Road pricing

It looks as if the Edinburgh city council is getting serious about some kind of road pricing scheme. Judging from the map in the Evening News, the F&W blog house is within the proposed inner cordon; hopefully residents won't have to pay to drive home.

Just what are they good for?

Businessmen don't think much of politicians according to a survey in Scottish Business Insider. 78% of chief executives think that the calibre of MSPs is "poor or very poor." But does Scotland's political class know any more about farming? Not acccording to the farmers who think ministers are "reluctant to accept scientific evidence."

Nuclear reaction

When I heard the news about a planned nuclear attack on the US, I switched on the television to check the Dow Jones index expecting an even bigger drop than recently. At 6pm (UK time) it was up 82.04 points. Then I realised that the target was Washington

Restaurant regulation

Socialists just can't stop thinking up new ways to attack property rights.

Even more victims

Referring to the "more victims" post on Saturday, a reader has suggested that the ban on DDT raised worldwide malaria deaths from a few thousand to 4 to 8 million per year.

More on Adam Smith's birthday

This article is by Roland Watson, a fellow resident of Edinburgh

Are you listening Tony?

On today's ITV viewers' opinion poll, people voted 6% in favour and 94% against British troops being sent to Kashmir. Looks like they'll be going then..

More victims

The former Bishop of Edinburgh quotes Karl Marx in support of "minority rights." Shouldn't Bishop Holloway be praying for those murdered by socialism rather than praising its founder? He could start by remembering the following deaths: China (65 million), Germany (25 million), USSR (25 million), North Korea (2 million), Cambodia (2 million), Africa (1.7 million and counting), Afghanistan (1.5 million), Vietnam (1 million), Eastern Europe (1 million), Latin America (150,000)

Victims of socialism

Ross Minett calls for: a more efficient and equitable use of existing world food resources.The only way that will happen is if more countries adopt capitalist agriculture policies - starting with the EU and the USA.

Cowboy politicians: look out

I like the quote from the Indian cop: a policeman in London is respected and has powers to take action against politicians.

At least they're talking

I am pleased to see that Scottish Asians are getting together to to try and avoid any inter-communal violence in the event of war. On the other hand, I am not at all happy to read that Geoff Hoon may send British troops to Kashmir.

Trouble on the web

I certainly don't support this sort of behaviour by students but can't help wondering if it's a reaction to the state's compulsory attendance laws.

Strength through joy?

A 20 year health plan! How could we survive without politicians?

Airports

The lack of competition between Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports is in the news again. What I don't understand, though, is all the attention paid to a supposed need for additional runways in Scotland. Gatwick manages to handle 30 million passengers a year with single runway operation. Glasgow handles 7 million passengers annually and Edinburgh 6 million. Edinburgh should complete full parallel taxiways - that would increase capacity at far less cost than a new runway. For extensive daily discussion about Edinburgh Airport, including a taste of the intense rivalry between our two largest cities, have a look at: alt.airports.uk.edinburgh (available on Google Groups)

Sorting out the sheep from the goats

Fordyce Maxwell writes in the Scotsman:

"Some things can’t be taught. In fact, quite a lot of things can’t be taught, and how to make money is one of them. As has been pointed out, correctly, several times recently, there is no positive correlation between an increasing proportion of a nation’s population going through higher education and its economic performance."

Just so. Mr Maxwell's meeting with three multi-millionaires parallels the von Mises quote that I posted on 31st May.

How can this be?

I thought than manufacturing was going to improve only after we had joined the Euro.

Happy birthday Adam Smith

But to think that Tax Freedom Day was a month earlier under Jim Callaghan!

On the occasion of the Queen’s Jubilee

”From the vantage point of elementary economic theory and in light of historical evidence, then, a revisionist view of modern history results. The Whig theory of history, according to which mankind marches continually forward toward ever higher levels of progress, is incorrect. From the viewpoint of those who prefer less exploitation over more and who value far-sightedness and individual responsibility above short-sightedness and irresponsibility, the historic transition from monarchy to democracy represents not progress but civilizational decline.”

From Chapter 2 of Democracy – The God That Failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

Working for the taxman

Is it any wonder that business start-up rates are far too low?

Mugger should get a job

If this lady gets it, why don't the politicians?

Ryanair

Over on UK Transport, Patrick Crozier has mentioned this story about Ryanair's possible use of Prestwick Airport as a maintenance base. Perhaps I should declare a special interest here as I am a former resident of Prestwick and grew up watching aircraft there. Indeed, a few years ago I made a point of flying from London to Dublin for the sole purpose of travelling on the very first Ryanair service to Prestwick. After a few hours, I then flew back to Dublin Airport where I consumed several pints of Guinness and then returned to London. An excellent day out.

I would naturally be very pleased to see Ryanair open a base at Prestwick in the footsteps of Polar Air Cargo which has already opened a base there.

However, as the Sunday Times says, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary is a tough negotiator. His company has been reported as looking at some rather strange new destinations in Scotland. Some think this may a negotiating ploy aimed at getting reduced landing fees at more conventional airports. No doubt he is doing the same with his search for a new maintenance base. Let's hope it's Prestwick.

The market returns?

We can only get the correct mixture of transport systems with full privatisation. In the meantime, road pricing is a small step in the right direction.

Nevertheless, it wasn't really necessary for Councillor Burns to say:

but I for one didn't stand for election to do as little as possible

It would be truly extraordinary if any politician promised to do "as little as possible."

Threats from the air

"Drastic action is needed to protect residents from aerial attacks" says local politician. No it's not in India or Pakistan but in a peaceful part of Scotland.

Extremism

The collectivist extremists just don't get it and Bruce Crichton has to keep correcting them.

Is income tax legal?

According to this letter from Donald Manson of Prestwick,

One stipulation of the Act of Union of 1707 was that Parliament should meet, year about, in England and Scotland. But Parliament became entrenched in London.

Effectively, the Treaty and the two Acts of Union are Britain's constitution. Surely this means that legislation passed on alternative years since 1707 is null and void. This raises fascinating questions. Which taxes are legal? Is the UK a member of the EU? Do women have the vote?

I think we should be told.

Young entrepreneurs

These girls made a 20% return. They are somewhat better at business than Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown who has cost us 500 million pounds.

From the West Wing of the Blog House

Writing about Scotland's enterprise deficit, Tom Sunter of the Institute of Directors says:

Directors of companies need to set the standards for others to follow by adopting a professional approach to obtaining recognised business qualifications.

This line of thought immediately rang a bell in the Blog House. Consulting the administration's copy of Human Action by Ludwig von Mises, I found this quote:

It is not generally realised that education can never be more than indoctrination with theories and ideas already developed. Education, whatever benefits it may confer, is transmission of traditional doctrines and valuations; it is by necessity conservative. It produces imitation and routine, not improvement and progress. Innovators and creative geniuses cannot be reared in schools. They are precisely the men who defy what the school has taught them.

In order to succeed in business a man does not need a degree from a school of business administration. These schools train the subalterns for routine jobs. They certainly do not train entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur cannot be trained. A man becomes an entrepreneur in seizing an opportunity and filling the gap. No special education is required for such a display of keen judgment, foresight, and energy. The most successful businessmen were often uneducated when measured by the scholastic standards of the teaching profession. But they were equal to their social function of adjusting production to the most urgent demand. Because of these merits the consumers chose them for business leadership.

But as Mr. Sunter says, it is Scotland's new business start-up rate which is the problem. That will not be solved by producing more MBAs. What is needed is a huge cultural change and a slashing of red tape. Let's start by abolishing that pointless waste of taxpayers' money, the so-called Scottish Enterprise..

Quote of the day

"Clever people get away with crime. Look at the government." - a policeman speaking on The Bill - ITV 8.45pm.

Travelling with Alistair Darling

Our new Transport Secretary is described here as having a "gentle wit." The only time I ever saw my local MP was about eighteen months ago on a flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh. As I passed through business class to the taxpayers' section at the back, I saw the man himself. He was reading the free newspaper and laughing loudly at an article inside. I looked back and noticed that he was reading a double page spread about the fall of Peter Mandelson.

The World Cup

I know that some of my English readers are mightily concerned about what Scots think about England playing in the World Cup. The latest polls show that 29% of Scots will support England with 18% in opposition. The other 53% couldn't care less about who wins. I can report that the Sunday morning 10.30am breakfast viewing in my local pub of England's first match is a sell out despite there being no alcohol served until 12.30!

More on religion in schools

There is an interesting letter in today's Glasgow Herald from Iftikhar Ahmad. He says:

Educating children against the wishes and demands of Muslim parents is a breach of their human rights and un-Islamic.

The state schools have been mis-educating and de-educating Muslim children for the past 40 years.

He is quite right about the "mis-educating" and "de-educating" in state schools but that's caused by the schools being run by the state in the first place. In Scotland, we have state-funded Catholic schools and state-funded "secular" schools and now others, like the Muslims, understandably want a piece of the action. The only moral solution is to get the state out of education altogether. When parents purchase education in the marketplace there can be a whole variety of schools, religious and otherwise, without any group feeling hard done by.

Unlimited oil?

What this means for the price of housing in Aberdeen or politics in the Middle East, I don't know. But it will drive the environmentalists nuts. Nice references to Simon and Lomborg.

Not quite

BRITAIN HAS ARMED JUST ABOUT EVERYONE says the headline. But not the British people of course.

Hoist by his own petard

Normally I would sympathise with a publican in this situation. But the guy's a local councillor and former head of licensing! The state has no business telling us when we are old enough to have a drink. If drinkers, of whatever age, commit crimes let them be punished for the crime, not for the drinking.

Reality reasserts itself

I remember two or three years ago when I often wondered why the FTSE index would jump up and down when none of the mainstream stocks had moved at all. It turned out that Vodafone made up something like 15% of the market value of the top 100 companies. My gut reaction - not my training in business finance - told me that something was wrong. Now, Vodafone has lost some two thirds of its former value. I'm sure it remains a good company but the "gut instinct" is often correct.

Meeting the public

Why do politicians attract strange people?

Donald Dewar

A reader has pointed out that our late first minister was an unusually large investor in the Tory privatisations which he and the rest of the Labour party did so much to oppose. But "he often wore freebie ties" - a true pioneer of socialism.

....and capitalism

There has been an outbreak of pro-capitalist letters in the Scotsman.

More on property rights

I was travelling on a bus in Edinburgh today when there was a loud cry from the driver. “Get your shoes off that seat,” he shouted to a woman sitting behind me. “You wouldn’t treat your own property like that. Put your feet down or get off the bus.” Muttering words never before heard by a blogger, she got off the bus. One up for the civilised guys.

Is what's good for GM good for Scotland?

George Kerevan thinks so. And surprisingly, so too may a "Liberal" Democrat minister.

Capitalism and Welfare

The letters in today's Scotsman from D.S.A. Murray of Dorking and John Webb of Sheffield make interesting reading.

Entrepreneurs

Andrew Wilson MSP supports Tom Hunter on entrepreneurship.

Flying high

I certainly hope that this happens. We need more private investment in Scotland's transport infrastructure.

It's Saturday evening......

....so why not blog this?

A politician vandalised

I was saddened to read in the Glasgow Herald today that the new statue of the late Donald Dewar has been vandalised for a second time in just over two weeks. Before his death, Dewar was the First Minister in the Scottish Parliament.

I can’t help thinking, though, about just how much Mr. Dewar’s Scottish Labour Party has done to undermine property rights in this country. I wonder if Labour's hierarchy will draw any useful lessons from these incidents.

I remember it well....

The Scottish graduation ceremony of the Open University is being held in Glasgow today. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide a link to the list of new graduates published in the Scotsman. As fellow OU graduates, my wife and I would like to offer our congratulations to all who have succeeded in obtaining a degree in this most difficult of ways. Studying year after year for some fifteen hours a week while holding down a full time job is not easy.

At whose expense?

The letter in The Scotsman from Edward Means of California raises a good point about Edinburgh's Lord Provost campaigning in the US on behalf of the Democrats. I would like to know if Scotland's taxpayers paid for this trip.

Who owns the borders?

Writing in the Daily Mail today, Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith says that "Not one Sangatte migrant should be let in". Look here for a radical analysis of immigration which is proving controversial among libertarians.

An attack from south of the border

No, it's not that one. This shows that we are living in ever more interesting times.

Save the Gardens

This guy is spot on. If Freedom and Whisky can obtain the support of its readers, shareholders, bondholders and indeed the international investment community, we shall consider making a hostile bid for Princes Street Gardens. After the inevitable victory, the Gardens will be left exactly as they are.

A caveat

In the previous post I had, perhaps rashly, assumed that the new Scottish Parliament building would be complete by the year 2038, thus allowing the Kirk to re-enter its premises.

The dinner opposite the Mound

F&W was very pleased to have been at the dinner mentioned in SIMON PIA'S DIARY in The Scotsman today. From the dining-room we had a wonderful view across Princes Street to the Church of Scotland building - now temporary home of the Scottish Parliament - in which Maggie spoke fourteen years ago. I look forward to the fiftieth anniversary dinner in 2038 when we shall be able to look over Adam Smith Street (formerly Princes Street) to the floodlit headquarters of Church of Scotland Plc, the planet's largest charity and beneficiary of the worldwide collapse of welfare states.

Rapid Transit

Over on UK Transport, Patrick Crozier writes about the Dublin Area Rapid Transport, or DART. It's a nice service. I've also travelled on the Bay Area Rapid Transit - BART in San Francisco. What I would love to see here in East Central Scotland is a Forth Area Rapid Transport.

The omnipotent state

Another F&W reader, Bruce Crichton, sorts out Jimmy Reid.

Will the sun rise tomorrow?

Roland corrects Jimmy Reid's "philosophy"

A more moderate solution

Roland Watson has a different approach to the problems faced by Scottish football.

An elegant solution

It’s understandable that Rangers and Celtic want to play on a bigger stage than that offered by the SPL. Nevertheless, the English and European football authorities make sense when they insist that clubs play in their own countries. I have a simple and elegant solution. Large, Berlin-type walls should be built round Ibrox and Parkhead. The land inside should be ceded to England. In exchange, we get Berwick back. The Old Firm can then play legitimately in the English First Division and eventually in the Premiership. Of course, the walls should be constructed when the “fans” are inside the grounds. Whether they are ever granted visas to re-enter Scotland is a matter of conjecture.

Another EU bust-up?

Berlusconi criticised for censoring Frogs says the headline. Oh! - it's not that kind of Frog!

”Thinking about the unthinkable”

I’ve just noticed a story in yesterday’s Glasgow Herald telling us that Tory MSP Brian Monteith thought that his party should consider a coalition with the Nationalists in Edinburgh. Monteith sees this as a possible consequence of a future Tory government in London introducing “full fiscal freedom” for Scotland. The SNP adamantly refuses to have anything to do with the Conservatives but many in the business community are coming to see advantages in Holyrood being responsible for its own spending. It would be ironic if the SNP entered government in this way after pandering to the left for so many years.

Self-belief not dependence

I was pleased to see an article in today's Glasgow Herald by Tom Hunter who is one of our best entrepreneurs and founder of Sports Division. Writing about the latest phase of the Schools Enterprise Programme which helps children to learn about entrepreneurship, Hunter says:

Why is that helping us to become an enterprising nation? Because the only way to shift from a dependency culture to a "can do" culture is by educating our next generations that enterprise is for all.

I favour privatisation of schools but this programme is a very welcome change in the state sector.

Less devolution please

Another thought provoking piece from the Mark Steyn collective - I refuse to believe that there's only one of him churning out all those articles

Steyn writes:

Conversely, in Britain, power is vested in the Crown and leased downwards in ever more limited doses. Even the language of alleged decentralists — ‘devolution’, ‘subsidiarity’ — assumes that the natural place for power to concentrate is at the centre.

Unlike some libertarians, I am absolutely in favour of "full fiscal freedom" for Scotland - with all taxes being collected here and any mutually agreed sums being sent to London for common services. In the US, 18% of taxes are collected by the federal government. In Switzerland it's 27%, Spain 39%, Germany 44% and Italy 48%. Here, the central government in Westminster collects an amazing 87% of all taxation levied in Britain. No wonder the "devolved" assemblies are out of control. Who wouldn't be with their kind of pocket money? Let's make them responsible for collecting their own taxes.

Three putts and you're mugged?

Crime and vandalism will destroy New Labour if this kind of nonsense doesn't get sorted out.

Not yet in the net

This interesting article explains that the economic benefits of major sporting events may be greatly exaggerated. Perhaps the Scottish Executive should think again about spending taxpayers' money on a joint Scottish/Irish bid for the Euro 2008 football championship. Of course, lecturers in the economics of sport are worth every penny.

Eight frustrating hours

I should have known when the instructions said: "You should be up and running in a matter of minutes." Yes, I've been upgrading to broadband. This involved a visit from a BT engineer who fixed up the hardware side quickly enough, although only after a last minute call from me telling him that the ISP provider had decided that he had to bring a different make of modem from usual. Then the trouble started. The install CD didn't work on OSX only on OS9. The computer went beserk. Apple UK helpdesk was away training. I had to call the US helpdesk which was actually in Canada. The lady there eventually got the machine working again. The ISP provider worked out that the CD would never work and that I had to download the OSX software from the modem's manufacturer. Many, many phone calls later, I was almost there. Next instruction: "Now, all you need to do.....". After another hour, it actually worked!

Then, I got my regular e-mail from Gary North at The Daily Reckoning

He writes:

You know when I knew the dot-com mania could not be sustained? In 1996. How did I know? Because I had read so many computer manuals. Only that tiny handful of companies in each field which sell utterly indispensable products could survive despite their manuals. The manuals were universally terrible, but we have to have a few programs, so we learn without the manuals. The manuals were the tip-off: "mania in progress; crash will follow." As a Texas A&M professor of computer science told me in 1996, "We cannot find any manual that does not have on average one instruction error per page, except for the NeXT manuals." NeXT was not a major player, despite its founder, Steve Jobs (the co-founder of Apple). How could anyone who ever tried to read a computer manual have expected the Nasdaq to overtake the Standard & Poor's 500? But they did.

So there we are. As we libertarians always knew, companies which make life easy for the customer have a future. The others will have to answer to the marketplace.

Middle East and dictatorship

Bruce Crichton responds to a critic.

The absolute truth?

A letter from Roland Watson puts local leftist commentator, Jimmy Reid, in his place. Roland's writings, often about Scotland, are always worth looking at on the Lew Rockwell website.

Holes in the road theory

There is an interesting letter in the Glasgow Herald today from Thomas Inglis. He refers to the likely cause of the Potters Bar train crash as being poor maintenance.

Mr. Inglis then goes on to write about poor maintenance of our roads.

The lack of maintenance over the past decade has, because of the potholes, temporary road surfaces, soft verges, crumbling bridges and culverts, lack of white lines, missing road signs, choked gullies and drains, left the roads in such a state that they present a hazard to all road users.

All very true. But all the usual suspects are telling us that poor railway maintenance is the result of privatisation of the track. And the roads are owned by? …..oops, the state.

Never believe anything until it has been officially denied

On BBC Radio Scotland at 5.40pm today, it was announced that a senior minister had said that the government would introduce a bill in the next parliamentary session to hold a referendum on joining the Euro. The 6pm News reported that the prime minister’s spokesman had announced that there were no such plans. So now we know.

Someday my bus will come

This you must see!

Fife man insults London tourist

Glasgow Handbook is a new guide to the city mentioned in the Herald today. Apparently, in 1773, Johnson and Boswell visited the Saracen’s Head, a pub well known to this day. While there, a respected local economist by the name of Adam Smith was thrown out of the bar for calling Dr. Johnson a “son of a bitch”.

New Boeing 747? - Only 300 Sixsmiths to you guv.

I liked the Ian Hislop quote over on Samizdata but what really made me laugh was Hislop's new term for £200,000 - a Sixsmith.

(Note for overseas readers: £200,000 was recently paid in compensation to Mr Sixsmith, a departing civil servant.)

Even more confusion

There is an extraordinary letter in the Glasgow Herald today from Eric Joyce, the labour MP for Falkirk West. He writes:

Diederik van Hoogstraten’s article celebrating the politics and personality of Pim Fortuyn (May 11) was a nasty racist rant which in an unintentional way illustrated one of the key causes of the present rise of explicit libertarian racism in a number of European countries. This is that many states have yet to recognise properly and publicly the implicit, indirect and institutional racism which disfigures their otherwise liberal societies. This in turn has created a political space for members of the libertarian right to mis-present themselves as liberals fighting to defend decent values under siege by alien incomers.

Why is there such confusion about the term libertarianism? I have no doubt that some of Mr. Joyce’s own ideas could legitimately be described as libertarian but that most could not. The same applied to Pim Fortuyn. As I wrote on Friday in response to Melanie Phillips – not an ideological soul mate of Eric Joyce - there is a huge libertarian literature available for anyone wanting to understand its essentially straightforward message. I suspect that those on the left and on the right who misrepresent libertarianism know full well what it means and are rather afraid of its appeal.