Tim Worstall

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Above all, global warming is increasing the scarcity of natural resources. It is? All the copper in those mines is evaporating as a result of the higher temperatures no doubt.

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‘Did you know that 54 per cent of all Americans believe that the world was created 6,000 years ago? That’s 1,000 years after the Sumerians invented glue.’

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Parents who want their children to eat healthily should focus more on serving them extra fruit and vegetables and less on giving them expensive organic produce, according to one of the country’s leading nutrition experts. Organic food for reasons of taste, for moral reasons perhaps, but not because it’s doing you good. For the extra [...]

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So, the Speaker insisting that the housing expenses cannot be revealed because to do so would reveal the address of the MP: General election ballot papers carry a home address for every candidate. So, to be umm, charitable, that’s not a very strong argument is it?

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At the ASI. Should we compensate the losers from trade?

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Yes, to be welcomed. Tens of thousands of NHS patients will be given money to pay for their own health care in a controversial "voucher" scheme under new government plans. Patients with a range of illnesses will have direct control of "individual health budgets", allowing them to decide how to spend money at present allocated [...]

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So I just hope all the environmental NGOs can rally the troops in London in a pro-Ken campaign, even if they can’t come out and explicitly endorse him. No, of course they can’t explicitly endorse him: that would be illegal, wouldn’t it? But mytrue venom is reserved for this idiotic statement. Wouldn’t it be great, [...]

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There are two grisly mistakes this Government seems to make in the area of public welfare. The first is to mistake the category of thing that falls under its remit; the second to mistake the nature of what it is able to achieve. As reasonable a statement of the classically liberal case as you’re going [...]

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OK: "Our overall conclusion is that the economic benefits of net immigration to the resident population are small and close to zero in the long run," the report will say. Let’s say they’re right. The benefits to the immigrants are large, if not huge. It’s thus a net addition to human happiness.  

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At the ASI. If there were indeed legions of non-smokers desperate to go to pubs, then why are so many pubs going bust?

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At the GI. An intriguing piece of research about trade.

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….makes USA Today.

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The 2013 Olympic Games are going to be fun, aren’t they?

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I’ve been deperately trying to get my head around Dean Baker’s proposals for reducing the costs of pharmaceuticals. Essentially, as I understand it, do not allow patents on drugs. Instead, pay development costs directly from tax revenue and thus the drugs will be sold at marginal cost, rather than having to bear the costs of [...]

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At The Business. Rising train fares and on Britishness.

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Get yours now!

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What a great New York Post headline.

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A Second World War Luftwaffe pilot who last saw the city of Bath from the cockpit of a Dornier bomber is to return for the first time in 66 years next month to apologise. Willi Schludecker, now 87, took part in three raids on the city that killed 400 and destroyed scores of Georgian buildings [...]

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Eeek! An alternative vote (AV), ranking candidates in 1,2,3 order, allows for a second preference to be redistributed from the lowest-scoring candidate’s share until one candidate has more than 50% of the vote. It’s hardly revolutionary, but it makes it worthwhile to vote for a smaller party as first choice, with a second-choice backstop to [...]

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