Tim Worstall

Still going strong I see: Avatar banned by Chinese sensors because plot ‘could cause civil unrest’ Wonder if that headline made it into the print version? But Chinese sensors are reportedly Same mistake in the body of the piece as well….someone using a spell checker here? As to the larger issue this is of course [...]

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Sigh. Being anti-tax is anti-democracy now. Richard Teather: This is attacking a classic use of a tax haven, as explained in the previous chapter, in which a person resident in (or otherwise subject to the taxation system of) a highly taxed country places his capital in a tax haven where it can earn untaxed income. [...]

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Ray Winstone, Ricky Gervais, Marco Pierre White, and Trevor Nelson are just some of the celebrities sharing their biggest “clangers” to support Macmillan Cancer Support’s Cancertalk Week… I’ve heard of two of the four so maybe they are celebs?

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Well, quite Bob. It is illiberal and it is over-prescriptive regulation. It’s also profoundly un-British to try and regulate how people dress. And I’m agin’ it.

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Folks, no one “made Haiti poor”. Certainly there have been actions by all sorts of people of right and left, thugs and even the well meaning, which have made Haiti poorer than it should be or could be. Everything from supporting grossly incompetent dictators to demanding reparations and stupidity about trade. But the sort of [...]

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At the ASI. On the new paternalism and why it fails.

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Here.

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Ban butter to save thousands of lives, says heart surgeon Doctors demand ban on ‘damaging’ trans fats Do make up your minds guys.

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Politicians want us to believe that it is possible to make better-off people richer without making poor people poorer. Stunning that politicians actually are accused of holding a belief which is true. Similarly stunning that The Guardian assumes that this is obviously not true. The Guardian is stuck in that idea that the size of [...]

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So, any mechanical or propulsion engineers out there? What are the Shuttle’s main engines made out of? The SSMEs? My assumption given the temperatures they run at would be some form of high nickel alloy. But anyone actually know?

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A very silly move indeed. David Cameron will pledge to restore the status of teaching as a “noble profession”, barring entry to the classroom to people with poor qualifications. The private school system is where those without teaching qualifications (post grad degrees in education etc) can find jobs as teachers. The private school system seems [...]

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The man’s quite wonderful. Removing the stimulus will involve pain; lower growth, higher unemployment and political unpopularity. But policy-makers don’t like lower growth, higher unemployment and political unpopularity. They enacted the stimulus in the first place to avoid it! At what point will they decide they do want lower growth, higher unemployment and political unpopularity? [...]

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OK, so there’s been a kerfluffle about Jonathan Gruber. World class health economist was being paid by the Obama admin while he was writing Op/Eds supporting Obamacare and not revealing such payments. Over here of course that’s entirely normal: in US style journalism it’s considered one of the great sins, not declaring interests. OK, well, [...]

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Why did we prosecute those Muslim protesters from Luton, who called returning British soldiers “murderers”? It may have been a singularly unpleasant thing to do, but shouting nasty things and holding up placards has only recently been seen as something which should be dragged before the courts. Racism is an overused commodity these days — [...]

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On a recent post about the list of idiots I get this comment: As one of the idiots, I’d like to thank Mr Worstall for being so right about everything. His absolute certainty in his own judgement makes me feel confident that his policy recommendations must make complete sense and that his analysis of how [...]

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Oh dearie me: THE Labour peer Baroness Uddin may face a fresh fraud inquiry following the discovery of a second “home” address which she used to claim £91,000 expenses. Uddin claimed the home of her brother and his family in the Essex resort of Frinton-on-Sea was her main residence. Last week his wife said she [...]

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Five years ago the government funded the launch of online marketplaces in which anyone could sell their spare hours to local employers. Amy Sutton, 24, from west London, is one of thousands of “slivers-of-time workers”. With a history of depression going back six years, she needed employment that would fit around the good days. At [...]

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Racism trumps all other evils in society, period. Barbara Ellen. Seriously? Jebus woman, get a grip. Racism  trumps slavery? Yes, there are still societies which have slavery and our own did in the past. Racism trunps crucifixion in the public square? Yes, this does still exist in some societies (it is still a punishment used [...]

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This unfortunate consequence of free speech has inspired a host of worthies, including Diane Abbott, Sunny Hundal and Will Straw, to proclaim the importance of columnist-containment. Sunny? “Worthy”?

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No one who opposed John Major claimed he was lying when he said that taking the pound out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism was in Britain’s best interests. We confined ourselves to the truthful charge that he had made a monumental policy blunder. Nick Cohen. We need a bit of clarification of that. The policy [...]

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