The art of military deception was the subject of Nick Rankin's wonderful presentation this afternoon. We heard it all, from the invention of camouflage to Monty's Double. I asked Rankin whether he thought that deception was being undertaken in Afghanistan. He thought it likely but perhaps not as much as should be done. Of course, he'd have to have killed the entire audience if he'd revealed the full story...
I am very much looking forward to reading the book.
Tom Parker Bowles gave us an excellent talk, which was chaired by Al Senter, a book festival regular who was clearly in his element hearing about food. As indeed were we all.
TPB came up to the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar (yes, Senter mentioned it) to tell us about his new book Full English:
I decided to find out the truth about English food, how it evolved and what went wrong. Girding my belly and sharpening my knife, I would eat my way round the country to find out whether we are at the dawn of a renaissance in English food. Or whether we, a nation eternally uninterested in what we eat, have left it too late.And that's just what we were served. A pleasant change from the dismal science.
During questions I suggested that there was an earlier stage zero and that that was the critical one. I meant of course the creation of the fresh fiat money that drives the artificial boom and is the ultimate cause of the inevitable bust. Both authors agreed, and Elliott told the audience that there were only three consistent explanations for the crisis: the Green one, the Marxist one and the Austrian one. It wasn't entirely clear that the man from the Guardian wasn't a closet Austrian...
Chairman Iain Macwhirter of the Herald and the Rector of Edinburgh University said to me that the abolition of well-established fractional reserve banking would lead to deflation. There wasn't time for me to explain quickly to a large audience that moderate deflation was a good thing but I did point out that FRB had led to numerous depressions and that only the Austrians had forecast the one that started in 1929. One never knows: the next Mises may have sitting in the audience!
Turner told us that he was the preferred economist of the Socialist Workers Party. Some of what he had to say was interesting, for example his belief that the monetary expansion in the west was created deliberately to make workers feel happy with their house prices going up at a time when their real wages were facing downward pressure from China and India. What was depressing was the impression I got that most of this Anglo-Scottish audience had no alternative answers to the challenge from the green and red juggernaut.
First off on Saturday was Daniel Depp, brother of the more famous Johnny. This wasn't a particularly interesting talk, but Mrs F&W bought the book and no doubt I'll get round to reading it sometime.
Later on I heard Scottish crime writers Allan Guthrie and Stuart MacBride in a packed Peppers Theatre. This was a lively event chaired by the ever-ebullient Brian Taylor of BBC Scotland. Taylor was almost late as he had been delayed by Edinburgh's tramworks (sic). Guthrie was suitably somber as he read from his new prison novel Slammer. MacBride gave us an entertaining reading, swearing and singing performance. Aberdeen is the setting for MacBride's crime novels and apparently the city isn't as anti-Polish as claimed by some newspapers. Disconcertingly, the extremely theatrical MacBride's physical appearance reminded me of a colleague who is considerably more taciturn.
Steve Glover's piece seems to be connected with the International Television Festival. Let's start here:
But here, unlike most European countries, there's no real difference between the two likely future governmentsOK. So far so good. But here's the next bit:
Each passionately subscribes to a form of free market militancy that seems uniquely ill-chosen for the exigencies of the current recession. We're left with a choice between two leaders, each of whom belongs, in world economic terms, to the same faction of the free market TalebanCan any sentient person think that Britain's two main parties are wedded to the free market? Since 1997 Labour has waged a relentless attack on the freedoms of the British public. The "free market" is simply freedom in action. It's what people do when the government doesn't step in and control things. Just because Labour has sweetheart deals with certain private companies doesn't mean that we enjoy a free market. Just the opposite in fact. And as for the Conservatives, one only needs to see how scared they are of any discussion about the NHS. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives (not to mention the bizarrely named "Liberal" Democrats) have any understanding of what a free market means.
Nor has Mr Glover.
But it gets worse:
The real political power, though, lies not in erasing a conversation but in not allowing it to take place at all. The unlikely father of this technique is surely the Austrian aristocrat and economist Friedrich August Von Hayek. If you've never heard of him, you've seen more than enough of his ideas on television.Well I have indeed heard of Hayek, and, unlike Mr Glover I suspect, I met Hayek, and I have read all of his books. But I don't recall hearing about Hayek's career as a television producer...
Here's the next bit:
In common with many intellectuals between the wars, Hayek condemned the rise of the new Nazi state. What was unique about his critique was that he felt the Nazis were too left-wing, accusing them of socialism by other means.Give us a break! Here's a clue Mr Glover: Nazi means National Socialist.
Glover continues:
Hayek, having endured decades of rejection by the political and academic elites as, well, frankly, a headbanger, found a saviour for his theory of monetarism in General Pinochet of Chile, but Pinochet's initiation of the idea resulted in economic catastrophe.Not quite. Pinochet adopted the "monetarist" policies of Milton Friedman, not Hayek's theories. The term "monetarism" is associated with Friedman's Chicago School of Economics, not with the very different Hayekian Austrian School. Does Glover understand the difference? Besides, what "economic catastrophe" happened in Chile anyway?
Then we get this:
Hayek argued that all western civilisation as we know it advanced from the ownership of private property. This is an impressive and persuasive thesis. Indeed, the only thing it lacks is any evidence whatsoever to support it."Persuasive" but without evidence! Look around the world Mr Glover.
Here's the next bit:
Nevertheless, its assumptions underlie the Thatcherite slogan, "The Property Owner's Democracy". This is a phrase that becomes ever more oxymoronic the longer you think about it, but it inspired our hard-of-thinking television programmers to launch an entire genre.And what precisely has this to do with Hayek? Austrians believe in the abolition of state-created fiat money, which is the root cause of the property boom and bust.The intemperate rush into heavy debt, and subsequent tragedy fuelled by Location, Location, Location and its endless imitators that saturate our television schedules, has slowed.
Let's ignore Glover's Alabamaphobia * and his blaming Hayek for "Dragons' Den" and "Gok Wan", but consider Glover's odd theory that connects Hayek with neo-conservatism. I suspect that Glover doesn't have a clue about what the term neo-conservatism actually means. Nor does it seem likely that he's read one of Hayek's most famous essays: Why I am Not a Conservative.
(* America's third blackest state)
SCOTLAND'S police forces have issued a stark warning that they will have to cut the number of officers unless more funding can be found.One proposal is to charge for policing the likes of Orange Order parades:The largest police force, Strathclyde, is facing an "absolutely dire" funding gap of up to £34.7 million in 2010-11, it said. By 2013-14, it could hit £66m.
The cost, which cannot be recovered from such organisations as they are non-profit-making, was compared with the £60,000 bill for the three recent Take That concerts at Hampden Park in Glasgow, which the event promoters met.There's a certain degree of philosophical confusion here: everything humans do is designed to improve our lot. I fail to see why the police should differentiate between activities in which the expected benefit is expressed in monetary terms or otherwise.
In an anarcho-capitalist society things would be very straightforward. The owners of streets would decide the terms of entry, of use and of any additional charges that may be levied to police any unusual events that may be allowed.
But we don't live in an anarcho-capitalist society, unfortunately. In our state-controlled society I'm very uncomfortable with the police having powers to charge some people for their services and not others.
What we should be looking at is levying financial charges against those who break the law. Charge criminals (properly defined) with the costs of their arrest, trial and any necessary restitution to victims.
The document lists Obama's parents as Barack Hussein Obama and Stanley Ann Obama, formerly Stanley Ann Dunham, the birth date as Aug. 4, 1961, and the hospital of birth as Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya.Perhaps Obama is really British. If so, could he not take over as leader of the Labour party? As prime minister? Peter Mandelson is so last week...
Back in the 70's and 80's one read Rand, Mises, Rothbard and Hayek, went to a few meetings in smoke-filled rooms, and gradually realised that Libertarianism was correct, but also that there were only around ten of us in the country. Nowadays the Internet is what matters and the conversion rate is much faster. I still think the youngsters should read the libertarian classics though.
I urge all Libertarian Alliance supporters to adopt the LA Twibbon.
The Twibbon was invented 12 days ago by Storm Ideas Ltd, which is connected with Edinburgh web design company Storm ID Ltd. So far some 88,000 users have signed up.
(Disclosure: I do Storm's accounts!)
Some collections of household rubbish are running four weeks behind schedule in a dispute involving refuse collectors, according to a report.The local Tories have set up a facebook group about the awful mess the city's in just as the Festival season is starting. Fair enough, but what's the real problem here?Refuse collectors in Edinburgh have been working-to-rule for several weeks in protest at plans to change the way they are paid.
The real problem is ownership, or rather lack of it. The technology of keeping our streets clean isn't terribly difficult. I ask this: Just how many Edinburgh houses are rubbish-strewn inside? Not too many I suspect, especially the ones that are privately owned. And that gives a clue as to the answer. If the streets of Edinburgh were owned by hundreds or indeed thousands of competing private organisations, would not those profit-seeking owners have sorted out the mess earlier? The economic incentives under political ownership rarely work.
The Annual Conference of the Libertarian Alliance. In association with the Libertarian International.
National Liberal Club, One Whitehall Place, Westminster, London, SW1A 2HE
Saturday 24 October 2009
09.00am - 10.00am Registration and Refreshments
10.00am – 10.05am Introduction
Dr. Sean Gabb (Director, Libertarian Alliance)
10.05am – 10.45am
Session 1: The UK Libertarian Party: A Showcase Presentation
• Speaker: Chris Mounsey (Communications Director, UK Libertarian Party; Blogger, The Devils Kitchen)
• Moderator: Dr. Tim Evans (President, Libertarian Alliance)
10.45am – 11.15am Coffee Break
11.15am – 12.15pm Session 2: Thoughts on Objectivism and the Philosophy of Ayn Rand
• Speaker: Professor Tibor Machan (Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Auburn University; Research Fellow, Hoover Institution at Stanford University; Adjunct Scholar at the CATO Institute)
• Moderator: Dr. Sean Gabb (Director, Libertarian Alliance)
12.15pm – 2.00pm Free time for Lunch in the local area
2.00pm – 2.45pm Session 3 The State the Treasury is Now In:The Urgent Need for a Rediscovery of the Private Supply of Public Goods
• Speaker: Dr. Richard Wellings (Deputy Editorial Director, Institute of Economic Affairs)
• Moderator: David Farrer (Financial Director, Libertarian Alliance)
2.45pm – 3.30pm Session 4 A Libertarian Critique of the European Union
• Speaker: Josie Appleton (Convenor, Manifesto Club)
• Moderator: Christian Michel (European Director, Libertarian Alliance; President, Libertarian International)
3.30pm – 4.00pm Coffee Break
4.00pm – 5.00pm Session 5 A Libertarian Critique of Karl Popper • Speakers: Dr. Jan Lester (Libertarian Alliance)
• Moderator: Patrick Crozier (Transport Spokesman, Libertarian Alliance)
5.00pm – 7.30pm Free Time and Cash Bar
7.30pm – 10.30pm 2008 LA Annual Dinner and Awards
• Award 1 LA Liberty In Action Award 2009 • Award 2 LA Liberty in Theory Award 2009 • After Dinner Speaker
Sunday 25 October 2008
09.30am - 10.00am Refreshments
10.00am – 10.45am Session 6 A Classical Liberal Perspective on International Relations
• Speaker: Dr. Razeen Sally (Senior Lecturer, International Relations Department, London School of Economics) TBC
• Moderator: David Carr (Legal Affairs Spokesman, Libertarian Alliance)
10.45am – 11.30am Session 7 Thoughts of a Libertarian Muslim
• Speakers: Babek Farrahi (London Correspondent, Diplomatic Courier Magazine)
• Moderator: David McDonagh (Libertarian Alliance)
11.30am – 12.00pm Coffee Break
12.00pm - 12.45pm Session 8 A Personal Story: A Libertarian Perspective on Being Home Educated
• Speakers: Sophie Robbins (Home Educated Student; blogger, ValleyForge)
• Moderator: Nigel Meek (Editorial and Subscription Director, Libertarian Alliance)
12.45pm-2.15pm Free-Time for Lunch in the Local Area
2.15pm – 3.00pm Session 9 Tories and the Liberal Democrats: Prospects for a Classical Liberal Agenda
• Speakers: Shane Frith (Director, Progressive Vision)
Mark Littlewood (Campaign Director, Progressive Vision; Blogger, Liberal Vision)
• Moderator: David Davis (LA Blogmaster, Libertarian Alliance)
3.00pm – 3.45pm Session 10 Banking, Honest Money and the Free Market
• Speaker: Dr. Anthony J. Evans (Assistant Professor of Economics and Course Director, MEB London, ESCP Europe Business School; Academic Director, The Cobden Centre)
• Moderator: Christian Michel (European Director, Libertarian Alliance; President, Libertarian International)
3.45pm - 5.00pm Drinks Reception
disappointment.
But while the 73.5% of faculty votes comfortably beat the 66% threshold needed for change, only 71.6% of votes in the far bigger institute backed the proposal, short of the 75% needed.I'm pleased with this result. Scotland benefits tremendously from having its own civil society, including separate professional bodies.
What's particularly interesting is that the plan failed because the English body rejected the proposed merger whereas the Scottish body was in favour. It's not entirely fanciful to think that this outcome may portend similar developments in the wider political sphere...
The letter ends: "In summary the failure to foresee the timing, extent and severity of the crisis and to head it off, while it had many causes, was principally a failure of the collective imagination of many bright people, both in this country and internationally, to understand the risks to the system as a whole."But plenty of bright people had understood the risks and many of their followers had structured our investments accordingly.
The real question is this: Is it significant that the LSE experts are financed by the taxpayer and have a vested interest in the system that failed whereas the Mises chaps aren't and don't?
(Incidentally, I wonder which brand of expert will be appearing at George Watson's.)
Lindsay Paterson, professor of educational policy at Edinburgh University, described the idea of Scotland having the best education system was "one of the great education myths".I always thought that Professor Paterson was one of Scottish education's useful idiots, but it seems like he's seen the light.He said: "Unintentionally, a vast experiment that tests some of these claims has been conducted since 1997 as policies in the four nations have diverged since devolution.
"What is little realised, and never celebrated, is that the clear winner in this is the much- disdained England."
The problem with English education is not that it's too fragmented compared with what's available in Scotland but that it's not fragmented enough. And the same is therefore even more true up here. There is absolutely no reason why the state should be running any schools. If it must finance education, let it be by means of vouchers, although personally I don't think that the state should even go that far.
I'm quite favourable to the idea of independence, but Scotland does seem to have an inordinate number of foolish people when it comes to education. I'm glad to note that Professor Paterson may not be one of them.
A PRIMARY school has been told it has to pay for a professional joiner to hang children's artwork on the wall – because of health and safety fears.What's particularly amusing is the response of a local Green Party councillor:Pirniehall Primary in Pilton has been landed with the £350 bill after parents were warned it was against the rules to put up the pictures themselves
She said: "Nobody wants to expose children to unnecessary risks but this is taking things too far."Unnecessary risks! This is the same "Green" party that's so irresolutely opposed to clean nuclear energy and that wants to cover the country with spinning death traps.
LIKE THE square bottle and the slanting label, the Striding Man logo has helped make Johnnie Walker one of the world's most iconic drinks. The image of the cane-toting dandy struts above the factory where the whisky is bottled, a building that dominates Kilmarnock physically, emotionally and economically.There's a great deal of anger in the town:Last Wednesday the Striding Man lost his confident swagger. Diageo, the world's biggest drinks manufacturer, announced it was closing the plant with the loss of 700 jobs.
After almost 200 years, Johnnie Walker is striding away from his Ayrshire roots."
"I think the area is finished once they've gone. Unemployment is bad enough without this adding to it. What's Kilmarnock going to be like in two or three years? A ghost town."I have Kilmarnock connections.Outside, 67-year-old Sam Anderson, the head barman, and Andrew Davidson, his 74-year-old customer, go through the litany of the town's industrial dead. "Massey Fergusson, Saxone - gone," chants Sam.
"You used to be able to leave your job one day and walk into a new one the next. Now there's no jobs," says Andrew
My late father used to work for Saxone, mentioned above. He joined Saxone after leaving the army and we lived in Stewarton, a few miles to the north. That's where I started school. When I was six a transfer took us to Leeds for three years. A move back to the shoe company's HQ led to us renting in Kilmarnock for a few months before buying a house in Prestwick where I lived until I was eighteen. Then another transfer took us down to London.
My memories of Kilmarnock are a bit hazy. I do remember my father taking to a few games at the nearby Rugby Park and I still look out for Killie's results every week during the football season. As a director of a prominent local company my father got to know Willie Ross, the town's MP and later Secretary of State for Scotland. Despite being a staunch Tory my father used to enjoy a dram or two on the London sleeper with the hardline socialist politician. Naturally, they drank Johnnie Walker. And now it's gone.
I read an editorial somewhere that pointed out that the Diageo-owned Guinness HQ is Ireland's number one tourist destination and why not try the same thing in Kilmarnock? A good question.
But there are deeper issues.
For as long as I can remember Scotland has suffered from the departure or downsizing of well-known companies. Up here, we all know the importance of having locally-based employers. If Johnnie Walker had still been locally-owned would it have left Kilmarnock? Probably not.
But all those folk who are moaning about profit being put before people are missing the point. Profit is about people. Without profit there won't be any jobs, something hundreds of thousands of "public" sector workers will shortly find out.
The key to long-term prosperity is a well-educated population, free trade, respect for property rights, and the rule of law. That's the only way to build up a critical mass of home-based companies. Another thing needed is to strip away all that red tape that gives an artificial advantage to big companies like Diageo. Few Scottish politicians understand this, or if they do they're afraid to say so.
What Kilmarnock needs is an outward-looking population that's as well-educated as any in the world. Somehow I think that my father and Willie Ross might have agreed on that.
Some people are much easier to deal with. I bought a new Hyundai Getz in September 2004 and it's been an excellent purchase. However, we had a bit of a scare last Sunday evening at Kyle of Lochalsh. I couldn't get the petrol cover to open. The garage attendant, another motorist and Mrs F&W had a go and eventually Mrs F&W succeeded. I filled the car right up to the top and we got back home on Monday with the tank more than half full but with the cover out of order again. At 8.30 this morning I took the car into Archer's of Edinburgh, the local Hyundai dealership. I was pleasantly surprised to be told that the work would be done immediately and that I may as well wait. Sure enough, by 9.30 the car was returned to me in full working order. Here's the non-Demon bit: there was no charge as it was covered by Hyundai's 5 year warranty policy and the car had been washed.
Way to go.
(UPDATE: Demon is refunding the £25 router cost plus £35 in respect of phone calls)
