Tim Worstall

Gurgle, snort: On 7 March 2010, I wrote a comment piece for the Independent on Sunday. Coinciding with the publication of my second book, Girl With a One Track Mind: Exposed, my article argued that sexism and stigma are still prevalent in how female sexuality is portrayed in the media, and that these old-fashioned stereotypes [...]

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Let me try to get this straight. The Justice Department announced last weekend that it has dropped its criminal investigation into wrongdoing by the former executives of American International Group Financial Products, or A.I.G.-F.P. — the group inside A.I.G. that foolishly decided to insure billions of dollars of risk in the mortgage market, and got [...]

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Until multinational corporations are required to have non-execs from outside business they will not be brought to account. And don’t argue the skills aren’t possible. We run governments on this basis….. I can’t say that I’m entirely convinced that bringing the standards of transparency, effectiveness and efficiency of government to multi-national companies is actually a step forward. [...]

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While comment is free……Guardian leader: So others call for a change in the law. Straight legalisation of sex work is ruled out…. The problem with this being that sex work isn’t illegal in the first place. Anyone and everyone has the perfect liberty to whore out their gonads (or any other part of their anatomy). [...]

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Still not quite got the point of these academies and free schools has our Ms. Millar: The model funding agreement left by Labour attempted to bind academies into the local authority family. If that is torn up by Gove, chaos could ensue… The calculation is that chaos is better than having schools bound into the [...]

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Here.

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Plans to link retirement age to life expectancy are being studied by the man in charge of welfare reform. A simple and obvious thing which we deperately need to do. How and when you retire on your savings or private pension arrangements is of course entirely up to you. But the State pension should really [...]

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So, having had the judgment that it’s OK to have BNP members teaching our kids, it seems these extremists don’t even have to be quiet about their bigotry. What exactly would it take for a deep-seated racist to be ruled unfit to teach? I have to admit to being a little puzzled over this. The [...]

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New think tank/blog from Carswell and Hannan. As usual, mixture of decent ideas with not so decent. For example, Yay! to the Swiss version of dealing with the EU while devolving power to counties rather than England seems a tad odd. But worth a look….

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Mobile phone number 0888 888 888 is suspended after every user assigned to it DIES OK, so this is about a number that seems to have been handed on to various Bulgarian Mafia types as each one in turn was assassinated…which could lead to some interesting calls from those who haven’t been following the Death [...]

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David Marquand says that the solution to our economic and political ills is: No single thinker, party or school of thought offers a complete answer, or anything like it. Answers will have to be hammered out in open-minded dialogue, between all those who accept that tinkering is not enough, across the lines of party and [...]

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So here’s a depressing calculation. War in Korea is still unlikely but not as unlikely as it was. But let us apply some Benthamite utilitarianism to the problem. Start with this: 1) The 24 million odd North Koreans are being vilely oppressed by their own government. Millions have died in famines caused by the State’s [...]

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FRENCH first lady Carla Bruni faced huge embarrassment yesterday after an X-rated sex interview from her steamy past came to light. ……. She wore a blue shirt and black trousers as she was pictured stroking goats. First and last lines of Sun article.

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Photo from The Times. Captioned “Cornelia Kamm, like many German workers, resents her nation?s role as paymaster to Europe” Which one is Cornelia? An alternative caption could be “Why German men are so keen on invading France once a generation”.

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George Monbiot recommends: There is a short and simple solution, first proposed 11 years ago by the journalist Peter Wilby. Oxford and Cambridge, he suggested, should offer places to the top one or two pupils from every school, regardless of grades. The next-best universities would offer places to the pupils who come third and fourth, [...]

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Now, we all know how budgets work in bureaucracies. You amble along and then see the end of the budget year approaching. OMG! We have budget available to spend! Quick, quick buy something! For if we don’t spend our budget this year then next year’s will be cut. So, allow the bureaucracy to bumble along [...]

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Guess which retired accountant needs to read up a little bit more on the economics of taxation? Capital is an accumulation of property rights based on these and is not in itself wealth generating That is why it should be taxed more heavily The general consensus among economists is that returns to capital should be [...]

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Nuclear power – energy released from atomic nuclei via controlled nuclear reactions – is a safer, more environmentally friendly source of electricity. Simply put, nuclear power is “clean”. No pollutants or greenhouse gasses, no impact on respiratory health, no connection with other adverse human health effects. So why are we still relying on coal and [...]

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Documents found that show that S Africa was thinking of buying nuclear warheads from Israel. I’m not sure how surprising that is but still. Anyway, what to look out for now: people cliaming that this proves that Israel is acting illegally in having nuclear weapons….and the corollary, that if Israel has them then why can’t [...]

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SIR – The Department of International Development is spending some £9 billion a year, some of which goes on the provision of trips from Britain to South Africa for young, female soccer coaches. No doubt friendships have been made, lives improved and a good time had by all – but this is hardly the reduction [...]

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