Friday, 4 July 2008
Statue of Adam Smith unveiled in Edinburgh
At lunchtime today - and not before time - a statue of Scotland's greatest son is unveiled on Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Conceived and carried through by the Adam Smith Institute, who also raised the money (through private subscription, naturally), the statue of Adam Smith (pdf) will sit near St Giles' Cathedral on the site of a former market, and looks down towards the Canongate Kirk, where Smith is buried, and across the Firth of Forth to Fife, where he was born. The Scottish Parliament, however, is shielded from the great man's view, which is probably just as well.
Your scribe was honoured to participate in a debate last night alongside the ASI President Madsen Pirie, former Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth, and assorted well-intentioned but hopelessly muddled lefties. A good time was had by all, although Mr E partook perhaps too liberally of the free bar. The Scottish blogging community was represented, too; Freedom and Whisky was present, Jeff from SNP Tactical Voting was there as well, and I could have sworn I saw the Reactionary Snob leaving with a girl half his age, though I suppose it may have been his daughter.
Comment on the artistic merit of the statue will need to wait for an hour or so until its unveiling. But, either way, it will be a fitting tribute to the man who revolutionised the way we see the world and virtually invented modern economics, and who, last night at least, launched a thousand "invisible hand" gags, most of them pretty lame.
UPDATE: Well, it was a splendid affair. On a dull Edinburgh day, the sun came out just in time for the unveiling, glinting off Brian Monteith's improbably bright suit to the general dazzlement of the assembled crowd. There was a short speech by a man who I initially thought was Willie Nelson but turned out to be the Nobel Prize-winning economist Vernon Smith, and then the rope was pulled and the statue revealed.
It looks splendid, I think - if somewhat stern. I didn't get a picture, but I suspect that there will be a few floating about soon and I shall post one when I can. Now, to the pub!
SECOND UPDATE: The ASI have a superb photo gallery up here. If you look hard enough, you may even spot your scribe...
Labels: Campaigns, Pearls 'midst the dross, Scotland
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As adam Smith's statue looks over at his grave in Canongate Kirk and people who see it might want to go there, might now be a good time to:
a)Open the church to the Public
b) Remove the drug paraphanalia and the vociferous drunks that inhabit the churchyard.
Of Course a) maybe dependant on b) but as someone who has ancestors buried in the churchyard the whole experience could be improved. Maybe the drunks could be accomodated in the bar in the Parliament building? No one would notice!!
a)Open the church to the Public
b) Remove the drug paraphanalia and the vociferous drunks that inhabit the churchyard.
Of Course a) maybe dependant on b) but as someone who has ancestors buried in the churchyard the whole experience could be improved. Maybe the drunks could be accomodated in the bar in the Parliament building? No one would notice!!
a statue of Scotland's greatest son
Greatest, Mr E?
That's a tad strong when you also have David Hume to boast of - I couldn't, personally, separate the two.
Greatest, Mr E?
That's a tad strong when you also have David Hume to boast of - I couldn't, personally, separate the two.
Perhaps a similar statue could be erected on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. Better though would be to topple the Mandela erection in Parliament Square and replace it with an Adam Smith statue. After all Smith and the politicians who adopted his philosophy did more for me and mine (and the world at large) than Mandela and his political followers ever did or will ever do.
Ah, a missed opportunity to buy you a drink there Mr E.
Particularly unfortunate given the free-ness of the bar!
Good to hear the unveiling went well; I was blankly staring at a compluter screen with a hangover at that time....
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Particularly unfortunate given the free-ness of the bar!
Good to hear the unveiling went well; I was blankly staring at a compluter screen with a hangover at that time....
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