Tim Worstall

In a move which will horrify many parents, it would see children focus on internet tools such as Wikipedia and podcasting, as well as innovations such as blogging and Twitter, which allows users to post instant minute-by-minute updates about their lives. Although I have to admit, I don´t think the educational establishment hsa quite thought [...]

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I know, everyone´s saying that bankers are overpaid for failure. Disgusting, isn´t it? However, we do seem to have an example of a bank getting it right. Mr Diamond was paid £250,000 in 2008, down from £21m in 2007. He also received a previously disclosed cash award of £7.5m, which was a pay-out for an [...]

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So soon? First, the Office for National Statistics announced that inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, rose from 3pc to 3.2pc last month rather than falling as all economists expected……..A further surprise was that Retail Price Index inflation – the broader measure which includes the effect of mortgage rate cuts – did not [...]

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Sarah Teather, the Lib Dem MP for Brent East who does not claim the allowance, said her commute takes 30 minutes on the Tube and it was "appalling" that other MPs in a similar position claimed for a second home. She said: "I am eligible to claim it which is ridiculous, it’s absurd and my [...]

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Spandau Ballet to reform Quick, what´s the fastest way to Heathrow? Is Heathrow the fastest way out of the country?

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Hello, How are you doing?hope all is well with you, i am sorry that i didn’t inform you about my traveling to England for a Seminar. I need a favor from you as soon as you receive this e-mail because i misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money,and other valuable [...]

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Here.

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Am I allowed to make an Irish joke here? Gangsters videoed their crime boss accidentally blowing his brains out with a handgun during a drink and drugs party, police revealed yesterday. Philip Collopy, 29, a member of a feuding gang in Limerick, Ireland, apparently did not realise his Glock 9mm pistol was loaded when he [...]

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The Tory MP Desmond Swayne MP said:…."The current system is a constant source of grievance for the public, who now hold us in contempt. They hate us and think we all have our snouts in the trough." They do? How could that happen? The proposed pay rise would boost an MP’s basic wage to more [...]

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As we keep being told, relying upon financial services and services in general just isn´t the way to run an economy. You have to produce thigs of "real value". Things you can drop on your foot. We have to have a large and vibrant manufacturing sector otherwise we´ll simply not be able to grow our [...]

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Karma like: Two Komodo dragons mauled a fruit-picker to death in eastern Indonesia, the latest attack on humans by the world’s largest lizard. Police Sergeant Kosmas Jalang said Muhamad Anwar, 31, was attacked on Komodo, one of four islands where the giant reptile is found in the wild, minutes after he fell out of a [...]

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But that is changing rapidly, as the middle class expands and economic growth continues to barrel along at gobsmacking rates. For years, environmentalists have speculated about what would happen if consumption in the poor world matched consumption in the rich, talking of the number of planets that would be required to sustain us. Now the [...]

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Charles Darwin spent more money on expensive shoes than books while studying at Cambridge University, newly-discovered records show. Stunning, isn´t it? I really cannot believe that in a place with libraries stuffed with free books and with nary a free cobbler to be seen that this could be true.

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There are a number of people out there insisting that the solution to the banking system problems is to mutualise that system. If there were no greedy shareholders looking to profit then decision would be made purely in the interests of depositors and borrowers and in some manner all would be right with the world. [...]

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I find myself agreeing with the Grauniad: Her shamelessness never became her more than in the manner of her dying.

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At the ASI. When is it appropriate to have judgement based regulation and when to have rules based? Please do comment over there if you’ve got a clearer vision on this than I have.

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Under George W Bush, middle-class workers saw their productivity rise, but not their wages. Meanwhile, healthcare costs soared. And as middle class healthcare is paid for by employers those workers saw their compensation rise along with productivity. The returns to labour are total compensation you know, not just wages.

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i’m in the uncomfortable position of thinking that we’ve lost something of a national treasure. The first time she was mentioned in the press, in May 2002, Jade Goody was described as a "pretty dental nurse, 20, from London". But 24 hours later, as she began her gobby, ignorant trajectory in the Big Brother house, [...]

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Well done, cracking match, you deserved it. However, d’ye think you could have let this bloke write his article before you got him drunk rather than after?

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One need only look at the debate about population to understand the full extent of that institutionalised denial and disconnect. Though I have studiously avoided banging the population drum on this particular occasion, I remain astonished that so few people (even at the most progressive end of civil society) are prepared to accept that a [...]

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