  We perform a likelihood analysis of the recently released BOOMERanG and
MAXIMA data, allowing for the possibility of a time-varying fine-structure
constant. We find that in general this data prefers a value of $\alpha$ that
was smaller in the past (which is in agreement with measurements of $\alpha$
from quasar observations). However, there are some interesting degeneracies in
the problem which imply that strong statements about $\alpha$ can not be made
using this method until independent accurate determinations of $\Omega_b h^2$
and $H_0$ are available.
  We also show that a preferred lower value of $\alpha$ comes mainly from the
data points around the first Doppler peak, whereas the main effect of the
high-$\ell$ data points is to increase the preferred value for $\Omega_b h^2$
(while also tightening the constraints on $\Omega_0$ and $H_0$). We comment on
some implications of our results.
