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The sharp slap of the familiar

Today’s press is full of discussion about whether, in the event of a Yes vote in the Scottish Independence referendum, the remaining UK should have a new flag.  According to a survey by the Flag Institute (the UK’s national flag charity – who knew?), the answer is yes and a new flag should include an element […]

The effects of abolishing corporation tax – Adam Smith Institute

I’m not about to pivot off on a tax tangent but, having just posted about this, it seems sensible to flag a further post from the Adam Smith Institute’s Tim Worstall on the effects of abolishing UK corporation tax. Interesting stuff.

Corporation Tax: avoidance, evasion or … abolition?

Those evil, greedy, American multi-nationals are back in the UK news  for obeying the law and arranging their affairs so as to pay exactly the amount of tax due but (can you believe it?) no more.  The weasel words du jour are “aggressive tax avoidance”. Here’s a timely paper from the US National Bureau of […]

US Government Shutdown and National Parks

Two pieces on the US government shutdown highlight the same oddity: why is it the National Parks Service that has closed?  Is it really the most inessential cost-saving?  Or is it, rather, the most publicly obvious? Kurt Harden at Cultural Offering draws on Mark Steyn.  I particularly liked this: “a visiting party of veterans pushed […]

Capitalism

A brief overview, courtesy of Kurt…

The End of the SNP?

The Scotsman.com has a piece in which the SMP’s former deputy leader, Jim Sillars, refutes an idea floated by the Independence campaign’s chief strategist, Stephen Noon, that a “Yes vote for independence could see the end of the SNP. It’s an interesting question and one that goes a bit deeper than Mr Sillars seems to […]

Lord Rees Mogg, RIP

I was saddened to read of the death of Lord Rees Mogg.  He was very much one of “the great and the good” in the UK, famed early on for his 1967 leader in The Times regarding the sentencing of Mick Jagger on a drugs charge: “who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?” Always peripherally […]

Born without imagination – James Robertson on Independence

Novelist James Robertson exhorts both sides of the Scottish Independence argument to greater vision in this essay published by the Scotsman (and taken from the book, Unstated: Writers on Scottish Independence, available from Word Power Books). He’s right, of course.  Both sides of the argument have so far fought pitifully small-minded campaigns.  Unionists have taken […]

Odd – CulturalOffering.com

Reflection on the role and limitation of government from Thomas Sowell, via  Kurt Harden’s excellent blog, culturaloffering.com.   Technorati Tags: Cultural Offering,Kurt Harden,Thomas Sowell

The Ruritanian Trappings of Statehood

The Economist’s leader on Catalonian independence, Umbrage in Catalonia, (published before Catalonia’s poll on Sunday) makes fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in this forthcoming referendum on Scottish Independence.  There are both parallels and points to ponder. Two richly memorable phrases stick in mind. The first, from the pen of the Economist’s leader writer, […]

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