New Statesman Scotland

A Scottish lawyer is trying to buy the Mir Space Station, or rather a part of it from the Russians. Telecommunication legal specialist David Gillies wants to operate a data service unencumbered by the regulations or taxes of any Earth-bound jurisdiction. He says if Mir is deemed to be no longer Russian property, it can be its own sovereignty. "I do not want to be bound by Scots law, or by Euro-law. I would like to sell my data traffic into Scotland and the EU, indeed to all of mankind." The Mir Space Station is due to be abandoned by the Russian Space Agency and would burn up if it lost its orbital momentum. David Gillies argues this must mean he can buy it for an ever-reducing amount, getting nearer to a few pennies as each week passes.

Gillies claims no technological knowledge, but he did write the textbook on the laws and economics of tele-communications. He says all he needs is a tiny patch of territory subject to the rules of no terrestrial power. He had long thought of buying a Pacific atoll from one of the tinier republics that speckle that ocean, but he now thinks a piece of man-made territory hurtling above the planet at 200 miles up could be cheaper and better.

It would be charming to think of Mir as a little bit of Space that will be forever Scotland, but we have a working title for our miniature sovereignty - Cyberia.

The Free Church of Scotland is not only in schism; it may also be broke.Unless a legacy from a rich and expiring supporter were to rescue the ministers of the Free Kirk, it seems likely the only way to redeem their overdrafts is to sell off their manses.

One way being explored is to ask every Kirk-supporter to save through the Church by creating a Free Kirk Friendly Society. This would be highly tax-efficient and rather a clever if worldly way out of their embarrassments. If every believer saved through the Kirk rather than through his bank or post office, the Kirk would bounce back into robust health. It is not impossible that non-Kirk members, or at least those who had fallen out of membership, could rejoin for the defined financial advantages of the Kirk offering a savings service.

The Registrar of Friendly Societies, which will have to authorise any new savings society, says it will smile upon any constructive proposals.

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