Tim Worstall

At the ASI. On this innovation malarkey.

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OK, so Asda has cut the price of bananas. Cue people going bananas about this. How will the workers be able to live at these prices and so on. Best bit: The Fairtrade Foundation has attempted to protect smaller growers by setting a minimum guaranteed price paid to its farmers. The system seemed to work [...]

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Doctors say hospital patients have died as a result of new restrictions on medics’ working hours brought in by the European Union. Aren’t we such lucky, lucky people. The European Working Time Directive includes hours “on call” in the weekly limit. As a result, doctors who used to spend a day on the wards, followed [...]

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But he’s not alone in seeking to influence the UK from the far right whilst living far away. Note that the Wikipedia entry for Tim Worstall says: Since September 2007, Worstall has been the press officer for the UK Independence Party. He lives in Portugal with his wife. I guess that’s one form of independence from the [...]

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Compass: It could start by imposing a windfall tax on energy companies profits, coupled with price controls to ensure the cost of such a tax is not passed onto consumers. In fact why not impose a windfall tax for the next 5-10 years to guarantee these firms stump up the cash for all the investment [...]

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As Bob and The Guardian point out: The Guardian has learned that Alexander Heath, a director of the increasingly influential free market, rightwing lobby group, lives in a farmhouse in the Loire and has not paid British tax for years. As The Guardian then doesn’t go on to point out The Scott Trust is based [...]

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It is my opinion that Johanna Kaschke is “one cherry short of a Schwarzwalderkirschtorte” That is all.

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Linda Bellos: But it is reasonable to expect our television programmes to be more representative of British society. Where, for instance, is the disabled community on our screens – either as drivers or presenters? When have we had the feature on Top Gear about cars and motoring for disabled drivers? And from the comments:

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Where the reminder that government is not an incubus on the free market but the symbol of our collective endeavour? What collective endeavour? For there to be such there has to be some point, some goal, some desired final outcome. Which, of course, we as a society as a whole, as a collective, don’t in [...]

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If I were a rich man (da da da da da da da…sing it Tevye!) I would buy this company. Whatever the theory, the practice of change-ringing church bells is peculiarly English., and the founding of bells spans the centuries. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry boasts of its foundation in 1570, though it developed from local [...]

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Russian regional elections ‘rigged by Kremlin’, opposition claims

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A blade on a wind turbine in Sheffield has broken in strong winds for the second time in 15 months. Well, hey, mechanical things break, just what mechanical things do. A Sheffield University spokeswoman said : “It is not clear why this happened and an investigation is being carried out by the wind turbine manufacturers. [...]

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Winter comes earlier than ever to US Yes, yes, I know weather isn’t climate. But years and years of weather is climate, by definition….

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It looks as if the man’s talents know no bounds! Here he is on economic history: So let’s examine some facts. From 1950 to 1973 there were no recessions. Not one. From 1980 to date (when neo-liberalism has reigned) there have been five. The 1950s and 1960 were the American dream years. It’s a fairly [...]

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The modern student existence is a far cry from the ‘fleapit’ one portrayed in the 1980s student sitcom The Young Ones and more like the spendthrift life enjoyed in Friends, according to Professor Kevin Sharpe, an expert in renaissance studies at Queen Mary, University of London. Writing in the Times Higher Education magazine, the 60-year-old, [...]

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Oh dear: now the peace prize is given to someone actively prosecuting two separate wars. Who was that bloke who talked about NewSpeak?

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Our man seems not to realise that this argues against his very desire of having more worker communes: Before we get too excited though, it is worth understanding the full scale of the limitations and obstacles facing this form of communist organisation. Islands of worker co-operatives face enormous obstacles in regard to competition from capitalist [...]

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On a piece about female ejaculation and how absolutely awful the film censors are not to allow it to be shown. How unlike the homelife of our own dear Queen. Although perhaps it should be said that the one person who knows ain’t talking.

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Most women with very young children, Odone says, want to look after them for themselves; most of those with older children do not want to work full-time. A YouGov poll commissioned for the report shows that only 12 per cent of mothers want to work full-time; 31 per cent do not want to work at [...]

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The most tangible undertaking that Herbert was to address the manner in which the public sector procures the £2 billion worth of food that it consumes per annum. All the bacon that the Army eats is foreign, much of it not reared to the animal welfare standards to which our farmers have to adhere. This [...]

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