Vox cani

What else would one do on Valentine’s Day than go to a talk on competition policy?

SIR DEREK MORRIS on "COMPETITION POLICY: ECONOMICS IN ACTION"

The Oxford Management Society invites you to an exclusive talk on "Competition Policy and Sector Regulation in the UK: Economics in Action" by our very own Provost Sir Derek Morris, the former chairman of the Competition Commission. Sir Morris was the Economic Director at the National Economic Development Office and Chairman of Oxford Economic Forecasting Ltd. He has published numerous articles, reviews and books, most recently the Morris Review of the Actuarial Profession. His talk will give a vivid insight into his views on competition policy and regulation.

Date: Tuesday, 14th February
Time: 8:00 PM
Venue: Oriel College, Harris Building

Entry is free, and there will be free Valentine's Drinks afterwards! We look forward to seeing you.

I wonder if the computer society has something on…. The European Societies have speed-dating, because languages are fun.

Prairie dogs deserve a Disney film.

In honour of….

People for God to save (degrees to which meant and reasons):

• the queen (thrice)
• the queen (man, because tourists are money)
• our figurehead is not what she seems
• her fascist regime
• window leen
• human beings
• history
• your mad parade

Things she is:

• no human being
• gracious
• noble

Things it made you:

• a moron
• a potential h bomb
• Nothing in particular

Things which there is:

• no future (in england’s dreaming)
• questions this raises
• no future (in general)
• no future (for you)
• no future (for me)
• Nothing in particular

Questions

• How can there be sin?
• None

Things not to be told:

• what you want
• what you need
• Nothing in particular

Things we love:

• our queen (whom God saves)
• Nothing in particular

Things for God to do (and why):

• have mercy (all crimes are paid)
• Nothing in particular

Things we are:

• the flowers in the dustbin
• the poison in your human machine
• the future
• your future
• Nothing in particular

Things she should do at length:

• Live
• Reign over us
• Nothing in particular

Things to send her:

• victorious
• happy
• glorious
• Nothing in particular

Brief thoughts.

1. Freedom of expression is a precious right. I would like to hear interesting arguments against it.


2. Freedom of religion is a precious right, bound up with freedom of expression, and equally fundamental to any but a fascistic conception of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism. Hinduism, Judaism, Sikhism, etc.


3. All of us contravene rules of each other's religions all the time, for example by adhering to other faiths (one can't, for example, adhere to Hinduism whilst adhering to Christianity).


4. The rules of Islam state that one should not depict the Prophet Mohammed, pbuh.


5. The principles of freedom of worship and expression imply no obligation on those who aren't adherents of a religion to follow its rules, so there is no obligation on Jews to follow Muslim rules, for example. We all have a right to eat pork, to preach that Jesus was the son of God, to preach that He wasn't, etc.


6. There is and was a right to depict Mohammed, pbuh. If Muslims follow their religion then they won't do so, but non-Muslims don't follow that religion, by definition.


7. The political situation in many Arab states is one of a lack of freedom, a lot of volatility, and a lot of people wanting to foment unrest.


8. Both Arab governments and other organisations have often encouraged anti-Western sentiment, either sincerely, or to further their own ends (e.g. to promote nationalism favourable to their own weak position).


9. This sentiment and unrest tends to lead to violence, deaths, kidnappings, a lessening of prospects for femocracy and freedom, a souring in relations between the West and the Arab world, and advancement of the cause of fascist nationalism at the expense of prospects for liberty.


10. Depicting Mohammed, pbuh, in these cartoons was obviously going to upset people, and to give ammunition to those wishing to stir up violence and hatred, without really achieving anything.


11. There was a right to depict Mohammed, pbuh, in these cartoons in the first place, and to reprint them. This right should be left alone.


12. Depicting Mohammed, pbuh, in these cartoons was bloody stupid, deleterious to the cause of free speech, and peace, because it gave an opportunity to people to be annoyed etc. and to say that free speech was anti-Islamic, when in fact it is a freedom which allows for Islam to be spread to anyone who will believe in it when it is shared with them.


13. A sensible perspective is this: there is a right to publish, but publishing is stupid and pretty pointless.


14. The violence now is hateful and unjustified, although predictable.


15. Boycotting companies who had nothing to do with this is misdirected, and is less justified than refusing to do business with any Jew because of Palestine, or any Muslim because of 9/11; both of which would be stupid perspectives.


16. The only boycotts that would be remotely sensible are of the cartoonist, and perhaps the newspapers involved. The original newspaper has, of course, apologised, which is all they can do, so any boycott on them should have ended anyway when that happened.


17. Protest is justified to make feelings heard, using exactly the same freedom of speech as the cartoonist used. Violence and national boycotts are not.


18. None of the European governments involved has control of what their press says, and this is a very good thing.


19. None of the other companies in the countries involved has any control at all of what their press says.


20. The cartoonist was silly. The response has been sillier and illogical, but very predictable given the politics involved.

In Afghanistan alone, ten people have now died in the protests.

Imagine! the Tories are going after the Royal Prerogative powers… If only electoral reform were next.
Now, coffee and equality.

I was sat listening to Wagner, only The Ride Of The Valkyries, nothing demonstrating any knowledge of him, and enjoying the big Apocalypse Now helicopter bit, and then I realised that I felt like an asshole for enjoying that music…. Damn you Hitler; damn you Vietnamese war, spoiling my musical enjoyment…

Apparently 2,100 bikes are stolen in Oxford every year. Mine was the 15th to be recovered this year, and I’ve just been down to give a statement about the theft. I don’t often feel so white. Every person I saw working there was white, I was there looking relaxed and dressed conservatively, like I was with them. Everyone who seemed to be there without wanting to be was non-white, all dressed in sports-type clothing; I swear if everybody were evacuated for a fire, you’d still know exactly who was on which side of the law in there. I felt so bloody white.
There was a man there as well, trying to sort out with the receptionist something to do with whether his son had missed a parole appointment or something, and whether his son was going to be liable for arrest whilst it got sorted out. He was saying how he wanted to carry on dealing with it with her rather than some alternative that involved police officers, because then he would get into an argument with them and get upset, and then get arrested for “whatever you call it”. This statement seemed to imply both that it was their rules, not to do with him, and also that it was a matter of police discretion whereby police could call whatever they wanted whatever they wanted, if he annoyed them. The thing that really struck me, was that whilst saying all this, he remained polite whilst obviously het up, but was leaning forward completely over her counter, right into her face, with his athletic 6-foot frame, creating completely aggressive body language. It was just the completely wrong way to deal with anyone, sending out so many signals of confrontation, anger, and potential violence, to the person with whom he was talking. I so wanted to explain to him what he was doing, and the difference that could be made simply by giving off less intimidatory and even friendly signals. It would have been a simple matter of changing his body language by about 20° to the vertical, which would have completely changed the situation. The lady was admirably reasonable and helpful to him, but anyone who wasn’t taking such an attitude of being nice no matter what would have ended up fighting with him. Anyway, it probably would have felt rude and patronising, and it was in front of his son. I waited and then I went in and chatted jovially with this police officer dealing with my bike. He was a nice man.
My bike was found by a police officer confiscating it from a lad he knew to have a record, and then the frame number matched the database. Apparently it’s very usual for people to bring in bikes to be certified as not stolen (in order to sell them to second-hand shops) and then for them to match the database, incriminating the people.
Catching and punishing hardly covers it; people don’t necessarily know the straight and narrow in order to choose it. This is social.