A libertarian returns to Scotland

"Freedom and Whisky gang thegither"

- Robert Burns

Scottish Blogring:

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Sick Scotland

Andrew Duffin has e-mailed me about a story in Friday's Glasgow Herald:

"Waiting times for patients at Scotland's accident and emergency departments are rising and have now reached unacceptable levels, the health minister said yesterday. "

And Andrew comments:

What, despite all those extra £billions? Well, colour me surprised!

This story was also big news in Friday's Scotsman:

Indeed, rather than generating vast improvements in the health service in Scotland, the Executive’s massive extra investment - £2 billion extra in the past four years - seems to have made no noticeable improvement. Waiting lists are greater now than they were before devolution and key waiting times are longer than under the Tories.

Surely the explanation must be a "lack of resources", some will claim.

Not so:

The government spends £1,190 per head on health in England. In Scotland the figure is £1,500, the equivalent of 10 per cent of Scottish GDP - well ahead of the EU average of 8.2 per cent. But the English NHS has managed to make great strides in cutting waiting lists and times, improving productivity and making the whole service more efficient.

And there was yet more about this fiasco in another Scotsman article on Friday:

Yesterday’s official waiting time statistics revealed that the average wait for inpatient treatment at Scottish hospitals was 43 days in June - five days more than last year. They also showed that patients are waiting longer for treatment in Scotland’s accident and emergency departments.

An editorial calls for the resignation of Scotland's health minister:

UNDER Malcolm Chisholm, Scotland has set two records: the highest healthcare spending ratio in Western Europe, and the lowest life expectancy. The health minister appears to be gunning for a third title: the biggest investment for the poorest results.

.... Scotland is rich in healthcare professionals, who have the intellect (and the resources) to tackle the problems mainly created by pockets of Labour-sponsored urban poverty which now make Glasgow’s life expectancy lower than that of Iran. The problem is the politicians.

Rejecting reform may have been an easy choice for Mr Chisholm, but Scotland’s sick are now paying the price. For their sake, he must go.

I have spent the last two weeks at the Edinburgh Book Festival listening to speaker after speaker praising the Scottish Enlightenment and its contribution to mankind - especially in medicine - and yet the population of Glasgow, once the proud Second City of the Empire, is sicker than that of Iran.

Yes, Malcolm Chisholm should go. But he's just carrying out a policy supported by all of the Scottish Labour Party as well as virtually every other politician in the Scottish parliament. It's unfair to lay all the blame on the hapless Chisholm - the whole Scottish Executive should resign in shame. It's time for a new Enlightenment.
posted by David Farrer at 17:37

 
Is it oil over?

.. asks George Kerevan in his column today:

the current leader of the Apocalypse Cult, George Monbiot, was explaining that the world is about to run out of oil and so we’d be better off living in wattle huts without electricity

But is there an energy crisis? Mr Kerevean doesn't think so:

HERE’S what happens next. The oil companies are now going to go on the rampage to find new oil sources. A decade from now, gallons of the black stuff will be coming out of our ears, and the price will plummet. Meantime, things may get a little rocky and economic belts will be tightened, but hopefully not quite so tightly as in the 1970s.

Indeed, this process is already under way.

I was at one of George Monbiot's sessions at the Edinburgh Book Festival but was not selected to ask a question. Mr Monbiot spoke at length about the "price" of oil without seeming to understand what the word price actually means. A price is a ratio. In this case he was telling the audience that oil now costs $50 a barrel. He could equally have told us that oil now "costs" fifteen measures of whisky per barrel, or, for that matter, four festival sessions with George Monbiot! It's no good examining the denominator: a "barrel of oil" unless we also look at the numerator: a "dollar".

For quite a few years now the US Federal Reserve has been printing dollars like there's no tomorrow. This of course means that each dollar buys less and less. Oil is priced in dollars and therefore the price of oil will continually rise, other things being equal.

For anti-capitalists like Mr Monbiot it's much easier to go on and on about "shortages" of resources rather than examining the politically-controlled monetary system that's behind rising prices. But if Mr Monbiot were to have a look at how money is created by governments he would realise that the US authorities aren't pro-capitalist at all and that would never do, would it?
posted by David Farrer at 09:45

 
Bush here!

There's a fascinating item in today's Urban Survival:

We find great irony in the name of the city where the Iranian nuke plant is located: "Bushehr" - pronounced "Bush HERE". Ah, the Universe has its wry sense of humor, does it not? Anyway, we figure a Western attack will come before inauguration day 2005 regardless of the elections (which we remain hopeful will be held).

posted by David Farrer at 17:10

 
The future of Abbey National

A short while ago I wrote about the sad decline of the Bank of Scotland since its "merger" with the Halifax. I had an ISA account with Bank of Scotland that has now been taken over by the new HBoS regime. I also have a deposit account with the Abbey. When I read that Santander Central Hispano were making a bid for Abbey I wasn't at all concerned. Then I heard the rumours that HBoS may make a counter-bid for Abbey. I was not happy with this development, not only because of the poor customer service that has plagued HBoS, but also because I prefer to keep my money in separate banks: I am, after all, a student of the Austrian School of Economics. I was now positively cheering for the Spaniards to win the battle for Abbey.

Now I read this nonsense:

SANTANDER Central Hispano, the Spanish bank attempting to take over Abbey National, has emerged as a substantial financial backer to controversial Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

For God's sake! Chavez is an unreconstructed Marxist of the worst sort. Why is a mainstream European bank financing Chavez? There is, to put it mildly, considerable doubt about the recent referendum in Venezuela:

CARACAS, Venezuela, AUG. 16, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The recall referendum held Sunday on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was a "gigantic fraud," says Cardinal José Castillo Lara. The National Electoral Council reported today that Chávez won 58.3% of the votes in the recall, compared with 41.7% who voted for his ouster. The tally was 4.99 million votes to 3.57 million. The Venezuelan-born cardinal told Vatican Radio that a "gigantic fraud" took place in the referendum. "There was a move to the ballot boxes never before seen in Venezuela," he said. "But the electoral centers, changing the dispositions, used people of the ruling party in the vote-counting." "Exit polls at the ballot boxes showed that there was 65% in favor of 'yes,' that is, of the revocation of the mandate, and only 35% or at most 40% in favor of the president," said the cardinal, who is an expert in juridical questions and president emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State. The cardinal also said that governmental representatives bought votes at the ballot boxes. "Poor people were given the equivalent of U.S. $50 or $60 if they voted 'no,' that is, to keep the president in the government," he added

I don't want my Abbey account to be taken over by Mr Chavez's financial backers. Even boring old National Savings doesn't offer much of an alternative: following the recent increase in the Bank of England's base rate, National Savings has cut its rates to depositors. Let's just get rid of statist fiat money and its associated banks. Then we savers can invest with confidence.
posted by David Farrer at 16:18

 
Stuart Dickson

Responding to a comment from Andrew Ian Dodge today, Stuart has written:

“Scots are not "caucasian". Scots come from every race in the world. To be Scots is not an ethnic qualification, it is a civic one. Exactly the same for the English. Is Naomi Campbell "caucasian", or Ashley Cole "caucasian", or Burt Kwouk "caucasian"? What a nasty little rascist Andrew Ian Dodge is.”

I suspect that Andrew is a resident of London and is likely to have noticed that not all British people are Caucasian. It is obvious, I think, that Andrew was making the point that there isn’t any real difference in the racial make up of people in the UK as a whole. Stuart seems to use the word "racist" rather too indiscriminatingly. The only thing written in over fifty comments on this thread that could conceivably be described as “racist” was Harry J’s:

“Scotland is second only to Wales in hereditary socialist tendencies,(HST) a racially linked, genetically based disorder.”

Harry subsequently pointed out that he was attempting to be humorous. I can see why those of us born in Scotland or Wales might not be too amused but we all go a bit over the top from time to time without that making us racists. For example:

"I can understand that any nation may have a Quisling or two, but for Scots to endure the bigoted insults of an American (of all people) British Unionist is surreal.

You claim to be impartial as to whether Scots regain self-government. But your opinions betray a smothering Unionism.

What a bunch of thugs you are. The many Scots who supported you in the war of independence and signed the Declaration of Independence must be turning in their graves at the monster they helped create."

And the author of those words?

Stuart Dickson!

Stuart replied to my objection as follows:

In retrospect it was certainly an error to call our US correspondent and/or his fellow countrymen various insulting adjectives. It did my arguments no help. The reason I did so is that my time to give reasoned, detailed responses to the man's flawed arguments were too limited in the last 10 days, therefore I resorted to cheap (and very quick) retorts. In future, when time is too short, I shall keep my mouth shut.

A good response, I believe.

I didn't believe that Stuart was being "racist" when he described Americans as "a bunch of thugs", but it was an unfortunate and erroneous statement. I believe that it can be legitimate to generalise about national differences. For example, generally speaking, Americans are more entrepreneurial than other nationalities (a good thing), but, generally speaking, Americans know less about other countries than do people from other places (a bad thing).

I do welcome Stuart's contributions to this blog because we need a degree of controversy and indeed more input from those who believe in Scottish independence. But can we now get away from the name-calling and return to discussing politics?

posted by David Farrer at 21:07

 
In Charlotte Square

I have been to quite a few events at the Book Festival this week. This morning there was an excellent presentation by the photographer Craig McMaster who showed some of his superb black and white photos of the Scottish countryside.

One of Tuesday's highlights was a talk given by Murray Watson on his new book Being English in Scotland. Watson carried out research that included oral contributions from many English people who had moved to Scotland. He concludes:

Generally, throughout the period under review, the media painted a picture of a climate of anti-English feeling. This was not the general experience of the contributors, nor was it evident from other sources. Studies from a number of social scientists, albeit they were mostly restricted to peripheral areas, essentially corroborated the findings of this study. That was not to say that tensions did not exist. There were low levels of anti-English feeling and exceptional extremist activity, but the latter was largely directed against England, the state (sic), and not English people. Compared with prejudicial reactions to other migrant communities, the English were largely welcomed into Scottish society, and this is certainly borne out by the constant growth of English migrants settling in Scotland.

I may write a bit more about the book once I have read it in full. Tuesday's audience liked this anecdote from an English-born teacher now residing in Edinburgh:

I had a dreadful (West Riding – Yorkshire) accent and nobody would ever understand me. My first teaching-practice (in Edinburgh) the kids that I had said: “You’re foreign aren’t you?” And I said: “Yes” … they said to me: “Where are you from?” And I said: “Well where do you think I’m from?” “Well you’re not from round here.” And this went on … at great length. “It must be from a very long way away ‘cos you are definitely foreign. You talk funny.” So they decided that I was from Glasgow because that was the furthest place they could think of that was far away you know.

posted by David Farrer at 16:33

 
It's our money

Our new parliament building has cost £431 million (so far) and today's Scotsman poses an interesting question:

Everyone has a view on the parliament - but if you could turn back time and start again with the hundreds of millions of pounds eventually spent on the site, what would you do with it?

The paper has asked a selection of the great and the good what would they do with the cash. The answers are, sadly, somewhat predictable. Almost all of the respondents call for "public" expenditure of one sort or another. But what of freedom, and indeed whisky?

The Owner of Glengoyne whisky distillery says:

If I was going to be flippant, I would give several bottles of whisky to each member of the public - £431 million divided by Scotland’s population of about five million people is £86 and that equates to around four bottles of good single malt for every single person.

But if I was going to be serious about it, I would divert the money into education because if Scotland is to remain competitive in the global economy it has to educate the population.

China and India both have extremely well-educated populations and salaries in those countries are relatively low compared to ours.

Mr Russell doesn't seem to realise that private education is far more appreciated in India and China than in Scotland. Putting even more taxpayers' money into the maw of the Scottish state education system would be a disaster. It would be far less "flippant" to let us have the four bottles of malt!

As for freedom, AL Kennedy gives what is the correct answer to the Scotsman's question:

why not just give everyone £86, or let everyone who wants to claim it so that if some people don’t, everyone else can get £87 or whatever it turns out to be?

Unfortunately, Ms Kennedy spoils thing by prefixing her answer with this:

The sensible answer is to spend it on something useful like public services, healthcare and education.

Oh dear.

Of course, the really correct answer would be to give the £431 million back to the taxpayers in proportion to how it was collected.
posted by David Farrer at 14:51

 
Adam Smith statue

I came across this announcement from the City of Edinburgh Planning Department:

Application No. 04/02172/FUL (Full Planning Application)
Proposed Development and Address
Erect Adam Smith statue at Public Footpath By 194 High Street Edinburgh EH1 1RE
Applicant’s Name and Address
Adam Smith Institute (Dr Eamon Butler). 23 Great Smith Street London SW1P 3BL
Decision TYPE Delegated Decision
DECISION Granted DATE DECISION ISSUED 4 August 2004

posted by David Farrer at 10:32

 
History lessons

Alex Salmond wants children to understand more about our economic history. That's a good idea. But then he says:

the curriculum should highlight the fact that Scotland was once one of the world’s richest nations.

I wonder if "left-of-centre" Alex will want children to learn that we were rich when we weren't socialist.
posted by David Farrer at 09:44

 
Never mind the "community"; what about the victim?

The Labour/LibDem administration is mightily concerned about the problems caused by young criminals. Or, more accurately perhaps, they are worried about the voters' concerns:

FIRST Minister Jack McConnell today revealed details of a new scheme to make yobs and vandals put right the damage they have done to society. Those found guilty of relatively minor offences, such as spraying graffiti or being drunk and disorderly, are to be forced to work unpaid for up to 100 hours as part of their punishment.

So the yobs are going to get what they deserve, aren't they?

I'm not so sure.

Apparently, these wonderful new plans will:

force individuals whose behaviour blights the lives of others to give something back by doing unpaid community work.

And, assuming that the police are actually out on the beat:

people picked up by the police for minor offences such as being drunk and disorderly, or one-off acts of vandalism, could be given a community reparation order instead of, or as well as, a fine.

Along with its talk of "community reparations" the article goes on to mention: debts owed "to the community", taking something "from you community" and giving "something back to the community".

This policy is supported by the governing coalition, the main opposition party, and it wouldn't surprise to hear that all of the other parties are in agreement too.

Well, I'm not.

All this talk of "community" is precisely what's wrong with Scotland. Collectivism rules OK, it seems. But what about the individual?

Almost all crime has an individually identifiable VICTIM. It is to that victim that criminals should make reparation, not to an amorphous "community". Criminals should be made to pay thrice for their crimes. First, the victim should receive 100% compensation from the criminal for losses directly attributable to the crime. Second, the victim should receive the same sum again to compensate for the stress that the criminal has caused. Third, the criminal should pay the costs of his arrest and trial. Anything short of this is unjust.

Compensate victims, not the "community".
posted by David Farrer at 13:00

 
Our weather - you cannot be serious!

Since Monday Edinburgh has "enjoyed" continuous rain, mist, low cloud and general meteorological misery. Until lunchtime today. Now I can't look at my screen anymore because I am being blinded by a fierce sun shining in a completely blue sky.

At least this isn't coming our way. Hopefully.

posted by David Farrer at 17:17

 
Make them sign up

I must say that I agree with Alex Salmond over this.

The MP wants all staff at SNP headquarters to be paid-up party members. What's wrong with that? It's perfectly natural for managers to want employees to support an organisation's product, especially when that "product" is ideological.

Of course, the Scotsman correspondent who writes that Mr Salmond and his supporters have:

so little regard for employment law that they believed they could force workers into changes to their terms and conditions without consultation or negotiation

is probably correct.

Nevertheless, employers should have the right to lay down whatever conditions of employment that they see fit. Equally of course potential employees can go elsewhere if they don't like the proposed rules. Let the market sort out terms of employment.
posted by David Farrer at 10:21

 
The housing shortage

I recently wrote about the proposed doubling of council tax for second home owners. Several readers pointed out that the Scottish planning system was to blame for the shortage of homes, especially in rural areas.

The building industry agrees:

Homes for Scotland, which represents the house-building industry, said current housing needs were being ignored because local-authority planning departments were bound by old local plans. Last month, a report by the Scottish Executive found 40 per cent of local plans were more than a decade old.

How many private companies would survive if they were using ten-year-old plans?
posted by David Farrer at 10:15

 
Tory calls for more tax on petrol!

There's been a lot of debate on the web and elsewhere about the future - if any - of the Conservative (sic) Party.

Here's a good example of why the Conservatives are in such a mess:

NOT enough tax is levied on fuel and the government should increase the level of duty charged to deter people from using their cars, a committee of MPs concluded yesterday. The environmental audit committee of the House of Commons said that ministers are not doing enough to persuade people to use less fuel, and must be prepared to use tax as a lever on them.

Surely the Tories don't go along with this?

Oh yes they do:

"If the government’s commitment to sustainable development is to be taken seriously, it must take more radical action," said Peter Ainsworth, the Tory MP who chairs the committee.

It's bad enough that all the other parties fall for the Kyoto scam: there's a clear gap in the political marketplace for some alternative thinking. Can't Michael Howard see this?
posted by David Farrer at 17:17

 
Education, educasion, edukashun

I was pleased to read this:

MORE and more parents are considering taking their children out of mainstream education so that they can be taught at home, campaigners claimed yesterday. Fears over bullying, classroom indiscipline, falling teaching standards and a lack of support for children with special needs are being blamed for the trend.

"Falling teaching standards"?

Perish the thought.

But, on the other hand:

EXAM pass rates are up on this time last year, according to figures released last night by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

It's good news for pupils (for the moment) I suppose:

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, the Tories’ education spokesman, said debate will rage over whether the rising pass rates mean exams are getting easier but added: "All that matters now is that those who passed their exams should be congratulated on their results."

But when Lord James - the gentleman of Scottish politics - uses the word "rage" we know that not everyone is so sanguine about the continued "improvement" in pass rates.

At least with Standard Grades the pass rate inflation can't go much higher:

Standard Grade English pass rates rose by 0.1 point to 98.4 per cent, while the Standard Grade maths pass rate stayed at 97.7 per cent.

Come on: just pass them all.
posted by David Farrer at 09:12

 
Second homes and the council tax

Last Friday Bill Jamieson wrote an interesting article about the ending of the council tax discount for second home owners:

AS A soon-to-be second home owner I face hundreds of pounds of extra council tax and am wondering: what on earth is it I have done wrong? Like thousands of fellow Scots I am planning to retire out of the central belt. I bought what was a waterlogged and uninhabitable Inverogle Cottage by Lochearnhead. No-one else rushed to buy it and I know why. It has taken more than two years of planning procedures, environmental audits, building warrants and drainage work to get the basic site in order.

Of course, what Bill has done wrong is to be a self-reliant citizen. He has failed to put his future in the hands of his local councillor. How politically incorrect.

There are three letters on this subject in today's Scotsman. How about the one from Councillor Berry of North Berwick?

Bill Jamieson should count himself lucky that he has £100,000 in discretionary income. And if he wants a say in what Perth & Kinross Council do with his full whack of council tax, he should make a commitment to his supposed retirement community and move to Lochearnhead, rather than being just another absentee landlord, of which rural Scotland has always had a surfeit.

I rather expect that Mr Jamieson hasn't got "£100,000 in discretionary income". He's more likely to have incurred a sizable mortgage - just like most of Mr Berry's own electorate. And where on earth does Mr Jamieson describe himself as an "absentee landlord"? His article says that he has renovated his cottage with a view to retiring there.

For anyone still wondering why Scotland's economic growth is so dire, consider the words and tone of Councillor Berry's letter.
posted by David Farrer at 09:14

 
The Numptocracy at work

This just about says it all, doesn't it?

COUNCIL officials in Robert Burns country have come under fire after posting major blunders about the national bard on its official website. East Ayrshire Council managed to get Burns’s birth and death dates wrong, claiming he was born in 1740 and died in 1795, when he would have been 55. In fact, the poet was born at Alloway in 1759 and died in Dumfries in 1796, aged 37.

I guess things have changed since I was at school in Ayrshire. In those far off days we had to know rather a lot about the bard. It's unbelievable that the Council didn't realise that the Burns monument in its own town had been boarded up because they "could not afford on-site security". Why don't the Kilmarnock numpties guard the monument themselves? That would be far more useful than anything they get up to in the Council HQ.

I read that:

A spokesman for East Ayrshire Council said yesterday: "The mistakes were rectified as soon as they were brought to our attention."

Not good enough. They should have got it right themselves.
posted by David Farrer at 09:07

 
Adam Smith

George Kerevan calls for Edinburgh to "honour our forgotten son".

Yes, he is writing about Adam Smith. And things are happening:

Recently has come the news that some devoted intellectual followers of the great man plan to honour him with a statue

Mr Kerevan is referring to the plans made by the Adam Smith Institute for the erection of a Smith statue on the Royal Mile. I understand that the project is developing satisfactorily and that the great man will eventually be seen here:

Wondering why proper recognition of Smith has taken so long, Mr Kerevan suggests:

Again, the lack of recognition may be due to a subtle left-wing bias against what he is presumed to have stood for - a bias on the part of Edinburgh councillors and even the Church of Scotland, where they still remember Mrs Thatcher’s sermon on Smith at the 1988 General Assembly.

I have no doubt that is correct. Perhaps the new statue will encourage Edinburgh folk - even councillors - to read the works of the great economist and Scotsman.
posted by David Farrer at 09:05

 
Local bureaucrat criticises US invaders...

No, we're not talking about Baghdad, but Edinburgh:

One of Britain's oldest botanic gardens has banned the sale of peanuts in an attempt to deter grey squirrels. Bosses at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens said they were "fed up" with the havoc wreaked by the squirrels to some of its 15,000 plants. The move was also made amid fears the snacks could be picked up and eaten by children with allergies. Management said the public would still be allowed to bring in their own peanuts for the squirrels. Alan Bennell, the garden's deputy director of public programmes, said: "What we have here is wonderfully skilled horticulturists attempting to nurture one of the most exquisitely tailored botanic gardens in the world. "Then along comes the greedy American grey squirrel with its funny foreign habits, namely, it likes eating peanuts, and creates substantial damage to plants. "This nasty, aggressive foreign rodent has also ousted our beautiful native red squirrel from the gardens, not to mention throughout much of Britain."

It's true that Americans do have a fascination with nuts, but is Mr Bennell correct? You see, things may not be what they seem:

PLEASE NOTE: IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR RED SQUIRRELS TO HAVE GREY FUR, AND FOR GREYS TO BE RED. ALWAYS CHECK FOR OTHER CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES WHEN IDENTIFYING.

On the other hand:

Scotland has at least 75% of the UK's red squirrel population i.e. 121,000 animals. It remains a widespread and locally common species in the wooded parts of the country. Dumfries and Galloway is a stronghold, while stable populations are believed to exists in Perthshire, parts of the central belt, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Fife, the Borders and, of course, in Ayrshire. The core populations are in the Highlands, the Caledonian forest and Dumfries and Galloway.

So Scotland has an above average proportion of reds. Where have I heard that before?

With the festival about to start it's not really the time of year for Edinburgh officials to be loud mouthing American visitors even if they do have "funny foreign habits". Besides, shouldn't Scotland's reds become more entrepreneurial and grab more of the nuts for themselves?
posted by David Farrer at 22:09

 
Property rights update

Readers may be interested to note that I have received a comment from Tom Forrest, owner of the Cromasaig Guest House.
posted by David Farrer at 09:16

 
Are you being served?

Gavin Esler writes about the experience of his American friends who have been visiting Britain:

But it also summed up the problem that tourists still find in tea-rooms, pubs and restaurants from one end of Britain to the other. It’s a simple confusion between service and servile. And what a difference that one letter makes.

Esler continues:

Which brings us back to the difference between service and servile. Foreign waiters - Americans, French, Spanish, Portuguese - seem capable of providing service without feeling that the job they do is demeaning. British waiters - and I think Scots are particularly guilty of this - sometimes act as if being a waiter or waitress is not a proper job.

I wonder what's behind this problem. Sadly, I have to agree that service is much worse in Scotland than it should be. I see this almost every day here in Edinburgh. Bus drivers, bar staff and shop assistants often treat customers with complete disdain. Why snarl angrily at tourists who get on their first bus here without realising that "we don't give any change"? When a foreigner is sitting for ten minutes in a pub would it harm a staff member to tell the visitor that they need to go up to the bar to get served? I've done it myself enough times - maybe I should get free beer. We have a well-deserved reputation for friendliness but there's a real problem when it comes to customer "service". Is it worse here in Scotland because of the widespread socialist mindset? I think that's part of the explanation but I don't notice the same problem in other European countries. On the other hand, Scotland is now more socialist then even Sweden. Tourism is said to be our biggest industry. How do we fix this problem?
posted by David Farrer at 11:30

 
Letting the punishment fit the crime

The Scottish Executive makes a great deal of noise about fighting crime. It doesn't seem to have had much success. Maybe it's time to consider this novel approach:

When Sherelle Purnell sped away from Gordy's Tiger Mart without paying for $4.52 worth of gasoline, she probably didn't think the punishment would be three hours of court-ordered public humiliation. But from noon. to 3 p.m. today, the 18-year-old will be standing in front of the convenience store near The Centre at Salisbury on Route 13 wearing a sandwich board sign that reads: "I was caught stealing gas." Though Wicomico County District Court Judge D. William Simpson authorized the punishment, the unconventional sentence was the brainchild of Tiger Mart store manager Jan Phippsnovel

And here's the punishment:

She probably escaped a longer sentence by wearing the baseball cap the right way round.
posted by David Farrer at 11:25

 
Boosting our productivity

A report from the International Institute for Management Development draws attention to Scotland's poor productivity record:

IMD, the Swiss-based business school, published its annual rankings of national economies yesterday and included Scotland for the first time. According to IMD, the Scottish economy is ranked 36th out of 60 in the global table, but 21st out of 30 when compared to countries and regions of a similar size.

36th is pretty lousy for a country that once led the world in science and inventiveness. But help is at hand. Right on cue, someone has identified a potential productivity improvement:

Ray Donnelly, a retired management lecturer, said ordinary three-year courses could be reduced to 18 months and the four-year Honours degree trimmed to two and a half years. This could be achieved by lengthening the traditional university day and cutting the length of holidays taken by students and lecturers. He said that the changes to students’ working day would also make graduates more ready for the world of employment. Last night, business leaders gave a cautious welcome to the suggestion.

I agree with Mr Donnelly. His figures are interesting:

The former lecturer said that to gain an ordinary three-year degree, students had to complete 12 courses of about 24 hours a term. At present, the load is spread over two ten-week terms and one six-week term.

If we (generously) assume that workload is incurred in all three terms we get 864 annual hours of study. The typical employee works for around 1700 hours per year. And let's not forget that those same employees are financing students through their taxes.

According to the website of the Open University:

The number of credit points given to the course: a 60-point course involves on average 600 hours of study

To get an OU degree requires 360 points - that's 3,600 hours of study in all. This compares with Mr Donnelly's figures of 2,592 hours for an ordinary degree and 3,456 for an honours degree at conventional universities. Not only that, most of those OU students are holding down jobs while studying. I know: been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

The non-government University of Buckingham manages to do what Mr Donnelly suggests and utilises time and resources efficiently thus allowing students to graduate in two years.

If we won't privatise our universities at least let's make them efficient.
posted by David Farrer at 07:55

 
Even I couldn't have made this one up

Here comes the latest "Big Brother" database:

A DATABASE of every Scot who deliberately self-harms is being planned in a bid to dramatically reduce suicides. The list, which would be held centrally on computer, would be available to psychiatrists and other health specialists across the country as a means of assessing the risk that individuals pose to themselves.

Why don't we cut out the waiting and get ourselves barcoded and fitted with RFIDs right now?

If that's a bit much we could at least dig out the ballot papers from the last election. You know of course that their identification numbers enable the authorities to determine how we have voted. The psychiatrists could then make a list of those who have "self-harmed" themselves by voting for someone other than the Labour candidate. You know it makes sense.
posted by David Farrer at 10:25

 
You are all guilty

Sometimes I wonder if the government wants to criminalise every businessperson in the country. If so, this would seem to be a good way to go about it:

THREE-QUARTERS of Scotland’s businesses are facing five-figure fines when new disability rules come into force later this year. A leading consultancy has warned that despite having nine years to prepare for the introduction of the revised Disability Discrimination Act, Scottish companies seem oblivious to the new rules, which will take effect in just over two months. Not only must virtually all workplace premises be accessible to disabled people but staff must be trained in the correct way to engage with disabled customers in an effort to avoid talking down to them.

After reading this article I went for a walk through central Edinburgh. It looks to me that far more than three-quarters of businesses are not ready for this new imposition.

The tax-consuming class is looking forward to the October deadline:

The Disability Rights Commission has vowed to offer legal and financial backing to the first test cases, which are expected to be brought when the act comes into force.

And it's going to be easy for these "campaigners" to destroy any business whenever they feel like it:

Disability campaigners argue that even instances when shop attendants fail to kneel or crouch down when speaking to customers in wheelchairs - the appropriate behaviour to avoid talking down to people - could be a breach of the act.

Damn these parasites. Can I get "legal and financial backing" to sue the Disability Rights Commission for causing me stress as a result of its very existence?
posted by David Farrer at 21:29

 
Pavement politics

Never mind Iraq, the European Constitution or the collapsing, bug-ridden NHS.

Real politics are local:

A RENOWNED kiltmaker is threatening to sue City of Edinburgh Council after it confiscated his sandwich boards from the Royal Mile. The boards were removed in the latest phase of a controversial crackdown on street advertising which has incensed traders.

A legal battle looks likely:

Mr Nicholsby’s solicitor, Chris Leach, said: "We have sent a fax to the council with a deadline for the boards’ return. Mr Nicholsby has used these boards for 25 years and is very angry about the council’s actions. Our view is that the council has not satisfied the requirements of the Road Scotland Act." Two other traders had their boards removed on Thursday by officers taking part in enforcement action against shops flouting new council rules.

Being a moderate sort of chap I demand the immediate privatisation of the Royal Mile so as these conflicts can be avoided by the sound application of property rights. Come to think of it, shouldn't a "Royal" Mile already belong to Her Majesty? I'm sure that she would tolerate advertisements for kilts.

As it happens, I was on the Royal Mile yesterday and took this photograph:

Unless I am very much mistaken, it looks as if the filthy capitalist advertising board is causing no trouble at all but that the wonderful People's Republic of Edinburgh street cleaning department is "out at lunch".

Why can't the City of Edinburgh stop harassing tax-paying entrepreneurs like Mr Nicholsby and concentrate on keeping the pavements clean?
posted by David Farrer at 09:04

 
Can political correctness destroy the West?

It's certainly not going away here in Scotland:

IT HAS been called the latest example of political correctness gone mad: a local authority has refused to reveal the scores from a children's bowling competition. Officials from Aberdeen City Council running the event at the city's Westburn Park - as part of the 50th jubilee celebrations for the authority's annual bowling tournament - decided that some competitors who were beginners at the sport should be spared the embarrassment of seeing the scale of their defeats published in the local press.

Naturally, the public "servant" who is responsible for this fails to understand why there's a fuss:

She stressed: "It is nothing do with being PC or goodness knows what. The kids know they've lost and how badly they lost, and the last thing they really want is for their pals to be ribbing them all of the holidays. "We just thought it would be the kinder thing to do not to publish the results. We don't want to discourage the children - we want to encourage them because we want young bowlers coming in." Ms Walker added: "It's a load of rubbish to suggest this has anything to do with being a nanny state. If that's how people perceive it, then I am sorry for them."

But that's precisely what people like Ms Walker are creating: a nanny state. The reasoning (sic) behind all of this nonsense is the horror of acknowledging that people are different. It's not simply a matter of protecting primary school children from a holiday "ribbing", for this failure to acknowledge difference exists wherever the modern state imposes itself. A tragic consequence is the dumbing down of Scotland's once proud education system.

OK you may say, but how on earth can this "destroy the West"?

Consider this article by the Scotsman's Bill Jamieson:

One account, by an American woman journalist, describes highly unusual behaviour by a group of 14 Middle East passengers on board a Northwest Airlines Flight 327 on 29 June from Detroit to Los Angeles. The movements of the 14, which terrified a number of passengers, suggested an intelligence-gathering operation by terrorists. Other reported incidents on recent flights have included a Middle East passenger being caught in the toilet trying to break through the wall towards the cockpit.

This story was all over the web last week.

There's more:

Rand Peck, captain for a major US airline, said he was "deeply bothered" by the inconsistencies he sees at the Transport and Security Administration. "I've observed matronly grandmothers practically disrobed at security checkpoints and five-year-old blond boys turned inside out, while Middle Eastern males sail through undetained. "We have little to fear from grandmothers and little boys. But Middle Eastern males are protected, not by our Constitution, but from our current popular policy of political correctness and a desire to offend no-one at any cost, regardless of how many airplanes and bodies litter the landscape."

A philosophy that starts off by attempting to protect schoolchildren from the facts of life ends up with this:

And a 9/11 Commission member, John Lehman, stated back in April that "it was the policy before 9/11 and remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's discriminatory".

And the airlines have indeed been fined.

And what of the journalist who wrote about her frightening experience on the plane? She has been widely vilified:

Many e-mails were sent in calling her a racist for referring to 14 men with Syrian passports as Syrian men.

Can political correctness destroy the West? You bet it can.
posted by David Farrer at 12:16

 
The market for education

The government nationalises most education. Naturally, there is a market response:

PARENTS are paying up to £80,000 extra for properties in order to get their children into the leading state schools in Scotland.

The figures quoted may be a bit overdone:

Parents pay the extra believing it could save them thousands of pounds in private school fees. Houses near Jordanhill school, in the west end of Glasgow, were selling for an average of £152,103 - £40,000 more than the city-wide average

Well, yes, I'd expect houses in the west end to be considerably more expensive than elsewhere in Glasgow even if schooling were not a factor.

But the quality of local state schools clearly does make a difference:

Williamwood High school in Clarkston, to the south of Glasgow, helped house prices reach an average of £154,445 - more than £10,000 above the typical price for the area.

It is impossible for all schools to be of equal quality, whether run by the state or otherwise. Nevertheless, schools in the private sector benefit from market mechanisms that make for continual improvement. I believe that all schools should be privately owned and that they shouldn't be funded by the state. In the meantime we could give parents vouchers to be used in a privatised education system. That way everyone can get access to a sound education without having to run the risk of a catastrophic loss in the value of one's home whenever some bureaucrat redraws the catchment area boundary.
posted by David Farrer at 09:19

 
The SNP leadership

This is interesting:

Anyone typing in www.alexsalmond.net on the internet is directed straight to the SNP's party website - where a beaming John Swinney still welcomes the party faithful to "the SNP's new website".

I'd have thought that Mr Salmond would have had his own website up and running by now.

His two rivals' sites are here:

Roseanna Cunningham

Mike Russell

Roseanna's web campaign doesn't look too dynamic - it's been a week since the last update.

In terms of using the web Mike Russell is the clear winner although he'll probably do as well as Howard Dean.
posted by David Farrer at 11:20

 
The Bank of Scotland: RIP

Ever since the "merger" of the Bank of Scotland with the Halifax there's been an outpouring of complaints from irate customers of "The Bank". Hardly a day goes by without a letter being published in the Scotsman and today we have three. (Here's one from Monday.)

My mother's family banked with the British Linen Bank in Annan. They even lived in Bank Street! Ever since moving away in the 1940's my mother always kept a small balance in "her" bank and didn't mind too much when it became part of the Bank of Scotland. Out of the blue she received a letter "thanking her for choosing to bank with the Halifax". She hadn't, nor had any of the other Bank of Scotland customers whose accounts were unilaterally transferred after the "merger". My mother is now unable to communicate with the Annan branch - that's no longer allowed.

My wife and I both opened ISA accounts with the Bank of Scotland - it offered the best rates at the time and we liked the Scottish connection. These accounts were also unilaterally transferred to the Halifax after the "merger". Last night my wife phoned the bank to transfer a sum from her ISA account to her current account, which is with the Clydesdale Bank. First she had to "re-register" her account with a new security code and was then told that she could only make a telephonic transfer from her ISA account to a current account with the Halifax/Bank of Scotland and not to an outside bank. She would have to go into town, withdraw cash from HBoS and deposit it into her own bank! These were the new rules that now applied to ISA accounts according to the phone operator. We cursed Gordon Brown. After the call we had a look at my wife's ISA statement and saw that she had indeed made a similar telephonic transfer to the Clydesdale not too long ago. This morning she phoned HBoS again and was asked to "re-register her account with a new security code" although she had done that last night! Today's operator confirmed the new rules: they're nothing to do with Mr Brown but are the result of the bank "integration". She also said that we could change our accounts from "branch-based" to "telephone-based" ones, and that would enable us to transfer funds to another organisation by telephone in future. This would take ten days to organise! But our accounts weren't opened at any particular branch - the forms were sent by post from the Bank of Scotland's head office. We never chose to have "branch-based" accounts. We were also told that the telephone account would pay an extra 1% interest. Why weren't we told of this option before? All-in-all this "merger" has been an unmitigated disaster and looks like destroying one of Scotland's oldest and proudest businesses. It's such a shame.
posted by David Farrer at 09:27

 
Is the housing boom about to burst?

The experts are divided but I'd be worried about buying at the moment.

Consider this:

"We need a 95 per cent mortgage and under offers over if we bid above the surveyor's valuation, we would need to find the difference, and we don't really have any savings for that." After looking for five months, at properties in Leith, Newhaven, Abbeyhill and Easter Road, they finally spotted a one-bedroom flat in Edinburgh's Meadowbank at a fixed price of £122,500. Miss Rae added: "We have bought a flat that needs a bit of work. We hope to sell in 18 months and make a bit of money on it."

This couple expect to sell at a profit in less than two years. That seems an incredibly risky strategy to me, especially when the buyers are starting out with a mere 5% in equity. Caveat Emptor.

I came across this excellent article about the similar housing boom in the US:

So what is going to happen? It certainly appears that Alan Greenspan's loose monetary policy has done more than inflate a housing bubble. Prices of goods and services are rising as well now (even though the grossly manipulated CPI indicates only mild price inflation). Should the bond market get a whiff of real inflation, then an inflation premium will be priced into long-term bonds i.e., interest rates will rise sharply and bonds will fall. At this point, the bond market will show that Alan Greenspan is behind the curve and he will be forced to dramatically increase short-term interest rates in order to slay the inflation dragon. Such a scenario, of rising interest rates, will pummel the housing market and will leave millions of homeowners with negative equity in their homes. Mortgage defaults will rise, especially on adjustable rate mortgages, and this will be a financial disaster that will make the S&L; crisis pale in comparison - keep in mind that we are talking about trillions of dollars in home loans and federal mortgage guarantees.

I am concerned about the stability of the financial system itself as well as the risks being undertaken by homebuyers. Naturally, the taxpayer will be called upon to bail out the improvident borrowers and lenders. As Mr Englund puts it:

In spite of their implicit culpability, while America's financial system teeters on the abyss, these politicians will go on the offensive and somehow lay blame on all private companies involved with real estate - and call them "fat-cat, capitalist exploiters." In the end, politically-motivated pandering to envy may leave us with a nasty, brutish, and impoverished democracy.

It's the same over here, and I don't doubt that the NuLab spin machine has already written the press release.
posted by David Farrer at 11:41

 
Mr Forrest to stand for Parliament

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised by this news:

A GUESTHOUSE owner who was dropped from VisitScotland listings after he refused to allow a gay couple to stay in a double room wants to stand as an MSP at the next election.

On the new rules expected from the proposed Equality and Human Rights Commission, Mr Forrest claims:

"That is going to destroy tourism in the whole of Scotland. It's about time somebody stood up and said this is our moral stand against what's happening in this country.

I think he's wrong on that because the new law would apply throughout the whole of the UK and no doubt elsewhere in the EU. Property rights just aren't fashionable these days.

And isn't this hilarious?

The so-called super-quango will have a £50 million-a-year budget to tackle discrimination in every walk of life.

No. No. No.

There will be no "tackling" of discrimination against those who defend property rights and other freedoms. Instead, more restrictions will be placed on what was once wonderfully described as "capitalist acts between consenting adults".

(Incidentally, some readers may find it amusing that my spellchecker suggested replacing the word "hotelier" with "Hitler". Others may prefer the suggested replacement of "EU' with "EH".)
posted by David Farrer at 11:39

 
Letters from F&W; readers

Neil Craig had this letter published in the Scotsman last week. Today's paper carries one from Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute and Bruce Crichton gets a response from a statist here.
posted by David Farrer at 10:48

 
The People's Open?

I have had a few more thoughts after our family visit to the Open on Friday and the exciting climax at Troon last night. The organisation of the whole event was first class. A voluntary army of local youngsters kept the catering areas free from litter and they constantly cleaned the mobile toilets. The marshals handled the large crowds with tact and efficiency. Whenever a player was ready to swing his club there was total silence from the crowd. Good play was always applauded no matter which country the player came from. The ban on cameras was observed completely despite there being no security checks at the entrances. The management of the Open was clearly in the hands of what we might call the Scottish equivalent of the provincial Daily Telegraph reading class. There was absolutely no sign of political correctness. But think how different it could have been.

A Blairite "People's Open" would have quotas for female, minority and handicapped players. There would be no place for real "minority" players like Tiger Woods or Vijay Singh who were at Troon on merit, an obviously outdated and elitist concept. Previous winners would be barred from competing taking part. The volunteers would have been replaced by a properly unionised and highly paid workforce, which would have known nothing about golf. The crowd would have booed foreign players and drunkenness would have been rife. Champagne would still have been served of course but only to members of the cabinet and their cronies and not to those spending their own money. The "people" would make do with beer.

You may think that I am claiming that this was some kind of elitist event. Well, it was and it wasn't. The winner (by one stroke) earned £720,000. Nearby Prestwick Airport was filled with executive jets and helicopters. But the vast majority of the crowd spoke with the strong accent of the west of Scotland, and were young and old, male and female and, I am sure, from all social classes. We don't need the state to run society. The people can do it for themselves.
posted by David Farrer at 08:27

 
A day out in the sun

My wife and I have just returned from an excellent day out at Troon to watch Day 2 of the Open. To think that if I had spent my teenage years at Prestwick playing golf instead of watching aircraft I could have been picking up £720,000 on Sunday evening.
posted by David Farrer at 21:21

 
Distrusting the State

I wonder why we in Scotland are more sceptical about ID cards than people in the rest of the UK:

A poll conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that barely half of Scots were in favour of making the cards compulsory, compared with 72 per cent for Britain as a whole.

Maybe people in England are more concerned about terrorism.

I'm not at all comfortable with this part of the survey:

It found that almost two-thirds of voters would support some state funding of political parties to reduce their dependence on donations from wealthy individuals.

Why on earth should we be forced to pay for political parties? Many people won't approve of any party and might prefer to vote for independents. There are good intellectual arguments in favour of anarchism.

I understand why some members of the public want to "limit the danger of individuals seeking to buy influence". I share that concern. However, the way to reduce undue influence is not to restrict free speech but to limit the powers of the state to protecting us from those who initiate force or fraud. In such a society there is no political benefit in being rich or poor and therefore no reason to seek to influence politicians for personal gain.
posted by David Farrer at 11:30

 
We live in scary times

There's been a huge amount of speculation on the web about a possible terrorist strike on the US in the coming months. It is always interesting - if worrying - to read the regular articles by J. R. Nyquist on the excellent Financial Sense Online website. To put it mildly, I am rather concerned about what might occur between now and the November elections in America:

The warnings qualitatively differ from previous warnings. Two data points serve to explain this qualitative shift. The first data point is the claim that al Qaeda has nuclear weapons that are probably deployed on U.S. soil. The second data point is the fact that steps are being taken to cope with a major disruption of the November elections.

There seems to be very little discussion about these concerns in the UK press. I wonder what the British government's real views are on this.
posted by David Farrer at 11:05

 
Welcome back Alex

I was certainly surprised by this news:

Former leader of the Scottish National Party Alex Salmond is to stand in the contest to replace John Swinney.

I imagine that it's likely that Mr Salmond will be re-elected as SNP leader and won't stand again at Westminster at the forthcoming General Election. No doubt some SNP worthy will be persuaded to make room for Alex at Holyrood. I look forward to Jack McConnell's discomfiture.
posted by David Farrer at 10:31

 
The Queen Mary 2

Seen at the Forth Bridge yesterday evening shortly before leaving for Norway.

Being passed by the car ferry bound for Belgium

posted by David Farrer at 07:23

 
John Knox - is his time up?

Gordon Brown's latest spending plans mean a bonanza for the Scottish Executive.

This, plus the money directly channelled to Scotland by Whitehall, such as social security and defence industry outgoings, will mean spending of more than £11,000 for each man, woman and child in the country - half of it by the Scottish Executive:

By international standards, this is a fortune. Nationmaster, which compares figures for every country in the world, finds only one administration that will shower more cash on its population than Scotland: the Vatican City, whose population is only 940.

Not good enough: we want to be number one.

Seriously though, this is outrageous. High state spending is crowding out the private sector. What young person entering the job market in Scotland nowadays won't be tempted by a government job, especially when one considers the hugely generous pension benefits? I know someone who joined the civil service at 15 and retired at 45! Who would want to start a business in this kind of environment? The way forward is for Scotland to be fully responsible for raising all of its own taxes with an appropriate sum sent to London for things like defence. Then we might get some kind of rebellion by taxpayers and a little discipline imposed on the tax-consuming class.

Alternatively, we may as well go for the big one and make Jack McConnell Pope, allowing us to live off the tourist money as he addresses the crowds at St Giles' Cathedral each week. Quite how this would go down in Glasgow is another matter altogether...
posted by David Farrer at 12:26

 
What an idiot

A local councillor in Fife has been barred by a pub:

A councillor barred from a pub for taunting English people at a wake has said he simply does not like them because of the Battle of Culloden.

It's bad enough insulting visitors - especially at a wake - but I always thought that more Scots fought on the government side at Culloden than those who were fighting for Bonnie Prince Charlie.
posted by David Farrer at 12:11

 
How much do you know about the US?

I came across this test yesterday.

If you were born a U.S. citizen, you didn't have to do anything to become a citizen--except be born. But each year, thousands of people have to take a test to gain citizenship. This quiz includes actual questions asked on the exam given by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

I managed to get all 11 questions correct but I made a lucky guess on number 7 (which was the 49th state?) and I did study American politics and history as part of my BA. I'll give readers a little help: it's unlikely that the Pilgrims went to America on the Titanic...
posted by David Farrer at 11:55

 
The "right" to roam

A new countryside code is being launched to give guidelines to ramblers. A tried and tested advertising technique will be used to get the message across: cute animals

The animated animal characters will appear on television and cinema screens to prepare the public for their new responsibility to safeguard the countryside.

They include Colin the pony, John the dog, Ricky the spider and two seagulls called Dawne and Issy.

I'm surprised that the BBC hasn't noticed that the animals all seem to be, how shall I put it, hideously white. Shouldn't we be seeing some critters of colour? There are certainly plenty of them in the Scottish countryside.
posted by David Farrer at 11:33

 
A bit off

I presume that this was thought to be legal because it took place outside the twelve-mile limit:

CUSTOMS officers have detained the boat of a yachtsman who set up an off-shore "off-licence".

Phil Berriman was selling alcohol and cigarettes at duty-free prices from his 72ft-schooner, Rich Harvest, anchored 13 miles from shore.

Customers had to sail out into the North Sea but once aboard Rich Harvest could buy leading brands of cigarettes and spirits for a fraction of the mainland shop price.

Despite warnings from Custom and Excise officers, Mr Berriman said his scheme was legal.

I wish Mr Berriman the best of luck. There's not much point in being in the EU if we can't import what we want from our fellow member countries.

Incidentally, I wonder why the Scotsman has displayed this story about an Englishman, operating off the English coastline, under its "Scotland" news rather than in the "UK" section. Has the border moved south over the weekend?
posted by David Farrer at 10:52

 
A cut too far

Libertarians believe that state functions (if we are to have a state at all) should be limited to protecting citizens from those who initiate force or fraud. A properly limited state should therefore have adequate armed forces to keep overseas aggressors at bay. It seems clear that the present government has utterly failed to perform this duty and is now making matters worse. It looks likely that Scotland will be hard hit by the expected cuts:

Defence insiders have told The Scotsman that the RAF is top of Mr Hoon’s hit-list and thousands of jobs among the 8,000 personnel in Scotland are in jeopardy as a result of threatened cuts in frontline aircraft and the scaling back of future procurement projects.

Although two Scottish regiments are likely to be disbanded, that would be small change compared with the huge savings to be made from scrapping billions of pounds of RAF aircraft orders, according to defence sources.

It looks as though the usual NuLab spin is underway:

GORDON Brown, the Chancellor, will today challenge Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, to sack civil servants instead of making cuts in frontline armed forces.

Mr Brown will make it clear that he believes his Comprehensive Spending Review will give the Ministry of Defence enough money to avoid axing regiments - if it is prepared to make some major reductions in bureaucracy.

The Chancellor will step up his rhetoric on cutting government waste, pledging to get rid of up to 80,000 civil service jobs. If Mr Brown has his way, many of those cuts will be at the MoD, which, as The Scotsman revealed last week, has more civilian staff than the army has soldiers.

I expect that a few MOD civil servants will be sacked - and a lot more hired in other departments - and the actual military cuts will be proclaimed to be far less than had been speculated upon in the press and by the opposition. That's the Labour way. The outcome will be yet more expenditure on welfare and not enough on defence.

For those who wish to protest, click here.
posted by David Farrer at 10:50

 
Degrees of success

David Steel still doesn't seem to realise how much damage has been done to Scotland's reputation by the parliament building overspend. One politician has done an excellent job of looking after the public's interest in this matter and isn't too impressed with his Lordship:

Last night, a long-term critic of the building Margo Macdonald, an independent MSP, said: "David Steel doesn’t know when to quit while he is ahead.

"Evidence to Lord Fraser spelt out clearly that as well as incompetent and dubious management practice by professionals, the politicians charged with overseeing it on behalf of the people did not cover themselves with glory either."

Steel was speaking at Glasgow Caledonian University from whom he received an honorary degree.

Using the tiresome terminology of the victimocracy establishment:

Sir David used his acceptance speech to pay tribute to the university’s "expertise" in social inclusion and community regeneration.

Ah yes. Where would we be without state-funded social inclusion projects? Well maybe we should note who received the other honorary degree at GCU:

Charan Gill, earned his honour by owning and operating the UK’s biggest Indian restaurant chain.

And did Mr Gill achieve his success thanks to the social inclusionists? Not quite:

Mr Gill MBE could barely speak English when he arrived from the Punjab aged nine, but in a true "rags to riches" tale, he has amassed a £15 million fortune.

He said: "I am absolutely thrilled. I started school when I was nine and left at 15. I didn’t expect this but it is always nice to know that someone is watching and saying ‘well done’."

Mr Gill is worth 100 puffed-up self-important politicians.
posted by David Farrer at 09:28

 
Scotland and London

A few days ago I wrote about the Shirley Porter affair and said that Glasgow was one of the poorest cities in the UK.

Stuart Dickson pointed out that Glasgow was in fact the poorest British city. David Rainey responded by drawing our attention to this:

...the Sheffield study analysed the census data in blocks of Local Authorities structures. Accordingly, Glasgow City council was a single unit in the study and did very poorly. However, in England (London, especially) the Local councils are smaller and often many are needed to cover an entire city.

This means that many London Boroughs (as opposed to the whole city) are in the poorest categories. Even Westminster is "deprived" with almost 40% of its population in "poverty".

Nevertheless, I don't see how anyone can deny the fact that the southeast of England dominates the UK economy in an unhealthy way. I know that Scotland is just about average in the UK in terms of GDP per capita (with northern England being much less productive) but we are exporting a very high proportion of our qualified young people to London and its surroundings. That shouldn't be necessary and our population is now declining and ageing.

I normally agree with most of the commentary from the Scotsman's George Kerevan. In his article George maintains that London's dominance is primarily due to its competitive private sector and not to its capital status:

How did London achieve this spectacular growth, and why did other UK cities fail to emulate it? One theory is that London was especially privileged by being the political capital of the UK. Over 90 per cent of the UN’s 185 member countries have an embassy or high commission there. London also hosts 14 international organisations, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Commonwealth Secretariat. London attracts company head offices anxious to be close to the centre of things. It is home to more corporate HQs than any other European city: 33 per cent of the Fortune Global 500 firms have their European HQ in the city, compared with only 9 per cent in Paris and 3 per cent in Frankfurt.

However, the balance of the evidence suggests that London’s political clout stems from its economic weight and not the other way around. Contrary to popular mythology, only 18.4 per cent of all UK civil servants work in London.

I don't really agree with George on this. Taking the civil service numbers for a start, London's population share would entitle it to more like 13% of the UK total so already it's about 40% ahead of the game. But what's really important is that London is the base of the civil servants who matter. The Sir Humphreys are there, not the junior clerks relocated to the "provinces". That's why almost all of the UK's top companies are headquartered in London - far more than in any one city in the USA or Germany. In turn it makes commercial sense for all of those highly paid creative industries described by George to be in London too.

There is a fascinating article in the latest issue of the IEA's Economic Affairs. Victoria Curzon Price writes that:

Switzerland has a tradition of decentralised government, decentralised tax setting and direct reference to the voters through referendums. Such mechanisms should give rise to lower taxes, better provision of public goods and higher economic growth. However, these mechanisms have not been effective in the last 30 years at preventing the growth in government spending and centralisation. This is partly because of the consensus in favour of centralisation that exists among institutionalised politicians. The performance of the Swiss economy since 1970 has consequently been dismal. Real per capita post-tax incomes have been stagnant. There is now an opportunity for the growth of centralisation to be reversed.

The article maintains that the Swiss economy has suffered from the transfer of power and tax collecting from the cantons to the federal government. Compared to the UK, Switzerland remains very decentralised but it's clearly been moving in the wrong direction. Elsewhere in the article a chart shows that the proportion of UK taxes collected centrally has risen from 71% in 1975 to 79% in 2000. Of the 19 countries listed only Ireland (a geographically small country) collects more at the centre. The German federal government collects a mere 31% of all the country's tax (down from 34% in 1975) - the rest being collected at the land or local level. Even France collects only 48% of its tax take nationally.

I remain convinced that British national life (think of our transport "system") is distorted by the dominance of the southeast. This in turn is largely the result of more than 40% of the economy being under state control and being almost entirely run from one end of a long and narrow country. My own preference is for that 40% to be reduced to more like 4%. Then it wouldn't matter too much where the capital was located - just like Switzerland in its good old days. If we don't want to fire all of those public servants we should move the capital to the other end of the country. Sir Humphrey will enjoy living in Easterhouse.
posted by David Farrer at 09:18

 
The black market expands

I have dined several times at the excellent Ducks at Le Marche Noir restaurant. The organisation is expanding:

THE idiosyncratic Edinburgh restaurateur Malcolm Duck is set to expand his bistro chain into East Lothian with the acquisition of the Kilspindie Hotel in Aberlady.

In a private deal expected to go through today, Mr Duck, who owns the stylish New Town bistro Duck’s at Le Marche Noir and holds the catering contract at Lennoxlove House, will take control of the three-star hotel for an undisclosed sum.

Until today I hadn't realised that Malcolm's father enjoyed a rather exotic name:

Born in Quetta, Pakistan, the son of Dr Donald Duck, who was a missionary doctor, Mr Duck left the navy in 1991 and took over the running of Duck’s at Le Marche Noir.

posted by David Farrer at 16:36

 
Another Scottish political party!

Thanks to Brian Nugent for alerting me to the website of the Free Scotland Party. The FSP is based in Shetland.
posted by David Farrer at 16:25

 
What about the workers?

There were rumours that this might have happened when I flew out from Edinburgh three weeks ago. Fortunately for me it didn't. But look at the way it is reported:

HOLIDAYMAKERS could face a summer of chaos after baggage handlers at Britain’s main airports yesterday voted to strike following their rejection of a 2.5 per cent pay increase.

It was the same last night on the TV news: "holidaymakers" could be affected by the proposed strikes at airports. But huge numbers of airline passengers aren't holidaymakers but business people, as a glance at the departure area at Edinburgh airport would confirm. For all too many reporters businessmen and women aren't quite as real as "holidaymakers".
posted by David Farrer at 09:30