“Government is an inefficient industry because it has an insane barrier to entry. To compete with governments on existing land you have to win a war, an election or a revolution”
Patri Friedman

Patri Friedman has resolved the problem of competing with governments on existing land with his idea of building a new country on the ocean. His is the Randian ideal of a libertarian state in which the government plays a minimal part. Paul Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of Paypal has agreed to back the scheme.

What they really want to achieve is a new Hong Kong, a country which, owing to a fit of absentmindedness, was allowed to develop on its own, with very little input from the government. In 1948 Hong Kong had a population of 600,000 and no natural resources. This was the year when the great socialist experiment began in the UK and the Governor of Hong Kong was instructed to apply the dead hand of the state there. For one reason or another, the Governor never got round to it and Hong Kong was allowed to develop as a free market economy with minimal taxation. Millions of Chinese fleeing from the mainland were able to enter illegally and take advantage of the opportunities there, raising the population to 6 million and turning it into one of the richest places in the world.

In 1948 Israel also had a population of 600,000 and at that time had an income per head twice that of Hong Kong. The population of Israel expanded as fast as that of Hong Kong, as Jews from all over the world came to settle there. They brought with them huge wealth, which continued to pour in from wealthy benefactors and US aid. Fifty years on, the population of Israel had grown to 6m, just like Hong Kong, but their income per head had fallen to half that of Hong Kong, a comparative decline of 400%. This relative decline was caused by the fact that their government was highly dirigiste; whereas the government in Hong Kong simply allowed their citizens to get on with their lives. That’s why Patri Friedman wants to create his new libertarian state.

“As the lamb had been kept outside and fed on spring grass, the meat had terrific flavour”

These words are attributed in the Daily Telegraph magazine today to Andrew Fairlie, a chef who runs the restaurant at the Gleneagles Hotel. I’m sure he didn’t really say them; the words will have been put into his mouth by some idiotic PR person, but it was particularly stupid of the sub-editor of the Telegraph to lift them from the text and quote them in large bold type, as if they meant something special. The article was attributed to Christopher Hirst. I wonder if, in his journey up from London to Gleneagles he my have looked out of the window and seen sheep in the fields munching on grass and wondered whether there was something unusual in this. Did he think that most sheep are kept indoors and given a diet of- well what does he imagine a sheep eats if it isn’t grass?

If the lamb at the Gleneagles hotel has a “terrific flavour” it will be down to the bred of the sheep, not the fact that it eats grass out of doors. Looking at the photo accompanying the article, the sheep are a breed known as Blackface, which is the most common breed in Scotland. Nothing special there then. The article says that a room at the Gleneagles can be had for the special price of £470 a night, weekdays only. Included in the price is a view, unique to Gleneagles, of sheep grazing outdoors on spring grass.

The publicity for The Hotel, which goes out this Sunday is gathering pace. The “listings” magazines came out today and they have all chosen The Hotel as one of the highlights of the coming week, which is all that Channel 4 could have hoped for. We have been warned that we might be taken by surprise by some of the comments which are made, not all of which will necessarily be flattering. The Radio Times proved the point very succinctly by beginning their review by saying that I “bear a distracting facial resemblance to Education Secretary Michael Gove”. Surely, I thought, they can’t mean that handsome young man who used to write for the Times? I googled him and was pleased to see that he is, indeed, 19 years my junior although his looks aren’t exactly matinee idol. There’s ample scope, no doubt, for him to improve with age, as the photo above suggests.

This week the Spectator has been celebrating the publication of tits 2,000th crossword with a dinner attended by some of its compilers, including Doc, Mr Magoo and Dumpynose. None of those attending had to ask how Dumpynose got his pen name- they all knew that it is an anagram of pseudonym.

The essence of a crossword, in the words of Roger Squires is to “entertain by misleading”. The guests revealed some of their favourite clues:
Transport unfortunately isn’t arriving (6,6)
Stiff examination (4-6)
HIJKLMNO (5)

There was some discussion at the dinner of the rumoured demise of the Chamber’s English dictionary. The dictionary was described as “a repository of amazing words” and “the crossword setter’s bible”. It has always been special to me, since I was given it as a present for my 12th birthday by an aunt who was a crossword whizz (I didn’t realise how brainy she was until I discovered, after her death, that she had been a code-breaker at Bletchley Park) and it was she who set me off on this particular pleasure. The Spectator didn’t reveal the answers to the clues above, preferring to allow their readers the glow of satisfaction which you get from working out the answers- which are, respectively, Virgin Trains, Post-mortem and Water.
For more on crosswords see ‘Wild Asian Ass’, January 4th.

At a pop concert in aid of a very worthy charity Bono proclaimed: “Every time I clap a child dies in Africa”.
To which a member of the audience shouted: “Well stop fucking clapping then”

The Hungarian magazine Blikk interviewed Madonna. The questions were asked in Hungarian and then translated into English. Madonna’s replies were then translated into Hungarian. The interview was published in Hungarian and then translated back into English. Along the way something has plainly been lost, but rather more, I think, has been gained:

Blikk: Madonna, let’s cut towards the hunt. Are you a bold hussy-woman that feasts on men who are tops?
Madonna: Yes, yes, this is certainly something that brings to the surface my longings. In America it is not considered to be mentally ill when a woman advances on her prey in a discotheque setting with hardy cocktails present. And there is a more normal attitude toward leather play-toys that also makes my day”.
From John Preston on The Big Bang by John Julius Norwich

“It is impossible to ignore the prevailing opinion that the climate of this country has changed considerably during the historic period and there are not wanting those who aver that its changes have been decisive and striking.

It cannot be doubted that Ovid and Tertullian both saw the Euxine frozen over: that Virgil was as familiar with fields of ice upon the Danube as the moderns are ignorant of them entirely; and that the climate of Italy in the Augustan age was very different from that which now prevails.

One of the most interesting evidences in favour of the belief that a decided change has taken place in the climate of this country is to be found in the fact that, from the time of the Romans until the later days of the monastic system, wine produced on English soil was largely consumed by all ranks and classes of the people. It must have been better wine than English-grown grapes produce now, and it must have been more certain in production The Roman legionaries might have been content with sour stuff, but the “monks of old” were good judges of generous liquor, and could always place their own wine in competition with “Rheinish” and with other continental products illustrative of the climate of the period.

It cannot be doubted that the climate of this country has never ceased to change, however slowly, since the days when a tropical heat prevailed, and the vegetation of the carboniferous limestone flourished. Moreover, we fully believe that it is changing still; the summers becoming colder, the winters warmer and the springs more and more characterized by late and long-continued frosts. If these changes are not utterly chimerical, they are full of suggestion for the horticulturalist”.

I wish there was space to quote more from the article because it ranges over the whole history of Northern Europe, from classical times onwards. It is erudite, entertaining and brimming with good sense. Much like Robin Lane Fox.

The Garden was founded in 1871 by William Robinson, who wrote many of those millions of words, as did other well known contemporaries such as John Ruskin, Gertrude Jekyll and Dean Hole. Some the articles were reprinted (without acknowledgement) in Robinson’s immensely influential book The English Garden, which went to 15 editions from 1883 to 1935, the year of his death. But the magazines contain a gold mine of material which wasn’t republished in book form. Picking up one volume at random (Vol 49- midsummer 1896), there’s a 3,000 word article by Robinson on ‘Climbers and their artistic use’ which is illustrated by Ellen Willmott. A gem. There’s lots to look forward to in the long winter nights ahead.

“It is interesting, and not a little curious, to note the change in public taste concerning the dahlia. Ten years ago the large, double show and fancy varieties with their symmetrical dense heads of cone-like petals, were most in demand, yet they are seldom seen at any exhibition now. At the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hall on Tuesday last Dahlias were very largely shown, yet very few of the type mentioned above were to be seen”.

This is curious, I thought. Why is Country Life, which is normally so sniffy about dahlias suddenly taking them to heart? It was then that I noticed that the article was headed “100 Years Ago” and was in fact a re-print from the edition of 3rd September 1910. During the last 100 years dahlias have gone in and out of fashion and it is only in the last ten years that they have become acceptable again. Well, in the case of Country Life readers acceptable if they have dark leaves. It would be interesting to know the names of the varieties being exhibited at the RHS Hall in 1910- such are the changes in fashion that I doubt if many of them are available today.