after victory in their campaign to define what a woman is
www.thetimes.com
April 16, 2025 at 4:47 PM
An era of magical thinking comes to an end and vindication is a dish to be enjoyed at any temperature.
So three cheers for the ladies of For Women Scotland.
www.thetimes.com/article/d5f2...
So three cheers for the ladies of For Women Scotland.
www.thetimes.com/article/d5f2...
Reposted by Alex Massie
Thursday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...
April 16, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Thursday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...
No I am not.
Because it is not.
Because it is not.
April 16, 2025 at 7:42 PM
No I am not.
Because it is not.
Because it is not.