Madsen Pirie

Among the presents I am unlikely to be given this Christmas is a pizza cutter.  I don’t often eat pizza, but for the odd occasion when I do, I like to have it served already cut.  What could do this more stylishly than a 24 carat gold pizza cutter in the shape of the starship Enterprise?  True to the original number of the ship (NCC 1701), I read that only 1701 of them are being offered by ThinkGeek, each one boxed and individually numbered. There is a box of about the right size under my tree, so I might be in luck…

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A new hotel has just opened opposite St James Park tube station.  It’s called the Intercontinental Westminster, and is very expensive, which is not surprising, given its location.  It has a Blue Boar Smokehouse and Bar attached, featuring a restaurant that includes baby back ribs on its menu, and a rather pleasant bar that looks out onto Broadway.

The bar has a selection of good beers and does a small selection of food dishes which includes the house burger.  The beer shown is actually a porter called Black Isle, and is very good with a slightly sweet edge.  The rose wine is an acceptable Provence one, though I doubt it’s worth £8.50 for a 175mm glass.  The beer is better value.

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I went to Colchester to speak to the University of Essex libertarian group.  They are a lively lot with an amazing programme of speakers.  I spoke about libertarianism in theory and practice, starting with the notion that it is easier to argue that everybody should be free to make their own decisions, rather than trying to make a case that you alone should be.

I went on to illustrate how freedom in the economic and personal sphere can be extended by crafting intricate policies that take on board the needs and desires of interest groups, and by trying to build in something that will appeal to them, or at the very least, disarm their opposition.

Questions were good, as was the Chinese meal we managed to fit in afterwards before I had to catch my train back.

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The Blair-Mandelson years have left a long shadow on UK politics.  Before Peter Mandelson came along politicians did what they did and people commented on them. Mandelson was the first to realize that you could control what people write about you, and perhaps, through that, even what they think about you.  His tight control of media outlets, his access to superiors to steer wayward reporters back into line, his rewarding favourable coverage with inside scoops, and his manipulation of the news agenda, changed politics perhaps forever.

On the down side it has led to an obsession with presentation.  It is not what you do that matters; it is people’s perception of what you do.  Politics has come to be dominated not by what is the right thing to do, but by what people will think of what you do.  The polls and the focus groups have been thrust into the foreground, and have become judges of the viability of a proposal.  This is one reason why the Blair governments, despite so many advantages, achieved comparatively little to set alongside the game-changing achievements of the Thatcher years.  It also goes some way to explaining the reluctance of the present government to undertake the reforms needed to put Britain back on track.

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I referred to tax competition as a good thing because it puts some restraint on the predatory activities of politicians.  Without it many of them would raise taxes on those who create wealth and jobs in order to buy votes from those who do not.  Sir Michael Darrington, former head of Greggs Bakers, made a singularly unhelpful contribution to the debate on tax avoidance when he was interviewed on Sky TV.  He thinks tax competition is a bad thing because it restrains governments, apparently having rather more faith in politicians than I have.

He wants international agreements that prevent people seeking out low tax places to do business.  If he had his way there would be no escape because international laws would require all countries to impose high taxes.  I doubt that Sir Michael has any idea what this would do to the wealth-creating process, or to the world’s ability to use its resources to solve the problems that confront it.  Wealth has enabled us to enjoy better education, better working conditions, better health, more leisure and more ways in which to express and fulfill ourselves.  I can’t think that high taxes would be a good substitute for that, or that politicians can spend money better than private citizens can.

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In 1893 the historian Frederick Jackson Turner published a paper entitled “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.”  He argued that the experience of coping with an untamed frontier led Americans to abandon the cultural baggage of their European background and become more egalitarian, self-reliant, practical, democratic and innovative, or in other words distinctively American.

Legacies of the time reveal personal libraries devoted largely to books on self-improvement, a tradition that persists to this day, with self-help books featuring regularly among the top sellers.  The significance for science fiction is that many writers suppose a future that features an open space frontier, with humanity heading out to cope with unknown difficulties and dangers.  In a way that parallels the American frontier and the Turner thesis, the characters of SF novels tend to be individualistic, self-reliant and optimistic.  They cope with danger by drawing on reserves of rugged independence.  They do not look to authorities for relief and rescue; they solve their problems themselves.

I follow in that tradition with my science fiction books for young adults.  They are optimistic, in that the characters show the strengths of character needed to overcome adversity.  They exhibit courage, loyalty, and a firm moral sense that guides them through the hazards that the universe throws their way.  A few SF works feature closed-in dystopias, but for most stories the emphasis is on the challenges and dangers of an open frontier, and on the character and cultural impact this brings with it.

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I found this postcard in France earlier this year.  It shows the Statue of Liberty in what is clearly France (look at the ‘Vins’ shop sign).  I thought it had been taken in pieces to the US and assembled there as a gift from the people of France.  I discovered that it was built first in France.  The designer, Frédéric Bartholdi had help at various stages from Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel (Tower) and Ferdinand de Lesseps (Suez Canal).

French people did contribute to its cost, but funding was always a problem, and a major fund-raising drive in the US organized by Joseph Pulitzer (Prize) took in contributions from 120,000 Americans, most giving less than a dollar each.  It was indeed assembled in France, hence the postcard, but was disassembled and transported in crates to New York, where it was put together and erected on its site, and finally dedicated in 1886.  It’s completion was marked by New York’s first ticker tape parade.

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I made some Rice Krispie chocolate snacks using supermarket brand crispies that were too awful to eat as cereal.  I used 3 ounces of them (100gm) with a 100gm bar of supermarket dark chocolate, 2 oz of butter and 3 tablespoons of golden syrup.

There’s not much to it.  You melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water.  You add the butter cut into pieces and stir it in, then the syrup, also stirred in.  Finally you add the crispies and stir the mixture gently until the crispies are all covered, whereupon you spoon it into 12 bun cases, leave it to cool, then chill them in the fridge.  They don’t look much, but they do hold their shape and have a delicious chocolatey crunch.  They are the sort of thing that children might enjoy making because there is no real cooking involved.

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The Leveson enquiry into press behaviour makes many useful points and suggestions.  Clearly the present system has not worked properly, in that outrageous and unacceptable behaviour has happened despite it.  There is a strong case for a new and tougher regulatory mechanism that stands arm’s length from newspapers and has some real teeth to enforce its recommendations.

The real dispute comes with the Leveson proposal that there should be legislative oversight of this body.  It would be the first time since the 17th Century that the press had to seek government licence to operate.  Those who believe press freedom is an essential prop of a healthy democracy fear that such a body would gradually assert its will.  Editors would find themselves self-censoring articles and attitudes they feared might upset it, and a culture of conformity might gradually asset itself.  A legitimate fear is that such a legally-empowered body would find new tasks for itself, increasing its size and importance.  It might well respond to each controversy that arose by extending its reach and making pronouncements to cover the new circumstances.  Step by step the press might lose the freedom and independence that enable it to expose wrong-doing and to call politicians to account.

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Mark Carney, to take over Governorship of the Bank of England next summer, is the first foreigner to be appointed in the entire history of the Bank.  When the post was discussed at the Adam Smith Institute last summer, Carney was the ASI’s favoured candidate, but we dropped the idea when he ruled himself out.  It seems he has leaned one thing a Governor needs to know, which is how to use words to influence events.

We supported him as probably the best candidate to perform an impossible job.  He had a good record in Canada, which weathered the financial storm better than most.  He has sound views on controlling inflation, and on controlling public spending rather than distributing a largesse of newly printed and borrowed money.

His basic problem remains that the system of centralized control of a monopoly fiat currency may not be up to the task of servicing a modern economy without the wild swings induced by political oversight.  Competing currencies, some commodity-backed, and with market interest rates, might be a better model.  Carney would indeed go down in legend if he were able peacefully to transform the one system into the other.  This is unlikely, so given an impossible job, it’s better to choose the man with the right instincts.

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