Monday 9 August 2004

Adam Smith

George Kerevan calls for Edinburgh to "honour our forgotten son".

Yes, he is writing about Adam Smith. And things are happening:

Recently has come the news that some devoted intellectual followers of the great man plan to honour him with a statue
Mr Kerevan is referring to the plans made by the Adam Smith Institute for the erection of a Smith statue on the Royal Mile. I understand that the project is developing satisfactorily and that the great man will eventually be seen here:

Wondering why proper recognition of Smith has taken so long, Mr Kerevan suggests:

Again, the lack of recognition may be due to a subtle left-wing bias against what he is presumed to have stood for - a bias on the part of Edinburgh councillors and even the Church of Scotland, where they still remember Mrs Thatcher’s sermon on Smith at the 1988 General Assembly.
I have no doubt that is correct. Perhaps the new statue will encourage Edinburgh folk - even councillors - to read the works of the great economist and Scotsman.

2 comments:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Stuart Dickson
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3162844.stm 
 
"City's statue plan  
 
Officials in Edinburgh are to investigate the possibility of introducing more public art to the capital.  
 
In his latest report to the council, the authority's leader, Councillor Donald Anderson, said new statues could be used to mark the contributions made to Edinburgh by significant figures.  
 
The people already being suggested for recognition range from Robert Louis Stevenson to JK Rowling." 
 
No Adam Smith then?

18 August 2004, 21:54:20 GMT+01:00
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Robert Speirs
"level playing field"? Is that out of Adam Smith as well?

13 August 2004, 15:06:50 GMT+01:00
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David Farrer
Neil, 
 
Correct. I was standing at the entrance to the council chambers when I took the photograph.

10 August 2004, 05:47:01 GMT+01:00
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Neil
All arguable Stuart - I think you are stretching tho it is certainly the case that AS stongly believed in a large number (theoreticaly infinite)of small businesses rather than the small number of massive businesses that dominate almost every industry. 
 
If my knowledge of Edinburgh geography is correct is this statue not going to be almost exactly opposite the council chambers, which will doubtless prove inspirational.

10 August 2004, 01:15:54 GMT+01:00
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Andy Wood
See "a taxing time for holidaymakers", currently 2nd item on ASI blog (7 Aug) by E Butler. 
 
His automatic knee-jerk reaction every time is to back the establishment against the wee man. In this case by greetin about the rich losing a tax break. 
 
You must be reading a different article from the one I read because all he does is mention one or two pros and cons of removing the 50% discount for second home owners and then states, without firm conviction, that he favours replacing the Council Tax with a local sales tax. 
 
I might look at the rest of your evidence later.

9 August 2004, 12:40:27 GMT+01:00
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David Farrer said...




Stuart Dickson
Andy 
 
(Sorry for slight delay: internet connection went.) 
 
See "a taxing time for holidaymakers", currently 2nd item on ASI blog (7 Aug) by E Butler. 
 
His automatic knee-jerk reaction every time is to back the establishment against the wee man. In this case by greetin about the rich losing a tax break. 
 
He has also done it recently by supporting UK state subsidies for Falkand Islanders to receive university education in the UK, simply because they are an old colony. If they can't make enough cash on that god forsaken rock to pay for a wee university course it is time they got the hell out. They are only there because the UK Government spends millions of pounds per Islander each year. 
 
Another recent example was his prior ignorance of the Crown Estate Commissioners and their "ownership" of the seabed and foreshore. (He discovered their existence while yachting off our west coast. The naughty Crown Estate was fleecing the local boat-owners for moorings.) Instead of putting the blame where it lies (the monarchy) he tries to blame Gordon Brown! The Crown Estate existed long before Brown was a twinkle in the meenister's ee. Why? Cos Butler is a monarchist! Where is the market imperative in keeping the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family in the lap of luxury, at the taxpayers' expense? 
 
Butler, and the rest of the ASI charlatans are a bunch of right-wing reactionary Tories. Doubt the sincerity of everything they say. Their sole objective is to entrench the prerogative of the wealthy, not our prerogative to compete on a level playing field. 
 
Read Kerevan's article closely. No Tory he.

9 August 2004, 10:56:36 GMT+01:00
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Andy Wood
They are the neo-mercantilists. 
 
Care to be more specific? I don't remember reading anyone at the ASI speaking up for the CAP or tarriffs or any other form of protectionism.

9 August 2004, 10:10:08 GMT+01:00
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Stuart Dickson
Unfortunately, many of the acolytes of the ASI appear not to have read the great man's works either. Smith's primary concern was the betterment of the conditions of the wee man. Rightly he saw that the wealthy distorted the market to milk profits from the poor. 
 
The same is still going on: witness the Common Agricultural Policy. 
 
The ASI, and especially contributors to its blog, are right-wing reactionaries. They are the neo-mercantilists. They are exactly the type of people Smith would be vigorously opposing if he were alive today.

9 August 2004, 10:01:15 GMT+01:00