Tim Worstall

Such a reform would be greatly assisted by the implementation of this week’s third big idea – Harriet Harman’s tremendous suggestion that we supplement our ponderous courts of law, with all their lawyers and blathering on, with a court of public opinion. This worked fantastically well in Iran after the revolution. The Revolutionary Tribunals didn’t [...]

[Read more →]

Not sure what to think of this idea except for this bit: The solution is to set up a system of International Monetary Exchanges (IMX) through which all interbank transactions would go. There would be one for each leading currency – a global euro exchange, a dollar exchange, a yen exchange and a sterling exchange. [...]

[Read more →]

This is really much too good to be true. The party’s 2009 European Elections poster shows a nostalgic picture of a Second World War fighter plane under the slogan "Battle for Britain". But RAF history experts have identified the iconic Romeo Foxtrot Delta Plane as belonging not to Britons but to a group of Polish [...]

[Read more →]

An official Parliamentary inquiry ruled last night that Mrs Spelman had "inadvertently" broken the rules on expenses. Mrs Spelman apologised and said she would immediately repay the money. Phew, bit of a relief, eh? I’ll use that next time I "inadvertently" walk out of the bank with ten grand that’s not mine shall I? Ooops, [...]

[Read more →]

The gap between men and women’s earnings is bigger in Britain than in most other European countries, research shows. Oooh, really? Official figures have disclosed that male workers take home 21 per cent more pay than their female colleagues in the UK, a greater gender pay divide than the EU average of 17.4 per cent. [...]

[Read more →]

Gadget experts said Apple’s move was a brave one but that the improved technology inside the new machines was not good enough to explain such a large price increase. OK, The company said currency fluctuations, with pound falling in value, has forced up its cost. Aha! This will of course be execellent news for the [...]

[Read more →]

The Prime Minister has insisted that he will not admit he was in any way responsible for the country’s economic troubles, despite being urged to by Alistair Darling. Mr Brown also rejected pleas from other Cabinet colleagues to issue any sort of apology for the role he played while Chancellor in allowing banks and the [...]

[Read more →]

see more dog and puppy pictures

[Read more →]

You can have it if you want it: Please stop talking about “natural” childbirth. If you want to have a baby naturally, take a break from farming, crawl under a bush, grunt twice, push the brat out, smear the cord with mud, and get back to hoeing turnips. That is "natural" childbirth. Twenty per cent [...]

[Read more →]

Social workers failed to warn foster parents about sexual offences committed by a teenager placed in their care who went on to rape their two-year-old son and abuse their nine-year-old daughter.

[Read more →]

If you want to find figures that make the public sector seem lush then ONS statistics show that, overall, public employees are slightly better paid. But that takes no account of the different levels of jobs. Since hospital, school and local authority manual work is mostly contracted out, there is a five times higher proportion [...]

[Read more →]

Obama that is. However: Maj Gen Carroll Childers, who compared the Democrat to "Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Mao, and Kim Jong Il". "He is an interloper, a usurper, a fake, a scam artist, a Chicago crook, a recipient of bribes and gratuitous income for which he paid no tax, a socialist (perhaps only a communist or [...]

[Read more →]

Except, really, it doesn’t. The terms are five for 12 at 2.54 as opposed to the pre rights price of 4.91. So 12 times 4.92 plus five times 2.54 divided by 17 gives us 4.21 as the theoretically correct (umm, odd theory I know) price for the shares after the announcement of the rights issue. [...]

[Read more →]

From one reader of this blog: The fucking state. Can’t even do the things that it should be doing… In reference to this. To apply for appropriate benefits, you have to fill out 10 different forms containing 1,194 questions, spread out over 319 pages. That’s to get care for a disabled child. Wouldn’t life be [...]

[Read more →]

Maybe, maybe not. Now, go away and do the analysis again looking at costs 17 years after the introduction of the new drugs, after the patents have run out. I very strongly suspect that you’ll get a very strong answer that yes, new drugs do reduce medical costs, but only after the mechanism we have [...]

[Read more →]

Pickled Politics is debating the idea of online debates with swivel eyed loonies. Ok if Tim (Worstall) is seen as too sane… Eh?

[Read more →]

Or maybe Berwick on Tweed.

[Read more →]

On the other side of the Atlantic, Barack Obama has had a clearer eye about what he is dealing with, and therefore a firmer grasp of what needs to be done. The president, being new to office and of a younger generation than Gordon Brown, is not trapped by the past compromises with casino capitalism [...]

[Read more →]

Not the best photo to use…. The problem in Russia is that these are not the exchange rates. The rouble is currently 36 to the dollar. Not the 25 and a bit protrayed.

[Read more →]

That means joblessness will match levels last seen in the early 1980s and 1990s. You mean that, in a recession, unemployment might reach the levels seen in the past two recessions?

[Read more →]