Tim Worstall

The TUC: More substantively, this initiative takes the seed of a good idea and then denudes it of integrity. Anyone who has worked in our public services knows that it’s the people who deliver those services who often know how best those services could be delivered. It’s the hospital porters, local government admin workers and [...]

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Lucrezia, 46, whose real name was given only as Ira V.D.

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Finally the figures are being exposed. Spending on welfare has risen by 40 per cent in real terms over 10 years of unprecedented economic growth. In that time the number of people claiming disability benefit has trebled and housing benefit doubled. This week, the loudest voices are warning that Mr Osborne’s cap on housing benefit [...]

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Finally, something really eminently sensible from politicians: The age for retirement will rise every five years under radical moves by the coalition to curb the £55 billion-a-year state pension bill. New laws are expected to be introduced in this Parliament that will link pension payments to life expectancy for the first time, senior government sources [...]

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that Hopey Changey thing that keeps getting lefties popping up like buoyant logs in the lavatory pan of life.

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Yes, yes, of course it’s all BP’s fault….. BP PLC and other big oil companies based their plans for responding to a big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on U.S. government projections that gave very low odds of oil hitting shore, even in the case of a spill much larger than the current [...]

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Something wrong with Ritchie’s maths I think. His estimates of the number that the baby eating Gideon will throw into the reserve army of the unemployed are based upon cash cuts from current cash spending. When, of course, there are no cash cuts from current levels of spending. There are simply cuts in planned levels [...]

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Yes, I do sign up for this from Sir Brian Barder. Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection are an abomination. Fair enough when the determination is of, as an example, mental illness. A sectioning of indeterminate time until that mental illness is dealt with seems entirely reasonable. We don’t hold the mentally ill responsible for their [...]

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Too easy to game, way too easy. Ahem. Yes.

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They’re all over this one like a rash. The judge who overturned deepwater drilling bans allowing BP to resume oil extraction in the Gulf of Mexico, had shares in Transocean and other firms in the industry, it was revealed today. Yesterday, a Louisiana-based judge Martin Feldman ruled that Barack Obama’s six-month drilling moratorium in the [...]

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In real terms spending is actually projected to carry on going up—from £637 billion in 2010-11 to £711 billion in 2015-16—but that still represents the biggest squeeze since World War II. Government departments that are unprotected (all bar the giant health budget and the minuscule amount spent on overseas aid) can expect dramatic cuts in [...]

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Over the next four years the top rate of corporation tax in the country will be reduced from 28% to 24%, only paid for in part by a small reduction in the investment allowances large businesses (in particular) enjoy. Small companies will, at the same time, see a fall in their corporation tax rate from [...]

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This gamble will fail. Give it three years and, as I predicted on Radio 2 today, we’ll be seeing unemployment at 4 million, almost no cut in the deficit and the coalition government a distant memory after its chaotic disintegration as backbenchers fled its ranks. Furthermore, a new government will be announcing a budget to [...]

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Those great founders of modern liberal thinking, Keynes and Beveridge, would have blanched at the amazing spectacle of Clegg, Cable and Alexander nodding their agreement on the front bench, a useful row of fig leaves. Blanched indeed….they would be wondering how on earth we had got to a situation where the government spent 50% of [...]

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So, we’re going to see whether this Keynesian thing actually works or not, aren’t we? Absolutely every commentator even vaguely left of centre says that the fiscal contraction (ie, the combination of spending cuts and tax rises) is going to devastate the economy. We’re going to get a double dip recession, unemployment will go over [...]

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With all this bleating about green taxes etc: why didn’t Osborne simply cancel the special low rate of VAT for home energy?

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Ok, yes, it’s all very early. But. umm… Has anyone, ever, once won the World Cup as either player or captain…..and then won it again as coach? Modern period I mean?

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That instant budget analysis at The Register. Not a list of what is being done, rather, taking the few interesting points and explaining them. VAT up, Corporation tax down, good, bank levy, good, personal allowance up, good…..

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So we have a new bank levy – to be charged on bank assets. Err, no. Plans for a global bank levy took a major step forward on Tuesday as the UK announced it would raise £2.5bn with a tax on bank balance sheets and the leaders of France and Germany called for the Group [...]

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Oh good grief Polly. If the Tories were really brave, they could end the drug prohibition that is so costly in cash and lives. The previous government’s strategy unit estimated that current drugs policy costs £20m – £15m of that in crime, courts and prisons. Some 40% of prisoners committed crimes to support their habit; 95% [...]

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