Tim Worstall

The research found that the new channel pulled in more than double the projected audience of 250,000, finding that 15 per cent of the Scottish population tuned into the station in the week following its launch on September 19. One in four Highlands and Islands viewers tuned on over the first week. The figures were [...]

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One of Richard Murphy’s buddies wrote this report. They’re talking about taxes in developing countries.  A fourth goal is to strengthen political representation. When governments are more dependent on tax revenues and less on income from natural resources, aid or debt financing, this generally stimulates accountability to citizens regarding the use of government funds. The [...]

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Take That confirmed today that they are to hit the road again for a huge British stadium tour next summer. Take That Present The Circus Live – Summer 2009 promises to be the be the band’s biggest tour yet, with eight stadium dates. The band said the shows will be packed with more drama and [...]

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I thought it was an obscure subscription service for professors. It was the Guardian.

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Joyous: The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay. What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for [...]

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The Express: aretha franklin SPENT THE SUMMER LEARNING TO PLAY THE PIANO FOR A FORTHCOMING ALBUM OF CLASSICAL COVERS. Spent the summer learning to play the piano did she? Do they not know that she’s always been regarded as one of the great piano players? Ahem.

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Bjork’s environmental understanding seems as confused as her music. Now we have three aluminium smelters, which are the biggest in Europe; and in the space of the next three years they want to build two more. The smelters would need energy from a handful of new geothermal power plants and the building of dams that [...]

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This isn’t going to turn out well, is it? Words to draw a picture of good government hold the key to winning the Keynes v Hayek argument. Polly’s going to explain the difference between those two to us? I think I need to build my strength before looking at that one. OK, I had a [...]

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Well, according to George Monbiot it’s that they don’t have central control of the school system. No, really. Our own centralised system is so much better, isn’t it. Well, isn’t it?

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Long piece about how the Maya al died because the ecology couldn’t support them…..just one line to note: Governments are beginning to assign monetary values to natural "assets" such as forests, a conceptual leap that could reinvent economics. Really? Noting that assets have values is going to revolutionise economics? I think you’ll find that assigning [...]

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Yes, it’s Boris: We should remember that the boom-slump cycle is a natural part of our history; indeed, it is indispensable to our psychological make-up. It is like love. It is a basically incurable condition, and we revert to it again and again. First. we conceive the passion – the Tulip Mania, the South Sea [...]

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How glorious! Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, is to announce a package of measures aimed at making it harder for extremists to enter the country. The new rules will also affect anyone suspected of advocating illegal action to stir up tensions, including anti-abortionists, far-right groups and animal rights activists. It is expected that foreign-born extremists [...]

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Umm, in, umm, the New Statesman. How long before Tribune?

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Here.

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At the ASI. Legalising and taxing drugs would rather help in these straightened times, no?

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Didja miss us? Didja? Didja?

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There is one good bit in Hutton today: China’s banking system is a house of cards, with billions of dollars of toxic loans made at the party’s request to loss-making enterprises set against tiny amounts of core capital. Both true and a warning to us. That’s what happens when you have political control of the [...]

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These laddies do have a point. Further to your interview with Alistair Darling, we would like to dissent from the attempt to use a public works programme to spend the country’s way out of recession. It is misguided for the Government to believe that it knows how much specific sectors of the economy need to [...]

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At the ASI. The way to solve poverty is to encourage and facilitate the creation of more wealth.

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The rules make it clear that all "gifts" to Commissioners with a value of over £120 must be included in a declaration of interests. But, unlike MEPs, Commissioners are not bound to declare free holidays or hospitality they receive – such as a night’s accommodation on a yacht – as this is apparently not counted [...]

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