Private Places

There's been a bit of a row concerning Multrees Walk in the centre of Edinburgh:

Most people would probably agree that Multrees Walk is fairly attractive public space. There's no traffic, it has a high quality 'retail experience', there's a cafe where you can sit outside and watch life go by. Some of the shops have better than average window displays. Just don't try and take a photo of it, as overzealous security guards might start threatening you.

The planned demonstration by photographers took place today:

A flashmob of photographers descended on Multrees Walk today to protest against the treatment of Stefan Karpa, who was escorted off the exclusive shopping street by security guards last week.

I am both a libertarian and a keen photographer. So what are my views on this?

First, if Multrees Walk is indeed private property (though there seems to be some doubt) then the owners have every right to set whatever rules they like for those entering their property. Just as one does with one's own house.

Whether such rules are sensible or not is quite another matter. In my view, banning photography in property that is open for the public to enter at will is both stupid and offensive in the extreme. Especially in a city dependent on tourism. But the proper response is not to say that "there ought to be a law against it" but rather to take action in the free market against those initiating such rules.

I would suggest something like writing polite letters to the occupiers of the shops in Multrees Walk letting them know that one will boycott their businesses so long as this rule remains in place. Perhaps leaflets should be handed out to visiting camera-carrying tourists giving them a friendly warning about Multrees Walk's bizarre rules.

But there is another angle to this. The only alternative to privately owned streets is state owned streets. Whereas the owners of Multrees Walk would almost certainly capitulate to a vigorous (and well-deserved) campaign that threatened their profits, the state faces no such threat. A year or so ago we read about policemen in London interrogating visiting tourists who had been seen photographing red buses and Christmas decorations. The British photographic press has been up in arms about police persecution of photographers in publicly owned spaces for ages.

The whole point about private property is that it allows for all sorts of competing rules concerning interactions with non-owners. In a regime of totally privately owned streets I'd have little doubt that the owners of Multrees Walk would quickly realise that a speedy route to the bankruptcy court would be to annoy significant numbers of their tenants' customers. There is no such guarantee with a monopoly state owner.

There's been a merger...

Well, not yet anyway. But they may be coming:

In a speech to the SNP conference in Perth, Mr Salmond said he would put "bobbies before boundaries". He did not indicate the scale of the reduction, but The Scotsman understands ministers are looking at cutting Scotland's eight police forces to three or four.

Normally I'm all in favour of cutting public expenditure. And I mean cutting, not just slowing down the rate of increase as proposed by the UK government.

But, ignoring the very good libertarian case for anarcho-capitalism, the only justification for the state is to protect us against aggressors. That means limiting the state to providing the military (to protect us from foreign aggressors), the police (to protect us from domestic aggressors), and a court system to judge those accused and order appropriate restitution.

It's clear that the British police no longer see their role as one of protecting the citizen. Rather, they have become the paramilitary wing of the Guardian newspaper. (*)

I am not at all comfortable with the creation of larger and larger police forces that would inevitably become more remote from the people they are meant to serve. I suspect that we would be better off with a greater number of localised forces. Proper co-ordination would be essential of course. As would directly-elected Chief Constables. If this turned out to cost a bit more than the current arrangements the necessary cash would be available after the first few hours of real libertarian cuts...

(*) I coined this excellent phrase some years ago. I would now add "and the BBC".

Yet another Bastiat alert

Here we go again

THE new boss of Scotland's national tourism agency has called for the return of public funding to help attract new airlines to Capital.

In his first interview since being appointed chief executive of VisitScotland last month, Malcolm Roughead said that the route development fund (RDF) could help entice new airlines to Edinburgh Airport and bring the city links to the Middle East, Asia and Canada.

I'm sure that "funding" could induce more air services to Edinburgh. If Mr Roughead "funds" me enough I'll even start my own airline and operate to Dubai, Dundee and all points between.

But what we're talking about here is the use of taxpayers' money. Why should taxpayers be made to pay for air services, nice though they may be? What alternative public spending would be cut to keep to budget? (Don't laugh!) Above all, is it not the case that a Scotland in which the producing class kept all or most of its money would be so prosperous that airlines would come here without being bribed?

Roll out the barrel

I took this photo in Jerez de la Frontera:

P1020581 - 2010-09-20 at 09-22-06
Originally uploaded by David Farrer

The young man who showed us round the Bodega didn't know who Edward Heath was. I explained that Mr Heath was a lifelong tax consumer and was no longer with us. As a British taxpayer it only seemed right that I should be given the barrel...

Sadly this was not to be.

Responsibility

A "business" doesn't owe responsibility to anyone. How could it? Only people have responsibilities.

And the responsibility of the directors of a business is to its shareholders, not to the "community". The whole concept of "corporate social responsibility" is a fraud on the shareholders who own companies. I suppose that one could argue that given the irrational climate in which we live some short-term minded company directors might think it's necessary to go along with this pernicious doctrine.

It seems so:

A study of the CSR policies of 12 of Scotland’s largest listed companies, found that spending year on year on corporate good citizenship increased in defiance of the tough economic conditions. They included Standard Life (+12%), Weir Group (+8%) and Wood Group (+5%), even though the latter two companies were found to be among the least active in the area relative to their size. Cairn Energy, Alliance Trust, Aberdeen Asset Management and Stagecoach all also claimed to have maintained or increased spending. This came at a time when spending on advertising in the UK plunged, down 12% between 2008 and 2009.

And how about this:

Jane Wood, chief executive of charity Scottish Business in the Community, said the findings were reflected across the board. She said: “Around 70% of chief executives say the recession has resulted in sustainability becoming more important.”

But directors owe a long-term responsibility to shareholders and it's incumbent upon them to speak out against the CSR fraud. Sustainability should always be a priority for company directors whether there's a recession or not.

Actually, I suspect that we are seeing the first stages of a great depression but let that pass for the moment.

What gives a business sustainability is not pandering to CSR but a resolute defence of property rights. Let's hear it.

Holiday photos

Photos of our recent trip are here:

Ghent

Honfleur

La Coruna

Porto

Lisbon

Algarve

Cadiz

Jerez

Melilla

Barcelona

10:10

Mrs F&W came up with an excellent point about Splattergate last night.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if one of the first uses of the Equality Act were to be someone working for one of the 10:10 sponsors, O2 for example, to sue their employer for the terrible upset caused by being associated with the Ecofascists?

Pass the port

We've been away on holiday.

To start posting again, here's a photo of the new F&W cellar:

P1020513 - 2010-09-17 at 11-56-45
Originally uploaded by David Farrer

Cheers

P1020518 - 2010-09-17 at 12-18-23
Originally uploaded by David Farrer

The Mandarin Windfall Tax

It's payout time again:

A CULL of senior managers at Scotland's biggest city council will result in 103 executives each receiving £128,000 in pay-offs and payments to their pension funds, it emerged yesterday.

The Council claims that these payoffs will save money in the long run. Perhaps, but the terms are outrageous:

About 80 per cent of each package will go towards reimbursing managers' pension funds for the costs of early retirement, with the remainder being spent on giving them the equivalent of 30 weeks' salary. The deal does not apply to the local authority's 5,000 teachers.

The real question is why such contracts were signed up in the first place.

And it's not just Glasgow Council that's got far too many overpaid staff. Have a look at this:

Today, The Slog begins a campaign to try and unearth why nearly half of everything Britain owes is down to public sector and civil service pension liabilities - and how this came to be presented as a difference of opinion between those calculating the liability....whereas in fact there seems to have been a deliberate attempt to hide the pension amounts being paid to civil servants....especially senior Mandarins

So what should be done?

Given that the employment contracts are probably watertight I propose that the Chancellor introduce an emergency Mandarin Windfall Tax. After all, that's what happened to bankers. And the bankers were less guilty: they acted rationally given that they operated in a fractional reserve monetary system put into place by the mandarins themselves. And in so far as one might argue that the bankers should have seen through fractional reserve banking, they were "educated" at universities controlled by those very same mandarins.

Bastiat Alert

Yes, here's yet another one:

The Scottish government's exports agency has said it generated more than £500m to Scotland's economy last year.

Scottish Development International (SDI) said it had also managed to secure 5,500 jobs despite the global recession

I can just about understand why SDI itself doesn't ask the obvious question: Just how many jobs would have generated had the taxpayer kept his own money and chosen his own investments?

But why didn't the BBC ask? Surely not because the BBC's also funded by the taxpayer?

Book Festival - the final days

Other events that I went to were: Ewen Cameron and Christopher Whatley

Alexander McCall Smith

Iain Dale and others

Robert McCrum

Doug Saunders

And last but not least:

Frederick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth
Originally uploaded by David Farrer

After all that it was time for a bevvy in a nearby hostelry:

Mathers Bar
Originally uploaded by David Farrer

The new Los Angeles Tram System

A new (government) school in LA is going to cost a modest $578,000,000.

For that kind of money they could get a new tram system, although it probably wouldn't get as far as the port...

According to this report:

The Los Angeles Unified School District spent $29,780 per student in fiscal year 2007-08. That’s way above the $10,000 as advertised by the school district, and as used in most studies.

For that kind of money they could all be sent to Fettes!

After India

I see that Denmark has qualified for British foreign aid.

Heather Brooke

The enemy of The Silent State

Heather Brooke
Originally uploaded by David Farrer

Austrian Economics

Or real economics as I would put it.

Here is a PDF version of Eamonn Butler's recent introduction.

Obliquity

This morning I heard John Kay talking about Obliquity – how our goals are best pursued indirectly. I'd heard Kay speak in Edinburgh a couple of times before and this was a fascinating session.

Kay had once served as a director of the Halifax Building Society who voted in favour of demutualisation. This resulted in Kay's receiving an e-mail saying: "Now we know who caused the financial crisis"!

Book Festival on Thursday

On Thursday morning we went along to hear David Kynaston talking about his new book Family Britain 1951 - 1957. The previous book in this series was Austerity Britain 1945 - 1951.

This was an enjoyable session, especially for those of us who (just) remember the fifties. Unsurprisingly, Kynaston was in "on the one hand and on the other hand" mode. Just as I was taught to say in essays:

On the one hand Marx said ...... and on the other hand Rothbard said....

I did get away with that!

Back to Kynaston. On the one hand people were perhaps too repressed in the fifties but on the other hand crime was very low indeed. I think that most of the audience were more interested in how to get back to an era of low crime without necessarily agreeing that they had been particularly repressed back in the fifties.

Nice work if you can get it

There's been a big row over high "pay and perks" going to executives at the taxpayer-funded Scottish Enterprise (sic).

Rightly, some MSPs are speaking out:

Mr Park said: “These sums are absolutely astonishing. Most public-sector employees are being told that salary increases will be pegged at 1% but it appears there are different rules for those at the top.

“It is time the Scottish Government told these people to start living in the real world.”

Fair enough, but who exactly is this John Park? He is a Labour MSP!

Calling for a government to start living in the real world!

Truly, you couldn't make it up.

No surprise here

I see that the UK's favourite university is a private one!

Badger's Lair

I went along to hear Alistair Darling's much reported and pre-reported speech last night:

The Scotsman revealed yesterday that Mr Darling was preparing to launch a thinly-veiled attack on former prime minister Gordon Brown, saying Labour lost the General Election because it ignored the deficit.

Actually, despite being given several opportunities I didn't reckon that Darling was very critical of Brown at all.

The Donald Dewar Lecture was chaired by BBC Scotland's Brian Taylor who introduced Darling as a friend. Now, Taylor's a good chap and is probably a friend of most of our leading politicians. But "BBC Scotland journalist a friend of Scottish Labour politician" - not exactly the revelation of the week...

Darling was convinced that he'd done a good job and I accept that he was probably more competent than any alternative Labour chancellor, including his predecessor. But I heard no evidence of any real understanding of the nature of the economic crisis.

We heard some of the usual Labour tricks. Cutting government expenditure was "taking money out of the economy". I hoped in vain for Taylor to pick up on that Brownism. But, to be fair, it took David Cameron weeks to catch on to that one. Darling talked about Labour's plan to halve the deficit in five years. How many others in the audience realised that such a policy would mean that total debt would still be rising? As indeed it is under the current government.

Clearly there are no Austrian School economists in the Treasury, as Darling told us that no one saw the crisis coming. Actually, I think he quietly corrected that to "almost no one." Perhaps he saw this constituent lurking in the back corner...

Darling told us that the banks had made many mistakes. Often, they didn't know what sort of assets they were buying. He's right there of course. But he was wrong in saying that the British banks had avoided the subprime mess that hit the US ones. Northern Rock was invested in subprime mortgages and the big British banks bought the bulk pre-packaged portfolios of subprime from the American banks.

The most worrying thing was the total lack of any questioning as to why the banks were able to act so recklessly. The idea that the fundamentals of the very monetary system itself are wrong has clearly never entered Mr Darling's head. But he's not alone in that. We'll keep on going through these financial crises until we learn the lesson.

An extraordinary life

On Monday morning I went along to hear a 90-year-old Scottish pensioner by the name of Alistair Urquhart.

Mr Urquhart has had an interesting life.

As a young man he lived in Aberdeen and was keen on ballroom dancing. In September 1939 he was conscripted into the Gordon Highlanders. They sent him to Singapore where the officers assured everyone that they were safe from the Japanese. Urquhart won a medal for ballroom dancing but was told by a fellow dancer who was in the Signals Corp that the Japanese were indeed a threat to the Lion City. And so it tuned out...

Urquhart was captured and made to march through Singapore seeing the severed heads of thousands of Chinese stuck on bamboo poles.

He was sent to work on the Burma railway. He helped build the Bridge over the River Kwai and cheered when it collapsed under the weight of the first train. The poor workmanship was deliberate. Punishment was meted out by the Korean guards. The Japanese punished the Koreans. The film was crap.

Eventually Urquhart was sent to Japan on a prison ship. Many prisoners died in the over-heated hold just as others had done on the way to the Burma railway. But the prison ship was torpedoed by a US Navy vessel - they had no idea that prisoners were on board. For a while he drifted on a cork life raft alongside a Japanese officer in full regalia.

Eventually a fishing boat rescued Urquhart. He was taken to the mainland to work in the fields outside a major Japanese city. One day Urquhart saw a lone US bomber flying overhead. Suddenly there was a flash of light and a hot wind. The Japanese guards started to run away. The city was Nagasaki...

The survivors were rescued but made to sign affidavits keeping secret the existence of the atomic bomb. But Urquhart "signed with his left hand"!

Arriving in the US, the survivors got a hero's welcome. At Southampton it was a one-way ticket to Aberdeen. Some things don't change.

At the end of the session Urquhart was asked about "this ballroom dancing thing". He still dances four times a week. Why? "It keeps us old folks from causing trouble out on the streets."

And here he is:

Edinburgh International Book Festival

We went to our first event on Sunday morning. Ferdinand Mount was talking about his new book:

Full Circle: How the Classical World Came Back to Us, is a quietly passionate account of how our modern mindsets and practices are much closer to those of the ancient Greeks and Romans than we might realise.

An enjoyable session. Mrs F&W had already started the book and I expect to read it soon.

Time ran out before I could ask my planned question: "Your ex-boss, Mrs Thatcher, was both a scientist and a war leader. Would she have been more at home in ancient Greece or ancient Rome?"

Forget debits and credits - blame Thatcher

Brian Monteith has this article in Think Scotland and also in today's Scotsman.

Here's an extract:

When Thatcher came to power in 1979 some 67 per cent of Scottish homes were rented, nearly all of them from the state, while 33 per cent of Scottish homes were owned. By 1997 the figures were reversed and the rented sector had a new and growing private sector from buy-to-let owners.

The change was not just about creating the property owning democracy as a buttress against socialism, it was about enriching peoples' lives by giving them an asset against which they could borrow, an asset that could act as a pension fund and provide an inheritance that could help families accumulate and retain their wealth.

The only thing I'd disagree with is that the houses were "given".

Blaming everything on "Thatcher" is a copout used by almost all Scottish politicians. It's a great pity that the SNP government seems to be quite unconcerned with financial reality. Ring fencing NHS expenditure is madness and bodes ill should Ms Sturgeon becomes the next SNP leader. But it's not just her, is it? Is there no one in the SNP who has an ounce of business or financial sense? Surely John Swinney cares about how he'll be seen by history.

Orkney

St Margaret's Hope
Originally uploaded by David Farrer

Italian Chapel
Originally uploaded by David Farrer

Ring of Brodgar
Originally uploaded by David Farrer

Lots more photos are here.