You must be the U.S.A.

Today we bring you an account of disgraceful interference with free trade, originating right in the land of Adam Smith. This is worse than what Airbus does to Boeing, worse than what Chinese exporters are able to do with their artificially cheap exchange rate: it's the provision of a subsidy to those trendy Glasgow Art School boys in Franz Ferdinand to help them make it big in the US. This is revealed in a very funny comment piece in the London Times today by Magnus Linklater, who recounts how:

As Chairman of the Scottish Arts Council I presided over the birth of a scheme to use government funds to back emerging talent on the pop music scene, and Franz Ferdinand are one of the groups to have benefited. Last year they were given £1,700 to help them to attend a major music convention in Texas

The article goes on to explain how he didn't feel qualified to judge the merit of their music, but was uncomfortable with the usual alternative of not giving public money to music that people actually seem to like. As it happens, he has come to like their music and is especially taken by their neo-Eurotrash posing:

I particularly liked one track called Darts of Pleasure. Its last line is in German: "Ich heisse super fantastische/ Ich trinke champers mit lachsfisch." It means "I am called super-fantastic. I drink champagne with salmon."

The boasting about drinking champagne in German makes for a nice counterpoint of course with Snoop Dogg --

I got the rolly [Rolex] on my arm and I'm pouring Chandon
And I roll the best weed cause I got it going on

-- who keeps coming up with funky ass lines like these without needing any government subsidies.

UPDATE MARCH 18 2005: on the other hand, maybe the UK subsidies are necessary to offset the effective protection of the US music industry via onerous visa restrictions on UK bands, as Scottish band Dogs Die in Hot Cars experienced.