The sun shines in Orkney and in Qom

Good to be back here and to have talked to friendly and welcoming people at Kirkwall airport, the Islander swooping down over blue water and yellow sand in Moclett Bay, the loch beyond it, then sight of the Holm.



Philosophers rather than philosopher kings, says Mill. A ghastly version of the latter's arbitrary power is found in Iran, which has been holding parliamentary elections. I remember reading some undergraduate essays on Aristiotle's 'mixed polity' and realising with a shock that this is exactly what Iran has had since the Revolution. It is not surprising that the Shia should take such a course since there is a tradition of reverence for the Philosopher. Shia saints have reported their dreams about conversation with Aristotle (see Roy Mottahedeh's impressive The Mantle of the Prophet). Anyway, the mixed polity is precisely a democratic parliament overseen by a small group of the great and the good (the council of guardians) who have a power of veto over proposed legislation. As in the last elections, this body has disqualified reformists from standing on the grounds that they are insufficiently 'Islamic' so the whole thing is skewed by the resulting dominance of conservatives.