A libertarian returns to Scotland

"Freedom and Whisky gang thegither"

- Robert Burns

My other blog:
Scottish Clouds

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We are Wardog

 

I am taking this opportunity to link to Bill Cameron's post on the Wardog affair. Non-Scottish readers will no doubt be asking: "What Wardog affair?"

Here's Bill:

... his final message indicates that he has been going through a rough time and has had various pressures exerted upon him which he says have left him with no alternative but to cease blogging. All his earlier articles have now been removed, as well as all his links, etc.

Wardog was a pro-SNP blogger who has fallen foul of Scotland's pro-Labour media establishment. Although Wardog's blog has now been deleted, I was able to retrieve this from my newsreader:

This week's flurry of excitement over a few posts has led to my decision to end this blog.

I've been contemplating it for a wee while now, as in common with others, I find maintaining a regular posting cycle conflicts with my life & work and today's shenanigans has effectively put the nail in this particular coffin.

It's been fun, I've enjoyed the debate, argument, humour and characters that inhabit the Scottish political blogosphere but when I'm getting called at home from the Scottish Political Editors of the News of the World, Scotsman and Herald and they are also calling my place of employment and lodging serious allegations against me (which I consider to be spurious & completely unfounded)...

....well I'm afraid I obviously have to call it a day.

Thankyou to everyone that contributed.

Life's too short for this kind of nonsense and I have a lot to be getting on with.

A' the best

Wardog

Note what I've underlined.

We are getting closer and closer to the huge cuts that are going to be imposed by whoever's unlucky enough to win the next General Election. Stupidly, both Labour and the Conservatives want to win. The pro-Labour media predominates in Scotland to an unhealthy degree and I foresee a very nasty campaign with no holds barred.

posted by David Farrer at 11:47
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The Chief

 

I favour the direct election of police chiefs. The police themselves aren't so keen:

Sir Hugh suggested that some chief officers would resign rather than accept the Conservative plans.

''I would not be surprised to see chief officers not want to be part of a system where they can be told how to deliver policing,'' he said.

I'm dining with our local Chief Constable next month, so I know what I'll be discussing with him...
posted by David Farrer at 11:05
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New links in the blogroll

 

Scot Goes Pop

Munguin's Republic

David Torrance

Scotland Unspun

Pseudepigrapha

posted by David Farrer at 20:32
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Paging the IMF

 

At first sight, here's some good news:

Scottish Parliament bosses have put forward plans for a cut in their overall budget for the coming year

But let's have a look at this:

The expenses bill for MSPs increased last year by more than 8% to £10.9m, the Scottish Parliament has said. Holyrood bosses put the £876,587 rise in 2008-09 partly down to an increase in members' staff salaries.

I'd be astounded if Holyrood (or Westminster, for that matter) actually cuts expenditure voluntarily. I think they're going to keep the spending going right down to the last penny.
posted by David Farrer at 20:10
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Dryburgh Abbey last Sunday

 

The others are here.

posted by David Farrer at 20:03
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HQ blues

 

Does it matter where a company's head office is located?

That's a question that's often asked here in Scotland. And the answer is, of course, yes. The head office creates work for all kinds of suppliers: from taxi drivers to auditors; from travel agents to lawyers.

So news that some top functions at RBS may be moving to London is certainly bad news for Edinburgh and Scotland:

FORMER Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir George Mathewson has voiced doubts about whether the bank will be run from Scotland in future.

Why London? Because London is calling the shots at RBS these days.

When I actually lived in London, this was never mentioned as an issue down there. So many companies are based in London that the odd merger or takeover never threatened London's financial position.

But perhaps things are changing. Here's the key quote regarding BA and Iberia:

The combined company would be incorporated in Spain for tax purposes with the majority of board and shareholder meetings taking place in Madrid. The operating and financial headquarters of the new group would be in London, they said.

This sounds all too familiar to me. Just how long will it be before all managerial control is moved to Madrid?

Now, as a good libertarian, I have no problem with the new airline being based at Barajas instead of Heathrow. There shouldn't "be a law against it". But as we Scots know all to well, a country starts to run into all kinds of problems if takeovers are almost entirely one-way.

The answer to these situations is obvious: create a pro-business environment in one's own country - whether that's seen as Scotland or the UK. There's not much sign of that happening these days is there?

posted by David Farrer at 19:31
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6.6 years!

 

As soon as I read this story I could guess what was coming.

Here's the first quote:

The first stage in Glasgow City Council’s trawl for redundancy volunteers will see letters sent to all 3500 employees aged 50-plus by the end of the month

And the bit that I expected is this:

As part of the deal, employees aged 50 or over with access to a pension will receive up to 6.6 added years’ pension and up to 30 weeks’ redundancy pay, while those with no access to a pension are able to apply for up to 66 weeks’ redundancy pay.

I'd love someone to have given me 6.6 added years' pension but I'm employed in the private sector - by my own company, in fact. Funnily enough my company doesn't have any pension provision for its staff (me) and if it did it would have to generate more income to pay for it. In other words, I'd have to work more hours and pay a lot more tax thus funding government employees who can retire early. The pensions that I do have on top of the state one have all been saved by myself when working in various private sector jobs over many years.

It is quite outrageous that local (and national) government workers can get these hugely inflated pension benefits when retiring early. Here in Edinburgh the Lothian Pension Fund employer contribution rate is over 20% of gross salary. That too is an outrageously high figure and helps explain the parlous state of the national finances. Needless to say, the removal of almost, if not all, of these state employees is a matter of the highest urgency.

posted by David Farrer at 07:23
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My bit of the Wall

 

Liberated during a day trip from London in November 1989.

posted by David Farrer at 17:11
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Last batch of holiday photos

 

Sinop

Bosphorus

Kusadasi

posted by David Farrer at 19:41
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Libertarian Alliance Conference

 

Guido Fawkes addresses the dinner.

posted by David Farrer at 18:04
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Libertarian Alliance Conference

 

Brian Micklethwait blogging and being watched by the LA's tech guru.

posted by David Farrer at 17:38
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Libertarian Alliance Conference

 

Guido Fawkes, Dr Tim Evans and the Devil's Kitchen

posted by David Farrer at 17:36
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Libertarian Alliance Conference

 

The LA's David Davis and Brian Micklethwait are blogging.

posted by David Farrer at 17:35
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The destruction of Scotland

 

These practitioners of the global warming scam plan to destroy the Scottish economy. Maybe not directly, but that's what they are effectively proposing:

Domestic flights must be faced out by the end of next year if Britain is to avoid “a climate emergency”, a group of MPs has said.

The UK is just about the most centralised advanced country of its size. And the "centre" is down at the far end of a long, narrow island. The abolition of domestic UK flying would kill off the Scottish economy. Unsurprisingly, all but one of these MPs represent southern seats at Westminster. OK, here's the deal: abolish domestic flying but move the UK parliament to Glasgow. That'll sort them.
posted by David Farrer at 21:33
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Crimea

 

This guided missile cruiser (Moskva) is based at Sevastopol.

Other photos from the area are here:

Sevastopol.

For the Crimean War, see here:

Valley of Death.

posted by David Farrer at 21:09
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The state marches on

 

This is so depressing:

In her closing speech to conference in Inverness, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon sounded the death knell of the "right-to-buy", the emblematic policy of the Thatcher revolution, which allowed council tenants to buy their homes.

She also revealed that Stracathro hospital, which the previous Labour-Liberal executive had handed over to an independent operator, would now be returning to full NHS control.

The government should have nothing to do with housing provision. Nor should it provide health services. The only legitimate function of the state is to protect us against aggressors.

I've more or less decided to vote SNP at the next election as I did at the European one but this kind of thing will make folk like me think seriously about voting otherwise.

I think that it's fairly likely that the English will eventually expel Scotland from the Union. The English establishment won't be happy about that - they understand that an independent England would be less likely to have a seat in the UN Security Council, would be outvoted in the EU by France and Italy and would face considerable resource shortages that the Union makes less dangerous.

But plenty of English rank and file voters think that Scotland is a socialist basket case that they'd be well shot of. This SNP decision will do nothing to alter that widely held opinion. I can only presume that the SNP are deliberately encouraging anti-Scottish views down south. God help us if the SNP really does believe in this statist nonsense.

posted by David Farrer at 18:59
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Red October?

 

It was a bit strange to wake up next to Soviet Russian warships.

More photos from Sevastopol will follow. The Russian Navy has a lease on part of this now Ukrainian port.

posted by David Farrer at 10:42
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More photos

 

from my recent trip:

Messina

Katakolon

Nafplion

Istanbul

Sochi

Batumi

Trabzon.

posted by David Farrer at 10:24
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No surrender

 

This guy is holding out against a Turkish version of Donald Trump:

posted by David Farrer at 10:19
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Back again

 

First photos from the holiday are of Rome, Civitavecchia and Stromboli.

These Italian communists look somewhat more bourgeois than ours...

posted by David Farrer at 18:24
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Posts, or rather the lack of them!

 

I have a big project going on at the moment. Blogging will resume ASAP.
posted by David Farrer at 20:28
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Airport traffic

 

Once again, Edinburgh airport is beating Glasgow:

Passenger numbers at Edinburgh airport increased by 4.8% in August, one of the few airports which recorded growth.

The figures from airport operator BAA showed that Glasgow had the sharpest decrease in traffic with a fall of 13.4%

Unlike some residents of the capital I am a fan of Glasgow. Scotland needs a prosperous Glasgow. Clearly Edinburgh's benefited from the Festival, which seemed to be busier than ever this year, and Glasgow depends on outward holiday traffic to greater extent than Edinburgh.

I fear that the SNP administration is making the same mistakes as its Labour predecessor. This remains typical of the Scottish government's mindset:

Mr Swinney questioned the drinks firm's claim that the rescue package was not viable.

"There's two points of basic economics at stake in this," he said.

"The first point is the fact that the Kilmarnock economy will be devastated and the Scottish Government and the UK Government will have to pick up the pieces, at a cost we estimate at £14m a year.

"The second point of basic economics is that when you come to a proposal with a financial gap of let's say £3 to £4m, and a company is making profits of £2bn, I don't think it's an unreasonable proposition to say to the company you have a corporate social responsibility to protect communities that have served you well."

The Kilmarnock economy will only be "devastated" to the extent that new entrepreneurs fail to make up for the lost Diageo jobs. Instead of government "picking up the pieces" why not remove the barriers to entrepreneurship? That's what will make the west of Scotland prosperous and help Glasgow airport boom again. And Prestwick of course.
posted by David Farrer at 20:40
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Richard Russell speaks

 

Great quote on Jim Puplava's site this week:

Let me get this straight.

Obama's healthcare plan will be written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it, passed by a congress that hasn't read it and whose members are exempt from it, signed by a President who smokes in secret, funded by a Treasury Secretary who does not pay his taxes, overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that is broke.

posted by David Farrer at 20:10
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I hate Aviva

 

I've got a couple of pension policies that I'm drawing from Aviva (Norwich Union in the good old days). One is at a fixed annual rate and the other is RPI linked.

Today I received a letter from Aviva that said:

Your payments are changing because the gross amount from policy number xxxxxx has been reduced and this will affect how much we pay you.

Do I need to do anything?

No, I've written this letter for your information only. You don't need to take any action. Your payments will be made in the normal way.

Unbelievable. Wouldn't I like to know by just how much this pension has been reduced? Of course I would. Why didn't they tell me? How do they know that I don't have to take any action on spending? I phoned Aviva ("You may be charged from calls from this mobile") and after being kept on hold by the operative I was told that they had no record of the letter. They'll get back to me tomorrow. Hopefully.

I guess the RPI reduction will be quite small and I may well have earned enough this morning to cover the annual reduction. But for goodness sake - writing to folk saying that their pension is to be cut surely requires telling them by how much, does it not?

posted by David Farrer at 20:35
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