The state is not your friend

Andrew Duffin has drawn my attention to two news items:

(1) In yesterday's Scotsman Gavin Esler pontificates about Africa:

And so, 50 years after de-colonisation began, Africa is a continent of biblical misery. The root cause is human incompetence rather than acts of God or the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The famines in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe are largely the creation of men. The destruction of the Congo, of Sierra Leone and Liberia, were all fuelled by greed for diamonds and other resources. Those of us on the outside see Africa as the face of a starving child, an AIDS mother or a drug-addled teenage thug with a Kalashnikov.

For us, too, there is a simple, almost biblical choice. We can pass by, shrug our shoulders and say that Africa is hopeless. Or we can do what we can. I suggest that despite the air of hopelessness, we have no choice but to do what we can.

Africa's problems are "the creation of men" but not in the way Esler thinks. As Andrew Duffin says: "let the State try to fix things, and the problem just gets worse". Helping Africa doesn't require more Western intervention but rather the sweeping away of trade restrictions that stop us from buying African products. The International Society for Individual Liberty does an excellent job - using private money - to educate people in Africa and elsewhere on the benefits of liberty.

(2) Meanwhile, back in Scotland the takeaway police are in action again:

The authority, which abandoned licenses for late-night catering in 1998, is to back the return of the policy today. If put into effect, it would mean all takeaways closing at 12.30am. At present, premises can open as late as they wish.

If only Africa had all these busybodies: think how well off everyone would be.

Falling numbers

Over on UK Commentators Laban Tall writes about Scotland's declining population and explains why things are different in England.

The Quebec solution

George Kerevan's article on the SNP's leadership contest compares the situation here with that in Quebec where an election has recently been held:

In fact, Quebec had become the highest-taxed part of North America as a result of the PQ’s pandering to trades unions and activist lobbies. So the Liberals, who are normally mildly social democratic, campaigned on a populist platform of cutting taxes but also modernising Quebec’s health and education system. The Liberals won 76 seats in the 125-member legislature, while he PQ’s total shrank to 45.

But there’s a coda to this story. The Quebec election was also innovative because of the strong performance of a new radical party, Quebec Democratic Action (ADQ). Shades of Tommy Sheridan? Not a bit of it. ADQ has broken the mould of left-wing Quebec politics by being unashamedly in favour of lower taxes. It also wants more private involvement in health care, and state vouchers for individuals to spend as they like on schools.

Like similar libertarian parties in Scandinavia, it is supported by the young professionals, many of whom abstain in Scottish elections.

It sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it? Scotland has overtaken Sweden and has Europe's largest public sector, thanks to the same "pandering to trades unions and activist lobbies." If young professionals in Scandinavia and Quebec will vote for "libertarian parties", then why not here?

Kerevan proclaims:

What Scotland needs is something like the ADQ. A Scottish champion able to use the political machinery at Holyrood to rebuild the Scottish economy, willing to protect Scottish interests from Whitehall and Westminster, and all the while getting out of the way of restricting the personal freedom of ordinary Scots.

If the Wilsonite challenge to the SNP leadership is thoroughly defeated the leftists in the party may well move over to the Scottish Socialist Party. Have the mainstream Nationalists got the vision to seek an alliance with the Conservatives to create a Scottish version of the ADQ?

Cashing in your chips

In The Millionaire Next Door Thomas Stanley and William Danko explain how most rich people make their money in basic, unfashionable businesses.

The typical millionaire:

....is a businessman who has lived in the same town for all of his adult life. This person owns a small factory, a chain of stores, or a service company. He has married once and remains married. He lives next door to people with a fraction of his wealth. He is a compulsive saver and investor. And he has made his money on his own. Eighty percent of America's millionaires are first-generation rich.

Well, it looks as if the same rules apply here in Scotland:

THE award-winning Anstruther Fish Bar has changed hands in a deal worth more than £1.5 million.

The business, which is in the Gourmet Guide to Fish and Chips and has twice been named Fish and Chip Shop of the Year, has been sold by the proprietors, Ian and Ann Whyte, and their business partner, Colin Cromar.

It has been bought by another Anstruther man, Robert Smith and his family, who also run the Argo Fish company in nearby St Monans.

Not only have the sellers managed to get £1.5 million for a fish and chip shop in a small east coast town but the purchaser is another local entrepreneur in the same line of business. Good for the Whytes and their partner: they have earned their retirement. How unlike our friends in local government:

SCOTLAND’S local authority pension funds have lost more than £1.5 billion over the past year, The Scotsman can reveal, leaving a £2.4 billion black hole which may have to be filled by cuts in services or council tax rises.

If business owners screw-up, their pensions are reduced or even lost completely. When government workers pensions are threatened - as a direct consequence of the Chancellor's policies - no problem: just "cut services or increase council taxes." That's not right. Government workers' pensions should be reduced in line with the average in the private sector.

The Gathering Storm

It looks as though foreign nationals may be allowed to vote in a Euro referendum:

TONY BLAIR’s coming referendum on the euro may include measures to increase the "yes" result by extending the vote to the 800,000 Europeans living in Britain but still registered as foreign nationals.

Lord Falconer, whose Department for Constitutional Affairs is supervising the referendum plan, is considering extending the vote to anyone working in Britain with a European passport.

This is likely to deliver a fillip to the "yes" campaign as expatriate Europeans are expected to be among the most enthusiastic cheerleaders for the single currency.

If there were to be a pro-Euro majority that was less than the number of foreigners "entitled" to vote I would suggest that we would be in a revolutionary situation.

By the way, what's this "still registered as foreign nationals"? They are foreign nationals.

Rail v Road

I like railways and was therefore pleased to read that a small extension is to be made to the Glasgow network:

Firms are to be invited to bid for the £28 million scheme between Hamilton and Larkhall in Lanarkshire, which will also provide more frequent cross-city trains through Glasgow.

Work on the long-delayed line is expected to start later this year, before planning permission runs out, and be completed in 2006.

A three-mile spur will re-link Larkhall to the rail network in the most extensive new track scheme since the re-laying of the Argyle line through Glasgow city centre in 1979.

Now I realise that the poor old taxpayer will be coughing up for some of the cost, but that's also the case with new roads. Without a free market in transport we can't tell whether rail or road is more appropriate.

There is some evidence that the case for rail is not being made properly. This report is interesting:

The authors say there is so much hype over train crashes that most people do not realise fatal accidents have been reduced every decade for the past 70 years.

There were 8.8 fatal crashes a year in 1940s, but only one per year in the 2000s.

Fewer passengers have died since privatisation than in the same period before privatisation - 97 deaths compared to 127.

They say if the public realised it cost taxpayers £10m to save each life with the new train warning system TPWS, but as little as £100,000 to save a life with safety measures on the roads, they might prefer to invest public money differently.

The great economist Frederic Bastiat explained the importance of both "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen" when analysing economic phenomena. Health and Safety regulations seem to be applied far more rigorously to the railway system than to our roads. What Is Seen (for those not blinded by anti-privatisation propaganda) is an increasingly safe railway. What Is Not Seen are the additional deaths and injuries to road users who might otherwise use a cheaper and less regulated railway.

A market solution

The US government was much criticised for its now withdrawn plan to create a "terrorism futures market". Perhaps, though, the idea had some merit. In Mark Skousen's latest book I read about this research programme at the University of Iowa:

The Iowa Electronic Markets are real-money futures markets in which contract payoffs depend on economic and political events such as elections.

If you want to go long or short in Hillary Clinton futures, this is your place:

2004 Presidential Election Vote-Share Market

The IEM 2004 US Presidential Vote Share Market is a real-money futures market where contract payoffs will be determined by the popular vote cast in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election. Please see the market prospectus for specific details of this market.

The market is open to all traders world-wide. Consult our on-line trader's manual for additional information

It occurs to me that we could do with this kind of thinking here in Scotland. The Scottish Nationalists are in a financial mess:

The crisis in the SNP deepened last night as it emerged the party is more than half a million pounds in debt, throwing into further doubt its chances of ever winning power.

The official opposition, already battered by a leadership battle and the loss of eight MSPs at the polls, is only keeping afloat thanks to the goodwill of a major bank and activists who have not called in loans.

Half a million in the red and a leadership contest: let's see some innovative thinking. The SNP should organise a futures market in party leaders. The market needn't be restricted to the in-house "Swinneys" and "Wilsons" but could be extended to rival brands: "Blairs" and "Browns", for example. I believe that quite a few of the party's activists work in the financial sector. Let them show a commitment to capitalism and differentiate themselves from the dreary municipal Stalinists in the Scottish Socialist Party.

In camera

Someone may be sent to jail for using a mobile telephone to record and transmit proceedings in the Perth Sheriff Court:

Sheriff James Tierney said the incident raised serious issues for the future conducting of cases within the Scottish legal system, and has cited the alleged culprit to appear after footage of a friend was recorded while she was appearing on motoring charges.

I fully understand why order has to be maintained in a court but why exactly is permission to film proceedings only granted "in exceptional circumstances?" There seems to be an unnecessary degree of protectionism going on here. If newspaper journalists are allowed into courts, why not cameras?

Born 1912 - Still Going Strong

Happy birthday to Milton Friedman

My wife and I met thirteen years ago at a conference dinner in San Francisco - Milton Friedman was the guest speaker.

Oh doctor, I'm in trouble!

Help is at hand for those of you traumatised by the dreaded words "self assembly":

Miles Richardson has devised a formula to indicate how frustrating an item will be to assemble and wants manufacturers to use it to amend instructions, offering customers an idea of flat-pack traumas to come.

His PhD paper, Identifying the task variables that influence object assembly complexity, is published later this year.

It's good to see that our universities are producing useful research. My local Ikea hands out the business cards of a guy who will come to your house and assemble furniture for a fee of £25. I wonder where he went to college.

A coalition for independence?

Some campaigners for Scottish independence are planning the creation of a national movement to act beyond the confines of the existing political parties:

Taking as their model the Scottish constitutional convention which led to home rule, the organisers - mainly SNP activists - believe a cross-party coalition could move Scotland on from devolution to independence. Support for an independence coalition has found broad agreement inside the divided SNP, now preparing for a leadership contest amid accusations that it has lost its way

This may seem to make sense for nationalist activists. There is not too much ideological difference between the left wing of the SNP and the Scottish Socialist Party, whose leader Tommy Sheridan is to address the group's first meeting - to be held during the SNP's conference. The Greens and independence-minded Labour supporters are expected to join in. The downside for the SNP is that most of their voting strength is to be found in rural and small-town Scotland - traditionally anti-socialist areas that used to be held by the Conservatives.

Scotland's biggest problem is its depressed economy:

The executive said gross domestic product north of the border fell by a seasonally-adjusted 0.3% in the first quarter. Comparing the year to March with the preceding 12 months, there was no growth at all in Scotland, but expansion of 1.7% in the UK.

The Scottish economic numbers are perhaps not quite so poor on a per-capita basis, given our static or declining population compared to the population growth in England. Nevertheless, the economy needs improving. If there were a case for Scottish independence it would be to create a low-tax and radically pro-business economy. Such a Scotland could retain our most ambitious youngsters, so many of who now emigrate. Socialism is a dead end. Instead of wasting their time with the Scottish Socialists, the SNP should become "radicals for a capitalist Scotland" - if necessary in league with the Conservative party.

Now that would be something to stir up their conference.

Musical note

The bureaucrats of middle-England have shown some initiative:

BEETHOVEN’S Ninth Symphony is to be played continuously in a multi-storey car park in an attempt to drive away rough sleepers.

The composer’s work - which includes the well-known melody Ode To Joy - will run on a loop 24 hours a day at the John Street car park in Stoke-on-Trent during a two-month trial.

I can't help wondering about the choice of music. There's nothing wrong with Beethoven, but I note that Ode to Joy is the anthem of the European Union. Perhaps the EUSR has given the good folk of Stoke a financial incentive to broadcast wall-to-wall Euro-music. If so, we should reciprocate. We must insist that the car parks of Brussels be equipped to play Land of Hope and Glory or Rule Britannia. Non-stop.

The Bloggish Enlightenment

Congratulations to Mike Campbell for coming up with this excellent term.

You couldn't make this up....

After going ten times over budget you would have thought that the seats in the new Scottish parliament building would be the right size.

Not so:

The sit-in bay windows on the MSPs’ office block at the new parliament complex were designed to allow politicians a quiet place for contemplation amid the whirlwind of debates and controversy.

However, not all the seats will be wide enough to accommodate the posteriors of the plumpest of Scotland’s 129 elected representatives.

So we have a sizeist parliament building. This is not acceptable in the twenty-first century. Fortunately one of the building's long-term critics has a solution:

The former SNP MSP Margo MacDonald is one of the Scottish parliament’s most generously sized members.

MacDonald, now an independent list MSP for the Lothians, said: "I know we are supposed to be trying to get a good cross-section of people into the Scottish parliament, but at this rate the next parliament will need to have a percentage of people with restricted growth, because they’re the only folk who could squeeze themselves in.

Yes indeed. Clearly, there needs to be a quota in the parliament for "people with restricted growth". And perhaps a modicum of economic understanding could be achieved by instituting a quota of business people.

But(t) no, that wouldn't do: they'd be fat cats.

Honour your agreements - says the Sheriff

The business section of the Glasgow Herald has an interesting story today. Unfortunately there is no direct link.

Ossory Property Investments have won a legal case at Glasgow Sheriff Court against the retailer RS McColl who are tenants in an Ossory-owned shopping complex in the Easterhouse area of the city. Following their acquisition of a similar company operating in the centre, McColl decided to close down their existing shop. Although McColl continued to pay rent on their original shop, they were taken to court because they had signed a lease in which they had agreed to continue to trade in the original outlet, in their own name, and for the full lease term and not merely pay the rent. Ossory's lawyer said: "It simply wasn't enough for McColl's to continue to pay the rent on an empty unit. McColl's is a nationally recognised covenant and their continuing presence was important to the centre, which is why a keep-trading clause was insisted upon in the first instance." The Herald states that: "Under English law, such clauses are all but unenforceable" - damages being the usual remedy. The Glasgow Sheriff ruled differently under Scots law.

Bizarrely, the Herald states that these clauses are ones "which - on the face of it - co-exist uneasily with a supposedly free market." That is nonsense. Free markets can only exist if people keep their agreements and some form of social sanction is necessary to enforce contracts. If you don't like the clause, don't sign the lease. Unlike the Herald, the Sheriff knows that freedom doesn't mean that you can break your word whenever you feel like it.

Today's letters

I noticed a couple of interesting letters in The Scotsman today. First, there's one from Falkirk objectivist, Bruce Crichton, who continues to correct the errors of John Rogerson, an advocate of environmentalism:

Government subsidies to business, far from being a free gift to the economy, are a massive expropriation of wealth which is redistributed from firms which make profits to those who make losses. These subsidies save jobs only at the expense of destroying jobs elsewhere in the economy. The same is true of protective tariffs which damage imports and exports.

Then, there is this one from David Stevenson. Confusingly, he refers to a previous letter from another David Stevenson, but I believe that today's writer is the David Stevenson who is well known as an SNP activist and former candidate for Brussels and Westminster.

Stevenson writes:

There may well be good reasons to wish for Scotland to be independent outwith the EU rather than "independent in Europe". I should be glad to see a well-informed debate, followed by a multi-option referendum, to test public opinion on this.

The fisheries debacle has almost persuaded me to favour the "outwith" option, although I believe most of the fault over fisheries lies with the British establishment, and its Scottish allies, rather than with the EU.

This is the second time in a few weeks that I have noticed that members of the Nationalist party are moving towards a more sceptical position vis-a-vis the EU. Good.

Joined up government

Thanks to Dave Fordwych for alerting me to this one

The Sunday Herald has a wonderful story today:

Transport police were called out last Friday to confront a small but angry band of residents as they marched down a path to the Perth-to-Dundee railway line and a level crossing which has been padlocked and nailed shut.

This is the apparently innocuous focus of a chain of events that has polarised the local community, angered the council, incensed the Ramblers’ Association, raised the spectre of corporate man slaughter and left a question mark hanging over an unforeseen consequence of the Land Reform Bill.

Directors of Network Rail are understandably concerned about the possibility of facing charges of corporate manslaughter in the event of someone being killed or injured while wandering on the railway. Meanwhile, the Scottish government has legislated in favour of a right to trespass roam, including, presumably, across railway tracks.

The railway infrastructure has been taken out of the hands of shareholders and into the safekeeping of selfless (sic) public servants. Surely this kind of mix-up shouldn't occur. Don't tell me that there's something wrong with socialism! In the meantime the local council is forcing open the gates over the tracks and Network Rail is locking them up again.

The folk at Network Rail are - wisely - looking out for number one:

“If people are serious about crossing live railways, the safest way is by underpass or bridge and somebody has to fund that – and it’s not going to be the railway because it’s not our responsibility. The responsibility must either rest with councils or central government.”

As Dave Fordwych says:

In my opinion, both pieces of legislation -right to roam and corporate manslaughter -are wrong headed and superfluous and it will be interesting to see which way this one pans out.

I think that a solution may be found if the Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling, has a quiet word with the Secretary of State for Scotland who is, er, Alistair Darling.

Funnily enough, the only time I have ever seen Mr Darling, my own MP, was on an aeroplane flying from London to Edinburgh and, yes, he was talking to himself.

An ungentlemanly challenge

I hold no special brief for John Swinney, leader of the SNP, but for a leadership challenge to be launched on the day before Swinney's wedding is a nasty trick. It appears that Bill Wilson is a stalking horse for other potential leaders but sometimes the one who wields the knife does inherit the throne.

Scotland on Sunday comments:

Dr Wilson has signalled that he will campaign for a more left wing leadership for the SNP. In doing this he speaks for many party activists who have been struck by the success of Tommy Sheridan’s Scottish Socialist Party in making inroads into urban Scotland. The future, they argue, lies in a turn to the left which would allow the SNP to win votes from the SSP and the Labour Party. Though superficially attractive this would actually be a disaster for the Nationalists. Elections are won and lost in the centre ground. Veering to the left would expose the SNP on its right flank. And the Tories showed in May this year that they are able to take seats from the SNP. Any espousal of tartan socialism would be seized on with pleasure by the resurgent Scottish Conservatives.

And is Bill Wilson a leftwinger? His CV would indicate that he could be:

BILL WILSON

Born: Glasgow

Age: 39

Education: Shawlands Academy, Glasgow. Glasgow University (BSc Zoology). Aberdeen University (MSc Ecology). Queens University Belfast (PhD in the biology, ecology and regulation of wood mice). Glasgow University (Masters in IT)

Job: Computer programmer for a major financial institution in Edinburgh

Party career: Joined SNP in 1989 at age of 25, after campaigning with Labour party. Convener of SNP Glasgow Association. Contested Glasgow Mayhill in 1999 and 2003

Family: Married. First wedding anniversary falls on date of leadership ballot

Out and about: Hill-walking in the Andes, the Himalayas, Kenya, Mexico and all over Scotland

Reads: Philosophy, historical novels

Music: Classics, especially Mozart and Beethoven. Also classic jazz and folk

This guy gets a degree in zoology, another in ecology and then one in "regulation of wood mice", all presumably at the taxpayers' expense. As if that's not enough, he gets yet another degree, this one in IT. Presumably that's the one that enabled him to gain employment as a "computer programmer for a major financial institution in Edinburgh". Is it not amusing that this paragon of right-on environmentalism ends up working for the capitalist running dogs of the Edinburgh financial community? I wonder how Dr Wilson will explain that lapse to the massed ranks of the social working class whose support he no doubt needs to gain the leadership of the SNP.

In praise of second home owners

I note that Scottish local authorities want to abolish the 50% discount on council taxes that is currently enjoyed by owners of second homes. Unsurprisingly, the Herald weighs in on the side of the class war:

It looks set to pit the executive against the owners of 60,000 properties in Scotland - including Sir Paul McCartney, JK Rowling and Mohamed al Fayed - which are exempt from the full fee.

I wasn't surprised to read that there is a lack of understanding of the potential benefits of tax competition between different authorities:

One of the councils, Argyll and Bute, has called on the executive to make the removal of the discount mandatory in legislation, and "applied consistently by every Scottish local authority".

They want their increased tax take but can't stand the idea of a rival authority luring away their victims.

I myself benefited from the 50% discount for some years. My current home in Edinburgh was purchased in 1995 and was occupied about 2 days a month until we moved here permanently early last year. I have no doubt that my usage of the City Council's services was well under 50% during those years and having the property here meant that a very large proportion of my holiday expenditure benefited the Edinburgh economy and would otherwise have been spent elsewhere.

Scotland is one of the few places in Europe that has a falling population. Many rural areas depend on second home owners, many of whom eventually move here permanently. If councils are worried about locals being unable to afford high house prices perhaps an attack on our outmoded planning laws would be in order. Keep the discount or, better still, privatise local government.

Outrageous

While googling for an Adam Smith reference for the previous item, I came across this comment from the Scottish Conservative leader:

Commenting on reports that Historic Scotland has turned down an offer of £10,000 by Edinburgh-born businessman Bob Lamond to pay for information signs leading to Adam Smith's grave in the Canongate Kirkyard, Scottish Conservative Leader David McLetchie MSP said:

"I am utterly astonished that Historic Scotland has turned down this most generous offer. Adam Smith is one of Scotland's most distinguished men. The Wealth of Nations provides the foundation of the free-enterprise system which has conferred untold benefits to mankind, down the centuries and across the world.

"Adam Smith's grave currently languishes in obscurity in the Canongate Kirkyard. At a time when Scotland should be encouraging interest in our history both at home and abroad, it is absurd that this generous, well-intentioned and eminently sensible proposal has been rejected.

"I will be writing to the Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Frank McAveety and to Historic Scotland, urging them to reverse this bizarre decision."

McLetchie is absolutely justified in his complaint, although I can't say that I am "utterly astonished" about this decision.

So much for Scotland's commitment to enterprise. If the Canongate Kirkyard contained the grave of Karl Marx instead of that of Adam Smith you can bet that Historic Scotland would have already spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on signage.

Mercantilism lives

Poor old Adam Smith must be spinning in his grave. The Edinburgh Evening News tells us that:

LICENSED traders are demanding a ban on new pubs and clubs in the Capital in a bid to tackle binge drinking.

And

The Scottish Licensed Trade Association believes a complete moratorium is the best long-term solution to tackling an issue city leaders admit is blighting the Capital. It claims Edinburgh is one of the most "over-provided cities in Europe" for licensed premises.

"Over provided!"

Of course Edinburgh has a disproportionately large number of pubs. It's a city of under 500,000 people that has three universities, is the second most important tourist destination in Britain and, uniquely in this country, has a very sizeable proportion of its prosperous middle class professionals living in the centre of the city. Many of those students, tourists and residents like Edinburgh precisely because it is well endowed with many superb Victorian and Edwardian pubs.

Have a look at this:

SLTA spokesman Paul Waterson said: "There’s no doubt at all that the best long-term solution to the binge-drinking culture is to bring a complete halt to the issuing of any new licences.

I detect a group that wants to use state power to keep out rivals. By all means let the police deal with any rowdiness outside pubs but don't let businesses use politicians to destroy potential competitors.

His and Hers

According to this, the First Couple are wearing colour co-ordinated outfits:

Add it altogether and you have clear evidence that the Blairs are Britain's colour co-ordinated couple. However, if, as Shakespeare was apt to remark, apparel oft proclaims the man (or, as in this case, the couple) then there is method behind their madness.

Anne Macfarlane, Glasgow-based image consultant for Colour Me Beautiful, said yesterday: "I am absolutely certain that this is not a coincidence. They will receive a great deal of advice on what colours they should wear. I would think that they want to photograph well at the moment.

I can see that image awareness can be important for politicians as Brian Micklethwait explains here. In the case of George Bush I think that most of us would accept that "what you see is what you get", whether or not you agree with his politics. That is not the case with Tony Blair. Who on earth trusts this prancing popinjay? It does Bush no harm for it to be known that photographs of him are carefully planned, but news of a colour co-ordinated Blair family will bring nothing but derision.

Good.

A tale of two cultures

Last night I started to read Adventure Capital, the story of a round-the-world journey made by the American investor, Jim Rogers.

Arriving in China, Jim writes:

Driving through China, we would see people constantly working the fields, and they would be working from dawn to dusk, literally. Indeed, they worked beyond dusk. We saw road builders labouring under floodlights, and there were always as many women working as men. We never saw anybody sitting around chitchatting. The Chinese do not take siestas. You will see some old men - really old men- sitting quietly drinking tea, with their caged pet birds keeping them company, but other than that you will not see people lounging around, looking out windows.

I imagine that some of you may be thinking that the Chinese work such long hours because they need every penny to survive. But what about this:

I have pointed out how the Chinese work from dawn to dusk. But not only do they work hard, they also save and invest over 30 percent of their income. We in America save about 1 percent of our income. It is because the Chinese work so hard and save so much of what they earn that their economy is growing faster than ours.

Rogers also notes that savings in China are not taxed unlike in the US or indeed the UK.

Let's turn now to Scotland, renowned as the land of the Presbyterian work ethic. Surely here we will see some similarity to China. Look at today's Daily Record:

OAPS flooded helplines yesterday as our campaign to get them to claim millions of pounds in state benefits kicked off in style.

The Record yesterday revealed how almost 60,000 Scots pensioners are missing out on £70million a year in unclaimed payouts.

Now OAP helplines and the Department of Work and Pensions have been inundated with calls from people wanting to claim cash.

And Pensions Minister Malcolm Wicks has thrown his weight behind the campaign, urging elderly people to apply for the money.

Mr Wicks says that the pensioners are entitled to the money. Well, maybe some of them are, but what about the millions of other welfare beneficiaries, including all state employees? What about the huge administrative slice taken out of the wages of private sector employees who are forced to contribute to state "welfare" schemes? The Labour regime and its press allies in the Daily Record focus on redistribution and spending, not production and investment. The Chinese have recognised that western-style welfare states do not lead to prosperity: that's why they work hard and save 30 percent of their incomes. I can't quite see a Chinese newspaper running a major campaign to persuade people to take up welfare "rights". It's more likely that they would report on the rather interesting fact that half of the world's construction cranes are operating in their country. Sometimes it seems as though half of the world's welfare advocates live in this country.

Who needs job experience?

I think that George Robertson, outgoing secretary-general of NATO, is a decent man, despite being a former Labour MP and minister. If Robertson had still been Defence Secretary I don’t imagine that he would have turned up yesterday at the British Grand Prix as did Geoff (Buff) Hoon who claimed that he was there “investigating plans to adapt motor racing’s quick-fuelling systems for use with military helicopters.” (Daily Mail). Robertson would have known to keep his head down in the aftermath of the death of Dr David Kelly.

Nevertheless, I can’t agree with the letter in today’s Glasgow Herald from a Mr Neil Robertson (presumably no relation) who writes:

Your business correspondent Mark Smith is quite wrong to suggest that the outgoing secretary-general of Nato, Lord George Robertson - who has just been appointed to the board of Weir Group plc, "Scotland's largest engineering company" - "has no real experience of business" (July 19). As a member of the first board of the Scottish Development Agency from 1975 to 1978 - when he was still Scottish organiser of the General, Municipal and Boilermakers Union - George Robertson won his spurs in industrial development by serving alongside Sir William Gray, Professor Kenneth Alexander, Councillor Charles Gray, Dr George Weir, Brigadier Muir, David Ogilvie, Alan Devereux, Jimmy Jack of STUC, SDA chief executive Lewis Robertson, and SDA board secretary Muir Russell (seconded from the Scottish Office), in laying down ground-rules for "the Scottish development acorn", SDA.

I'm sorry, but being a trade union representative on a government quango is not the same as having "business experience". Real businessmen lie awake at night wondering how they can meet the next payroll while hoping that the next bunch of government regulations doesn't bankrupt them. It's a pity that so few people in Scotland understand that reality.