Tim Worstall

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the [...]

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Here.

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There is a further group of nearly a million older problem drug users, including 122,000 in Britain aged between 35 and 64 who use heroin and crack, who first became dependent in the 1980s and 1990s. Many have tried detox and methadone substitution but have not managed to stop. So you can be using these [...]

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Yes, of course, SWPpers everywhere will be announcing that this is the start of the revolution, the student masses only now have to link up with the working classes and capitalism will be over. Just a note of caution though: do not forget that rioting is actually fun. Wrap those juicy teenage hormones in a [...]

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What? Six of Britain’s top ten restaurants are calling for the law to be changed so that dairy and beef farmers are forced to improve welfare standards and the public are encouraged to eat less meat. Since when did we let the servants tell us what the law should be? As to the bill itself: [...]

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Yup, him: Durkin has a history of producing documentaries that have been open to challenge with regard to the facts; his last for Channel 4 denied global warming and in the process aligned itself with the libertarian right of politics. This programme looks as though it does the same thing. The national debt is not [...]

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The report is, from the outset, fundamentally flawed as a result. Why ass this mistake mean made? Simply because this whole review is built on the bankrupt model of neoclassical economics. That’s how he greets the Mirrlees Review. You know, the voluminous review of the economics and politics of taxation undertaken by a Nobel Laureate [...]

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The High Pay Commission has put up my submission. Here. You can vote on which are the best suggestions (and, to be fair, which are the worst): Polly and David put up a chapter of their recent book. Make up your own minds….

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How could this be? indicating that Cuba is by no means exempt from the economic crisis that has affected most of the rest of the world. But, but, Cuba is a near autarkic economy! That American trade embargo, remember, means that it’s not able to contact the rest of the world’s economy, that’s why the [...]

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If the coalition is so keen on communities taking action and making things happen for themselves, why does it not expect the same of private companies? The DfT is putting £9bn into the plan for longer platforms and more carriages for an industry that was, supposedly, privatised more than a decade ago. Because Gordon Brown [...]

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Your numbers are correct here: Meanwhile, research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests the gap between the minimum wage and the income needed to pay for a very basic household budget has widened. An adult working a 40-hour week on the minimum wage will earn £1,027 a month, which translates annually to £12,334 in pre-tax [...]

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Tomorrow morning Somerset county council will decide whether it will cut 100% of its direct grants to the arts, amounting to roughly half its total cultural spend. Mustn’t allow them to do that now, must we? You know, democratically elected politicians deliberating over how to spend the taxpayers’ money? No, of course not, that would [...]

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The European Union will block access for Chinese companies bidding for publicly funded contracts unless businesses from Europe get the same access in China, under new proposals tabled in Brussels. The point of having someone coming in to bid for a public contract is so that that public contract gets done more cheaply/better than if [...]

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If the concern is that pay at the top is too high then the obvious solution is simply to have a maximum pay rate. This won’t affect lower paid workers in any manner: companies are already, clearly and obviously, paying sufficient to attract the staff they desire. A brief glance at the unemployment rate shows [...]

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At El Reg again. How to work out what will be said at a press conference by not going to the press conference. Read last year’s report! Actually, there is a more important point here: I would lay a goodly chunk of money that most reports about this, umm, report, in the papers tomorrow do [...]

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A fascinating find from here. The full and official list of tax loopholes. No, of course I’ not been through it all but some seem eminently sensible. Like, for example, the drilling cores from undersea oil and gas exploration do not have to pay the aggregates levy. Cabin crew do not pay Air Passenger Duty. [...]

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To sum up, the Election Court looks like a court, is called a court, is run by High Court judges like a court, the Representation of the People Act describes it as a court, its judgements come headed with the words “In the High Court”. And as if to remove all doubt, Mr Justice Silber, [...]

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It’s taken me some time, I admit, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Compass, the lefty ginger group, is actually correct. We should indeed have maximum wages. For the first order effects would be very interesting indeed. So, maximum wages would mean a cut in those top wages: that’s the point, after all. So, [...]

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Clarke will cut the number held needlessly in prison on remand: a fifth are acquitted and half of the rest never get a prison sentence. I think you’ll find that that 50% are sentenced to time served rather than no prison sentence.

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What with all this going on about Rolls Royce jet engines falling apart in mid air, was amused to be offered some ammonium perrhenate. This is the precursor to rhenium metal, which is then used as an alloying additive for the nickel turbine blades in such Rolls Royce engines. Indeed, jet engines are the world’s [...]

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