Tim Worstall

To conclude then, I don’t think the current relatively mild downturns in the US and UK can be considered a vindication of the anglo-saxon model. That is, that there are economies with decent structures should not be taken as a vindication of that structure. Hmmm.

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And note the involvement of Sir James Mirrless – the man who is heading the Institute of Fiscal Studies current pl;ans to reform the UK tax  system by shifting all corporation tax liabilities onto VAT so that the burden of tax moves from the wealthiest in society to the poorest. Sigh. We’ve had both Vince [...]

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Michael Gerson is the rare public intellectual who defies even the stopped clock cliche—he manages to be wrong pretty much all of the time. The ever-earnest former Bush speechwriter and current Washington Post columnist combines a Naderite’s grasp of economics with an Ed Meese-ian appreciation for individual liberty. Think roughly Polly Toynbee’s grasp of economics [...]

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Fully Furnished Apartments For Rent in Ulaanbaatar 2 bedrooms, 3rd floor, 115m2, Located Next to Continental Hotel , $1000/mo Fascinating stuff, eh?

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Frank Field’s proposals for that compulsory voluntary service. You do your 6 months or a year, then: …..and a final citizenship ceremony. Have you ever in your puff seen such a perfect perisher? British citizenship, for those born here, is not something which is in the gift of the Government. It is not the State’s [...]

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Sir Fred’s mob thieves from fellow citizens and their pension funds by avoiding tax and snatching monstrous "remuneration" instead of mugging and looting, but "everyone does it" is how they would each explain their milieu. Or is that just far enough away of accusing Goodwin of actual theft that it isn’t libellous? The two extremes [...]

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Anecdotally, it is often said that brass players – often overwhelmingly male orchestral sections – drink the most. Brass sections have always been rather laddish….and "anecdotally" they used to travel with rather more cases than they had instruments to put them in so as to get the alcohol moved around. Indeed, Sir Georg Solti used [...]

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At the ASI. Why, just because the economy seems to be going back a year or two, are people recommending that the legal and moral situation go back 200?

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The Prime Minister has threatened legal action against the former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland to recover the money, amid mounting public and political anger over the deal. But last night, lawyers said Mr Brown would almost certainly fail to recoup any of Sir Fred’s £16.9 million pension pot, which was approved by his [...]

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Sometimes ideas are so good yet so simple that you wonder why they haven’t been enacted by the Government already. This is the case for the recently published proposals from James Crabtree and Frank Field MP to establish a compulsory civic service for young people in the UK. Whilst Hampstead liberals and professional harridans will [...]

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For those who haven’t already come across him (and there can’t be that many of you who haven’t) I present Stanislav: ….in HighJocklands is no bastard dentist for suffering human sonoffuckingbitch with toothache or fucking abcess. Oh, fuck me, the noo, says First Minister McSalmond, is all fault of Englishbastard steal all my fucking oil, [...]

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a minimalistic bog-roll society need not be a utopian fantasy

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We need to go back only ten years, to fiscal year 1999, to reach a time when the government’s total outlays were smaller than this year’s deficit.

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Quite: This is understandable. The FARC are a only bunch of illiterate peasant drug dealers who have been force-fed Marxist Boloxology. This is combined with the arrogance and egotism of knowing they have the power of life and death over people thanks to their drug bought AK-47’s. They are trained to take what they want [...]

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Is BBC reporter Robert Peston a government stooge? Dunno. Cananyone enlighten me? Start with what is this BBC thing and then tell me whether I should care who Peston is.

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No, really, that’s their latest campaign. The tenderness of the delicate American buttock is causing more environmental devastation than the country’s love of gas-guzzling cars, fast food or McMansions, according to green campaigners. At fault, they say, is the US public’s insistence on extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply products when they use the bathroom. "This is [...]

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We are all stakeholders of limited liability entities – they have an obligation to us all. Everything belongs to society, don’tcher know?

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Looks like it is indeed part of a contract: It has emerged that Lord Myners, the City minister, signed off the deal which swelled Sir Fred’s pension pot by a staggering £8 million, leaving the Prime Minister and the Chancellor facing serious questions over how much they knew about the payoff. Lord Myners was involved [...]

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The complaint against Pendergest-Holt said she failed to tell investigators she had served on the Antigua bank’s investment committee and that the investment portfolio holding more than 80 per cent of its assets included a $1.6 billion loan to Stanford "Executive A" – evidently Stanford himself. It said Pendergest-Holt also wrongly denied she had prepared [...]

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In 1066 and all that there is the famous erratum admission….for sausage read hostage, for pheasant read peasant and vice versa. In our more modern 2009 we have the creation of endless Tsars of this and that. I think the erratum slip for our present rulers should read "for Tsar read Commissar". No?

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