Tim Worstall

If the building of new nuclear plants goes ahead we will all be expected to pay an extra levy on our bills to pay for it, this could be as much as 10% extra. This demonstrates how wrong the balance between private and public contribution is and the urgent need for greater equilibrium between the [...]

[Read more →]

OK, so we’ve got several people saying that big banks need to be broken up so that none of them are “too big to fail”. Hmm, not sure I agree really. Still, leave that aside for a moment, here’s what Ritchie has to say about it: And if ever evidence was needed of why we [...]

[Read more →]

see more funny facebook stuff!

[Read more →]

Who could Ritchie be thinking of? But let me also say why hgis wish may at present be forlorn. Step outside the accepted paradigm and I can assure you the whispering campaign against you is very powerful and very strong indeed. I know. I’m well aware of the whispering campaign against me from big business, vested interests [...]

[Read more →]

Wouldn’t say that George Irvin is one of my favourite economists…..SOAS tends not to produce those to my ideological flavour. Or even to what I regard as the basic rules of logic. But still, this is interesting. Essentially, trying a Green New Deal and a massive Keynesian stimulus for the economy would lead to a [...]

[Read more →]

The car scrappage scheme has protected about 4,000 jobs in the UK auto industry, Government estimates have claimed. At a cost of £400 million. As stimulus measures go this isn’t all that effective. The number of jobs saved is of course at the high end of estimates: no, don’t be silly about this, this is [...]

[Read more →]

Knife crime has grown because the decline of Empire has given boys no other adventure to take part in, according to Joanna Lumley. It is true that young Anglo Saxon males have a thing about drinking till they vomit and fighting, in the absence of any foreigners they’ve historically been quite capable of inventing some [...]

[Read more →]

Sunny Hundal’s back in town. His first post contains this: Liddle doesn’t believe in free speech – he simply believes in his right to say what he wants

[Read more →]

Mr Holes is obviously homophobic and should not be insulting people with his anti-gay tirades. He should be challenged and people should protest against his intolerance. However, in a democratic, free society it is wrong to prosecute him. Criminalisation is not appropriate. The price of freedom of speech is that we sometimes have to put up [...]

[Read more →]

Weird or what? Blond is a man for big ideas, sweeping statements and the grand historical overview. His key selling point is the way he bundles together the unexpected: a passion for social justice alongside an instinctive social conservatism. We’ve a word for that combination: facism. Either Franco or Salazar would have been delighted to [...]

[Read more →]

I see the cost of [solar] photovoltaics going down and down. Right now it’s about $4 per watt for full installation. In 10 years’ time, it will certainly be less than $2. If it’s $1 or $1.25 then everyone will put it up without subsidy. That’s Steven Chu, US Energy Sexcretary. And he’s absolutely right. [...]

[Read more →]

Probably pure blind luck but still: as Napoleon pointed out, luck ain’t a bad thing to have. So Gideon’s decided to reduce the NI…the tax upon jobs. Which is a good thing. Yes, this is even more of a good thing the further left (or Keynesian perhaps) you go. Rightie kitten skinners (but only if [...]

[Read more →]

I have a feeling that people have got this story all wrong: CIVIL servants were furious yesterday after bosses fitted timers to stop them spending longer than 10 minutes on the loo. The cost-cutting measures were introduced at the Government Office for the West Midlands. A hidden sensor switches off the toilet light after 10 [...]

[Read more →]

Eating Jamie Oliver’s school dinners improves children’s performance in tests, according to researchers who claim that the celebrity chef’s campaign to improve school food has had more impact than government literacy programmes. The paper is here. I would like to persuaded, really, I would. But I’m afraid I’m not. Not everyone eats school meals of [...]

[Read more →]

We’ve been trying to tell you for some time now. The State is not your friend.

[Read more →]

Shoppers choose hybrid cars, “green” washing-up liquid and energy-saving devices over cheaper but dirtier alternatives partly to improve their social status, according to a new study published today. Researchers found consumers are willing to sacrifice luxury and performance to benefit from the perceived social status that comes from buying a product with a reduced environmental [...]

[Read more →]

He was inspired by the anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin (1842-1917), who wanted to replace capitalism not with state ownership but with “Mutual Aid”, a grass roots co-operative system dedicated to the communal good. Ward, by contrast, saw a need for some elements of centralised authority in a modern bureaucratic state, but felt that the welfare [...]

[Read more →]

A political comments thread in which underpants emporia in backwater New Zealand gain more attention than George Galloway and Respect. This is why democracy works folks, the Great British Public do indeed have a sense of proportion and are able to zero in on the important things in life.

[Read more →]

Via Obo: Double Entry Man Calculator Boy Wonder Auditing Woman The Cash Book Kid Invoice Reconciliation Girl All are ready to battle the dreaded Evil Bankers, who The Justice League OF Accountancy vow will never again be able to bring the world to the verge edge of financial ruin in their power-lust for ever-larger bonuses! [...]

[Read more →]

Ritchie decides to critique the Washington Consensus. It’s the usual amusement from him, anything which reduces the power of the State is bad m’kay? But what’s really fun is that he uses as his source document this. Which is a very good source document indeed, showing that a goodly portion of the things Ritchie complains [...]

[Read more →]