Tim Worstall

If people argue their case I’ll by and large let them on But there are a nihilistic bunch of libertarians on the web – led it seems by Tim Worstall – whose sole aim is to be abusive, negative and disruptive I’m sure like 17 year olds getting drunk on Saturday night they think it [...]

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This TV station using animation software to report the news: most fun, eh?

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This little bit of celebrity gossip intrigues: Cristiano Ronaldo just announced that he’s the proud father of a son! The 25-year-old Portuguese soccer star shared via Facebook and Twitter: “It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy. As agreed with the baby’s mother, who [...]

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“If the Government wish to help revival, the right way for them to proceed is, not to revert to their old habits of lavish expenditure, but to abolish those restrictions on trade and the free movement of capital…which are at present impeding even the beginning of recovery. “ But then I did go to the [...]

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It wasn’t until a few years later, after having just come back from being banned from driving for two years, that my impulse came back. It was a misty evening in Oxfordshire and I saw an old lady on a zebra crossing, and I just felt sick as I thought I was going to hit [...]

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Nor does it seem to be fair. I’d simply abolish higher rate tax relief for pensions. let’s be honest – pensions are just a savings scheme. That’s it: no more, or less. And it beats me why the savings of most of the richest in society (and I know about the new cap for the [...]

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In 1933, in a preface to On The Rocks, Bernard Shaw derided the principle of the sanctity of human life as an absurdity to any good Socialist, calling for extermination to be put ‘on a scientific basis’. Shortly after, in the Listener, Shaw wrote; Appeal to the chemists to discover a humane gas that will [...]

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It is important to understand that the no-deficit rule was a sharp break with tradition. In the postwar years, many economists argued that you did not need to be in the black every year, as long as budgets were balanced over the course of the economic cycle, so that deficits during slumps would be paid [...]

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At the ASI. We perhaps shouldn’t swallow that report on regional inequality in lifespans uncritically.

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So, do we have out there in Worstallreadershipland someone who actually knows what they’re doing with minerals and gems and crystals? And if so, do we have one of those who would like to take on an interesting little (and paid!) commission? The background is this. There’s a mineral/crystal called fluorite. CaF2. Lots of it [...]

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This is an interesting little snippet: Yet some of these employers complain that they cannot fill their openings. Plenty of people are applying for the jobs. The problem, the companies say, is a mismatch between the kind of skilled workers needed and the ranks of the unemployed……. As unlikely as it would seem against this [...]

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Goldman Sachs and all the other nasty speculators made a fortune out of starving people. So we’re told. There are so many things wrong with this it’s unbelievable. Then, through the 1990s, Goldman Sachs and others lobbied hard and the regulations were abolished. Suddenly, these contracts were turned into “derivatives” that could be bought and [...]

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The basic idea is that if Kenyan politicians are properly paid then they’ll not try to steal through corruption. No, really, this is used, straight faced, as an argument as to why this experiment should continue. Kenyan politicians have voted to raise their pay by up to a quarter to 1.09 million shillings (£8,920) a [...]

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(And yes, I am aware of the meme popular in certain anti-EU circles about Napoleonic Law versus Common Law and how the EU uses the former which only permits things explictly stated while the latter allows everything *except* things explicitly stated. It’s a load of ahistorical abject bollocks made popular by people who haven’t got [...]

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Bernard Yomtov 07.01.10 at 2:00 am I hear the company is good, at least. Mark Twain thought it was, “Heaven for climate, and Hell for company.” 13 alex 07.01.10 at 7:38 am Isn’t that a description of France?

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Hmm, The G’s CiF won’t publish this comment to an Andrew Simms piece. Wonderwhy? Other comments have been going through….. As we try to ensure a world fit for future generations, have a look around and ask yourselves, is this the best that we can do? What would it take, and what could we achieve [...]

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I think this guy is actually a professor somewhere as well: The Liberal Democrats should change their name to the Liberals. Here’s why.Blah, blah, blah for 800 words. And that’s the final reason why, at their next party conference, the Liberal Democrats should change their name to the Liberals. Apparently Tim Garton Ash does not [...]

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Let no one say that the national newspapers of our glorious country do not cover the important stories. And it’s not even August yet. It wasn’t even the Lord Mayor, just a Lord Mayor.

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Couples who insult each other over their physical appearance or make false accusations about infidelity face jail, under a new French law making “psychological violence” a criminal offence. Yes dear, your bum does look big in that. Bzzzzt! Go to jail for three years, do not pass Go and do not collect £200. I shagged [...]

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MPs not on the committee packed into a public gallery to heckle and even swear at IPSA staff, who in May took over responsibility for expenses from the discredited Commons fees office. During heated exchanges over IPSA’s request for £6.46 million of funding, one MP at the back of the room was heard saying “b——”. [...]

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