Ferry cross the North Sea

It's rather sad to read that Scotland's ferry link with Belgium will now be using one vessel instead of two. I've not used the service but have heard good reports from those who have.

It saves passengers and truckers having to drive via Hull or the English Channel ports.

Each ferry can carry more than 1,000 passengers, 120 cars and 100 commercial vehicles.

Figures contained in the 2004 annual report of parent company Attica Group show passenger numbers slipped from 196,000 in 2003 to 192,400 last year.

But freight traffic grew significantly during the same period, with the total number of units being shipped rising from 32,500 in 2003 to 40,300.

Opposition politicians are demanding that "something must be done". Actually, I agree, but my solution is probably not one that would appeal to the Scottish National Party. What we need is a complete privatisation of the road network and a proper system of road pricing. I have read that the government uses different methods of cost benefit analysis for road and rail projects, to the detriment of rail. Let's privatise the lot. We can't find out until after the event, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a free market in transport would not only be good for the railway industry but also benefit long distance ferries.

Did Tony get re-elected?

I've often thought that leftists aren't just mistaken about politics but tend to be incompetent generally. Consider Scotland's two main newspapers. The Scotsman is fairly sound on politics and economics although there are some columnists with whom I rarely agree. Its website is excellent despite readers having to pay for access to some sections. The Glasgow Herald on the other hand is almost entirely written by collectivists who display absolutely no understanding of the basic facts of economics. Rather like Glasgow's politicians, come to think of it.

Does this explain why the Herald's website still displays the following options:

Home
News
Election 2005
Sport
Business
Politics
Features
Going Out

Election 2005! Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the election held way back in May? If the folk at the Herald give me access to their site I'll remove the offending link (which doesn't go anywhere anyway). My fee will be reasonably affordable.

Spies in the City

OK, so I've been offline for a few days so let's start with something rather serious. Readers will no doubt be aware that F&W maintains a office in my modest penthouse overlooking Central Park and, consequently, yours truly now has an American driving license. Imagine my shock when I discovered that details of US licenses are now available online. It's all to do with "security" apparently. Simply enter: David; Farrer; New York (state) and New York (city). Then click. Shocking, isn't it?

Into the body of the blogosphere

Thanks to The Bag of Bears for alerting me to Kirk Elder's new blog.

Letter to the editor

I have a letter in today's Scotsman.

Andrew Duffin ...

... has a letter in today's Scotsman.

A reader's birthday

Three years ago today Craig Murray made this speech.

He started with this observation:

I am most happy to be here today to join in Freedom House's Open House. This is a welcome addition to the resources available to the community which is working to improve basic human rights here in Uzbekistan. The organisers are to be congratulated on the initiative, as are the US government for their assistance with finance.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am a Scot, and proud of my race. Our national poet, Robert Burns, notes in his great poem "The De'il's awa' wi' the Exciseman" that "Whisky and Liberty gang the gither", which for those whose Scots is a wee bit rusty means "Whisky and Liberty go together". Well we all know how difficult it is to find real whisky in Tashkent. It does exist, but mostly on diplomatic premises. There is still a lot of wisdom in old Robert.

I hope that Craig enjoys a dram or two on his birthday today.

(I imagine that he'd have been fully familiar with this sort of thing during his former employment.)

Facing the abyss

David has written about Scotland's amazingly high dependence on state spending.

I decided to conduct a little survey of my own using last Friday's Scotsman, which contains the regular weekly recruitment supplement. As far as I could tell the paper was advertising 62 private sector vacancies, 25 with "charities" and 102 in the public sector. Sometimes it's not completely clear exactly how many jobs are on offer by each organisation but I think that my analysis is pretty accurate. I know that many if not most of the "charities" are predominantly financed by the taxpayer and should probably be included with other public sector jobs. Even if we discount that, only 38% of the advertised jobs are with private companies. We should also note that about half of the private sector opportunities are in low-paying roles like bar work, catering, cleaning and hair styling. No doubt the government jobs come complete with guaranteed, inflation-linked pensions and the adverts often state working hours down to the nearest 30 minutes!

We should also note that the Lothian area (the heartland of the Scotsman's circulation) is the second lowest in terms of dependency on the public sector scoring a mere 39%.

Whereas:

In Argyll and Clyde, 76% of the economy is generated from the state.

So while 39% of Lothian's current economic activity is in the state sector, only 38% of the jobs being advertised are not with the government. The percentage of advertised private vacancies is probably even less when we consider all those so-called charity jobs.

I am forced to conclude that the outlook is exceedingly bleak. God knows what the percentages would be in somewhere like Argyll and Clyde. Clearly this can't continue. The only question is whether a future government will cut off the funding before complete bankruptcy sets in.

The wonders of capitalism

I received this information by e-mail a few minutes ago:

Tracking summary Current Status With delivery courier. Get delivery notification Sign up for shipment notification Tracking history Help Date and Time Status Location 10/14/2005 8:10 am With delivery courier. Edinburgh, United Kingdom 10/13/2005 11:21 pm In transit. East Midlands, United Kingdom 10:22 pm Clearance processing complete. East Midlands, United Kingdom 9:53 pm On Hand. East Midlands, United Kingdom 9:30 am In transit. Wilmington, OH 7:48 am Transit through sort facility. Wilmington, OH 10/12/2005 6:18 pm Departing origin. Little Rock, AR 5:30 pm Picked Up by DHL. Shipper's Door Ship From: Ship To: Shipment Information: LAISSEZ FAIRE BOOKS Ship date: 10/12/2005 Little Rock, AR 722093187 Pieces: United States Total weight: 24 lbs Ship Type: Package Attention: Attention: Shipment Reference: LAISSEZ FAIRE BOOKS Service: International Express Special Service: Description: BOOKS Tracking detail provided by DHL: 10/14/2005, 12:45:57 am pt. Track new shipment Track new shipment

Wouldn't the government be able to organise this sort of thing more efficiently?

Adam Smith

Today's Scotsman contains a letter from Ellis Thorpe replying to an earlier one from Professor Gavin Kennedy:

Although no-one is suggesting the specific economic policies of the Reagan and Thatcher governments can be found in a classical text of the late 18th century, can it be denied that the drive to restore free market, nationally and internationally, to deregulate capital, labour and financial markets, to roll back the state, to privatise, cut public expenditure and taxes, is not justified by reference to Adam Smith?

I can only agree. Surely there is some link between the ideas of Adam Smith and the policies of Mr Reagan and Mrs Thatcher. That's not to say that those two leaders were fully consistent Smithites or that I agree with Mr Thorpe's apparent Marxism.

Professor Kennedy on the other hand is correct to criticise those students at Adam Smith College whose decision has made them an international laughing stock.

Now if the "Jennie Lee Students' Association" had based their objection to Adam Smith on this argument:

Adam Smith, contrary to general belief, was not the founder of modern economics. His defense of a labor theory of value, modified and continued by his Ricardian successors, shunted economics onto the wrong path,

thus leading to Marx's economics, I would have been highly impressed.

A tax-consumer speaks

How do these people ever get appointed?

A SENIOR education official last night hit out at plans to name and shame youngsters who are served with anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs).

Councillor the Rev Ewan Aitken, education spokesman for the local authority umbrella group COSLA, said any attempts to replicate such moves in Scotland would "demonise" young people and do nothing to improve the behaviour of those who break the law.

Councillor, it's not the ASBOs that "demonise" the recipients but their own actions. Not only that, people, old or young, who make the lives of others miserable should be stigmatised. As indeed should their misguided defenders.

On Peebles Bridge

We're all led to believe that roads and their related infrastructure must be provided by the state, aren't we? It wasn't always so as these photographs taken on the Tweed Bridge at Peebles demonstrate:

I'm rich!

How do I cash it all in?

Can I get paid in gold?
(Sorry, no General Motors shares accepted)

My blog is worth $107,827.14.
How much is your blog worth?

Students: don't you just love them?

I posted this in answer to DK's complaint about students and the Council Tax.

"…the fact that students pay no Council Tax”

Not true, DK. Some students pay no Council Tax.

A number of years after I moved to London I decided to study to become a Company Secretary. That’s a four-year course leading to one becoming somewhat like a mixture of accountant and lawyer. Guess what? I paid Council Tax throughout my study period because I was working at the same time. Getting up at 5.30 in the morning, studying at home, studying on the tube, studying during lunchtime, studying on the tube again, studying at home and, finally, going out for a pint or two, often accompanied by a law book. And I paid the cost of the course and the revision classes taken during my holidays. Some years later I decided to get the degree that I’d always wanted. By this time I was Finance Director of an ad agency and certainly couldn’t afford to give up the day job. So, again, I studied for four years at my own expense and in my spare time and eventually graduated with a First. Naturally I continued to pay Council Tax throughout this period as well as vast amounts of income tax to subsidise all those whingeing fulltime students.

I’ll probably have the last laugh. The more personable of today’s “students” may manage to get jobs as nannies or butlers for Shanghai entrepreneurs, but most of the others will be totally unemployable.

Just say "no" to the oil

I came across an article by Doug Casey in the October issue of Liberty.

Casey writes:

In any country, the level of prosperity is determined by things like the level of personal freedom, respect for property rights, integrity of civil institutions, and cultural attitudes in general. Contrary to popular opinion, a country's geography and resources have almost nothing to do with how wealthy it is. If anything, they tend to be counterproductive, acting more as inducements to theft and lethargy rather than enterprise and hard work.

I wrote along similar lines last month:

Owning lots of oil isn't necessarily a recipe for prosperity. Far more important is a culture that respects property rights and whose people admire and wish to emulate entrepreneurs. Sadly, that doesn't sound like Scotland, does it? Better to say, proudly, "It's Scotland's Adam Smith", rather than "It's Scotland's oil".

I want to consider the question of how a fiscally independent Scotland would structure its tax policy, a subject that may no longer be entirely hypothetical given that the traditionally unionist Scottish Conservatives and some media commenters are now openly advocating what's become known as "full fiscal freedom":

THE Scottish Tories are secretly exploring radical plans to give Holyrood control over a range of UK taxes, including stamp duty, excise duty and VAT, The Scotsman has learned.

Let's go back to those "resources" mentioned by Mr Casey.

I've never understood why so many people think that the UK government is entitled to tax North Sea oil but that a Scottish government wouldn't have the same right in the event of either complete national independence or under "full fiscal freedom" in a UK context. It's fairly straightforward really: the oil's in Scottish waters, even with the recent redrawing of the maritime boundary that only makes sense if you think that Dundee is in East Anglia. And if, under "full fiscal freedom", it wouldn't be "Scotland's Oil", whose would it be? Norway's?

But if we go back to Mr Casey's point, possession of "resources" could make a country worse off. So perhaps a radical Scottish government shouldn't want to lay claim to North Sea oil. Not only that, giving it to England, or Norway or even the Faeroe Islands could, under a Caseyian analysis, be considered a hostile act!

So who should get the oil? It's quite simple really. I contend that oil in the North Sea doesn't belong to any government - Scottish, English, British or Norwegian - and that no one has the right to tax it. The oil belongs to those who discovered it and mixed their labour with it. In other words, it's Shell's oil, and BP's oil, and Exxon's oil.

If the Tories want to be really radical they should announce that a fiscally independent Scotland would give the oil back to its rightful owners and finance what little state expenditure that they could justify (if any) with a low flat tax, preferably on sales rather than income. Such a policy would make Scotland the most prosperous place in the world.

As requested by Andrew Duffin

View of the main collection:

(CLICK to enlarge)

Books
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

A close-up:

Books
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

Another close-up:

Books
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

This last one was uploaded from my Desktop without being first posted on to Flickr.

Vote Jenkins

I wrote a similar piece about this some while ago but haven’t yet found the link. The latest copy of a UK-wide professional journal arrived today and I’ve done another audit of the advertised vacancies. There are 65 altogether. Of these, 40 are in London and a further 15 are elsewhere in the Home Counties. Four are in the Bristol/Bath area and two are in Birmingham. One is in the “Northwest”, and I expect that means Manchester and not Sutherland. If you want to avoid contributing to the Za-NuLabour regime you may consider the jobs in Bermuda, Kuwait or the Cayman Islands.

So, some 89% of the UK vacancies are in the London area and 95% of them are in southern England. All are in the southern half of Britain. I submit that this would not be the situation in any comparable country.

I also submit that this state of affairs is the great secret of British public life. And I say “public” because I don’t believe for a moment that this southern concentration of jobs – almost all in the private sector – is the result of market forces. As far as I know the only mainstream journalists who have written about this are George Kerevan of the Scotsman and Simon Jenkins in the Times.

So, if this concentration of highly paid positions in one small part of the country isn’t to do with market forces, what’s going on here? I believe that we must never lose sight of the amazing concentration of government power in the British capital that is unparalleled elsewhere in the western world. In an economy that is so much influenced by government decisions, depredations and regulations, it’s only natural for almost all of the head offices of our largest companies to be near to the seat of power. This results in an overheated southeast with much of the rest of the country relying on state handouts.

The solution of course is to privatise almost all functions of government thus removing any incentive for companies to locate near the capital city.

In the meantime though I believe that Simon Jenkins has seen the way forward and I thoroughly recommend this article in which he proposes a plan that would sweep the Conservatives back into power. As long as they don’t mention social justice of course.

The West Wing of the Blog House

Bill Cameron has asked to see this, so here it is:

May I suggest that we see Arthur's and also David's?

Bring on the next idiot

On the way to New Lanark I heard the news reports on the Conservative leadership campaign. Naively I had hoped that David Davis might have something to offer. Within seconds of speaking he was going on about something called "social justice". Good grief. Hasn't the man read any Hayek?

The sheeple have spoken

And I had guessed correctly.

On Thursday I went on another little tour to test my new digital SLR. I headed west to Livingston, half expecting to get a world exclusive photograph of Mr Devine being strung up by an angry mob. Surely no one would vote Labour on the day that all the newspapers were full of the Walter Wolfgang affair. But I saw no sign of any revolutionary gatherings and, sadly, Livingston (and Cathcart) voted Labour yet again. Eventually I ended up at New Lanark, which seemed much larger than I remember from my previous visit many years ago.

(CLICK photos to enlarge)

New Lanark - 29th September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

The quality of conservation at the site is extremely impressive:

New Lanark - 29th September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

David Dale and Robert Owen created something at New Lanark that was widely admired in the Labour movement but I think that those gentlemen would have been shocked and outraged had they been able to see the party rally in Brighton.

Some time ago I said that the British police had become "the paramilitary wing of the Guardian newspaper". I meant that they were more interested in imposing political correctness than in catching actual criminals. Now it's far worse. The police increasingly look like the paramilitary wing of the Labour party. God help us all: Europe has seen this sort of thing before.

You couldn't make it up (part 9,497)

I have worked in the advertising and public relations industries and just can't imagine this sort of thing being tolerated by a private client:

IT WAS meant to be a showcase for all that is good and worthy in the Scottish Parliament, but Holyrood's glossy annual report became the subject of ridicule when it was published yesterday - because it prominently features two former MSPs who have left the parliament in disgrace.

Embarrassed officials were forced to explain why they printed pictures of Lord Watson of Invergowrie and Keith Raffan, both of whom left the parliament following scandals.

It's not as if there wasn't enough time to avoid this stupidity:

The annual report was printed over the summer, a considerable time after Mr Raffan had left and at least six months after Watson had been charged with wilful fire-raising at a political awards dinner.

But officials saw no need to alter their plans and produced the report regardless.

The "officials" who have written the report say that they don't want to "air-brush history". There's absolutely no danger of the Scottish people forgetting about the two politicians concerned. But an annual report is normally designed to promote the good news about the organisation in question. Can one imagine a PR company proposing a report that included a photograph of an ex-employee now serving time for fire-raising at a hotel that had been occupied by his colleagues? The officials in question should meet the same fate as would have rapidly overtaken a private PR company that acted in this way.

Incidentally, why are around 29% of the reports being published in Gaelic, a language spoken by about 1% of the population?

Historical fashion

My wife and I are attending the first session of this course tonight.

I was wondering if we should wear T-shirts carrying this message.

The weekend (Part 2)

Zooming in on the last of the Muirkirk signs we see this:

Muirkirk - 24 September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

Over three hundred years ago people in Scotland were giving their lives for "... the Independence of Parliament from the excessive and arbitrary power of Kings". The problem we face now isn't to be found in the Monarchy. It's in the excessive and arbitrary power of Parliament itself, or rather in an Executive that ignores our rights and is in the hands of a Gramscian enemy class that the Covenanters would have understood only too well. What would they make of those sheeple today who don't give a damn for their rights as long as the benefits keep flowing?

On Sunday morning's drive I passed through the constituency of the late Robin Cook. The only signs of electioneering were posters from the Greens and the Labour party. No doubt Mr Devine will be sent to Westminster by a mindless public that doesn't understand that "There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch."

Unless you're a gull of course:

Kirkliston - 25 September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

The weekend (Part 1)

Way back in 1984 I bought my first property – a flat in Ealing. The London flat was sold in 2002 when we finally made the move to our present home in Edinburgh. You may imagine the sense of dread I had a few weeks ago when I received a letter from the London Borough of Ealing. My God, it’s something to do with the Council Tax, I thought. Maybe the new owner hadn’t coughed up and somehow I was liable. Well, it was about the Council Tax but it turned out that a subsequent resident of the old abode had successfully appealed against the tax banding and, consequently, I was entitled to a sizable rebate for most of my period of ownership. I must say that I was very impressed that the LBE had sought me out in this way and I therefore decided that here was a sign that I should now invest the proceeds in a digital SLR camera.

Last Sunday we went on a trip to Haddington to try out the new machine. Sadly, the weather was somewhat cloudy and windy and I had a bit of a cold.

Yesterday I went over to Ayrshire, but I had neglected to establish that the west coast forecast didn’t include the sun that was shining brightly in Edinburgh. After taking a few shots in a murky Ayr I decided it was time for a pint and ended up in this establishment:

Ayr - 24 September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

For those of who don’t know, Ayrshire is Covenanting country. That means that locals tend to be of the Rangers persuasion, as I had noticed on previous pub visits when the Huns were on TV. (I vaguely recall a friend at Ayr Academy who supported Celtic and who was considered odd in the extreme.) Anyway, I had completely forgotten that Rangers were playing Hearts on Saturday, and yes the game was on TV in the Black Bull. I began to think that I should hide my copy of the Scotsman in case I was outed as a Jambo. Sure enough, a local asked me which team I supported. "Kilmarnock", I blurted out, quite forgetting that Killie is the deadly enemy of Ayr United. Fortunately it turned out that the “local” was really a tourist and was actually from Kilmarnock himself – all of ten miles away. Conviviality ensued.

After consuming the customary fish supper I set off back to the East Coast. While passing through the rather rundown mining village of Muirkirk I noticed this sign and pulled over:

Muirkirk - 24 September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

I must say that I have a soft spot for the Covenanters and would like someday to visit the various battlefields of that period.

Here are the signs on the monument at the west end of Muirkirk. (CLICK photos to enlarge):

Muirkirk - 24 September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

Muirkirk - 24 September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

Muirkirk - 24 September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

Muirkirk - 24 September 2005
Originally uploaded by David Farrer.