Beyond the Street

Tech ‘moonshots’ will create national failures as well as champions Written by Alex Massie 17 September 2020 Earlier this month, the $40bn sale of ARM, the Cambridge-based technology firm, to the American company Nvidia was confirmed amidst some concern and some controversy. Yet again, it was claimed, a world-leading British firm was being snapped up …

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Is meritocracy the road to the guillotine? Written by Alex Massie10 September 2020 Meritocracy, the belief in social mobility based on hard-work and ability, is both impossible to argue against and so thoroughly misunderstood it becomes necessary, eventually, to argue against it. It is one of the foundational creeds of modern life. Yet the term …

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Germany’s European opportunity Written by Alex Massie3 September 2020 Earlier this summer, as the true depth and scale of the coronavirus emergency became clear, Germany assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union. This was a coincidence of timing, but a fortuitous one nonetheless for, as chancellor Angela Merkel argued, “Europe needs us, just as we need Europe”. This …

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Trump’s is a strength based on fundamental weakness Written by Alex Massie27 August 2020 In the course of his four years in the White House, Donald Trump has so successfully lowered expectations of what one might ordinarily expect from the president of the United States of America that it no longer makes sense to view …

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States of civilisation Written by Alex Massie20 August 2020 Earlier this month Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, visited the northern city of Ayodhya, birthplace, Hindus believe, of the god Ram and the location for a highly symbolic, and hence revealing, struggle for the soul and future of India. Modi was present to lay the …

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An economic drought Written by Alex Massie13 August 2020 So here it is: the United Kingdom is now, officially, in a recession. This can hardly be considered a surprising development but the scale of the slump remains shocking. According to the Office for National Statistics, GDP shrank by 20.4% in the second quarter of 2020. …

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Great risk, great reward Written by Alex Massie6 August 2020 Last week Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and by some measure the world’s wealthiest individual, appeared before the United States’ House of Representatives subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. The detail of that committee’s investigations into ‘Big Tech’ need not detain us today, …

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Foreign policy cannot be foreign concept for world’s “indispensable nation” Written by Alex Massie28 July 2020 This is not a moment for illusions. The forthcoming American presidential election may, for once, justify the quadrennial assertion that this time it really, really matters but even as much of the world desperately hopes Joe Biden will succeed …

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European disunion Written by Alex Massie16 July 2020 At the weekend, Andrzej Duda narrowly defeated Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, to be elected president of Poland. This was a more telling victory than the bare bones of its reality might suggest. Assisted by an increasingly partisan state-media, Duda ran a nakedly nationalist campaign.  At …

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The long Scottish sabbath Written by Alex Massie26 June 2020 According to Boris Johnson, “our great national hibernation is coming to an end”. Except for viewers in Scotland, of course, where, as ever, the darker times shall endure a little longer yet. The Scottish summer remains on hold pending the next review of lockdown restrictions. …

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