Tim Worstall

Data here. Essentially, take the OECD’s new hugely complicated and lovely data set on quality of life etc, plot it against inequality and we find: No Connection! Yup, The Spirit Level was full of utter shite.

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Is there no beginning to Ritchie’s talents? So, he decides to tell students in the uni magazine all about his clever new plan to finance student fees. The suggestion I am making is that companies should pay an additional tax to provide university education for all those wishing to participate, and that they do so [...]

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The most obvious way of cutting production is to make things to higher standards. If everything were made to last twice as long then we would only need to make half as much of it. This requires us to slow down the rate of technological progress so that goods (and humans) do not become functionally [...]

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see more ICHC After Dark

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“So, Boss, how we gonna ge’ tha’ Marmite contrac‘ ‘en?” (For yes, Mockney is alive and well.) “Well, the way I see it, we’ve got to create a really good campaign….” “Yer, obvious, innit? Bu’ wha? Ang on, ang on, I gorr i’! (We’ll switch to subtitles as glottal stops spray the camera) We get [...]

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This may or may not work. Don’t really understand this tech stuff.

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Must do if there can be an advert about a day in the life of an Audi driver.

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Notwithstanding the actions we must take in Operation Marmite, the Danes have managed to get the ban all wrong anyway. On purely scientific grounds. The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration has allegedly made the importation of Marmite illegal, apparently on the grounds that the yeast extract is fortified with vitamin B, and therefore doesn’t meet [...]

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A group which is opposed to abortion in all circumstances and favours an abstinence-based approach to sex education has been appointed to advise the government on sexual health. The Life organisation has been invited to join a new sexual health forum set up to replace the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV. Stuart [...]

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Good. A police officer will face trial for manslaughter over the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests. PC Simon Harwood, 43, a Metropolitan police officer, will face a criminal prosecution for striking Tomlinson with a baton and pushing him to the ground in April 2009. Maybe he hit him and maybe [...]

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Flood defences and nuclear power are expected to receive funding from the green investment bank, according to detailed plans for the new institution set out on Tuesday by Vince Cable, the business secretary. It’s sensible of course, nuclear is indeed part of the solution to our climate change problems. But there is that rather large [...]

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There is a wider point. Barack Obama will this week visit a Europe where the Left is on the run. Its leading figures have sleepwalked to obliteration – or perp-walked, in the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn – and their resurrection will be made harder by today’s magpie politics, in which the Right steals the traditional [...]

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When China’s growth will decelerate or come to an abrupt stop is probably the most critical question facing the world economy. But predictions of a hard landing on everything from bad loans to investment-led overheating or inflation has yet to derail the country’s expansion. This is because the government-controlled economy is insulated from speculators testing [...]

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Fellow Britons are being vilely oppressed by Johnny Foreigner. This shall not stand, it is the War of Jenkins’ Ear all over again. When the rights of one Briton are traduced, wherever in the world they are, it is our bounden duty to defend them as we would defend ourselves from the same impositions. Action [...]

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Money, while it cannot buy happiness, is an important means to achieving higher living standards. In the United Kingdom, the average household earned 27 208 USD in 2008, more than the OECD average of 22 284 USD. Richer than most then. People in the United Kingdom work 1646 hours a year, less than most in [...]

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One of the ways McKinsey has decided it’s possible to save £20 billion in the NHS is to reduce the number of acute admissions made to hospitals. Acute admissions are, of course, the emergency ones, that go through accident and emergency or straight into a medical assessment unit. I am now aware that some Primary Care [...]

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What a complete scumbag. Even accepting, for the case of argument, that Huhne committed a speeding offence eight years ago and then persuaded his wife to take the points on his licence, is it a serious enough matter to require Essex police to conduct an investigation now? If you take an absolutely fundamentalist position that [...]

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And not a single death nor even the likelihood of a single death in the years to come: Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed a meltdown of fuel rods in two more reactors at its Fukushima nuclear plant, which has been emitting radiation since an earthquake and tsunami knocked out power and cooling systems. Fuel rods [...]

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It’s worth reading this just to see quite how insane the Koch Brothers drive parts of the US left. An oil pipeline from the Canadian tar sands to the Gulf Coast may or may not be a good idea. But the argument has become that the Koch Brothers will benefit, profit, from it therefore it [...]

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Film piracy is said to be costing the US economy over $20bn a year. Sigh, the usual lies. Everyone does this, from Microsoft talking about software, Luis Vuitton talking about luggage knock offs, Rolex about watches and yes, the film studios about online piracy. They all, without exception, count cut price knock offs as having [...]

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