Tim Worstall

It’s extremely unlikely that such a song would be released in the uber-capitalist Britain of today, let alone get to No 1. But in the progressive, left-leaning mid-1970s, it was always likely to be a hit. Thanks to the glories of the “market economy”, many things which were free, or at least very cheap, 35 [...]

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Quite gorgeous: A 50% tax rate is not only a temporary measure to raising revenue, it is an essential part of a just taxation system. And I am well aware that the likes of the Digby Jones argue that if we have such a tax rate talent will lead this country. Let’s be clear about [...]

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The proportion of disabled people is rising and now represents 1 billion people – 15% of the global population – according to the first official global report on disability. You what? One in seven of the entire human race is disabled? To use crude and hateful language, 15% of everyone is lame, dumb, blind, deaf, [...]

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Solar panel costs have come down dramatically: the industry expects that, even in the UK, solar power will be comparable to offshore wind energy by 2015. Ten days ago Greenpeace told us that solar PV would be grid comparable by 2015. That at the point of use solar would be the same price as coal [...]

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Not to be nasty or anything but you’d think that a woman who has made it to middle age would have worked this out by now: Of course there have been some cynical comments in among all the messages of support, but the overwhelming response has been wonderful, and has shown the internet at its [...]

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It’s quite wonderful how the narrative can change really, isn’t it? There we all were, only a couple of years back, being lectured that stock market capitalism was a bad thing. Lots of small shareholders, supine institutions, it just left management to do their own thing. What we really needed was a good dose of [...]

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While it sounds like a good enough idea I’m not so sure. The practise of using capital from NatWest, which is predominantly a retail bank, to fund other parts of the group has soared under the Mr Hester’s leadership of RBS. In 2008, when Sir Fred Goodwin was chief executive of RBS, Natwest lent £19.6bn [...]

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But I also don’t think it works to say that it’s nobody’s business but the couple’s whether people keep their marriage vows……..Why was it so important to call it marriage, if everything about it is entirely private?…….Society takes a greater interest in marriages than in other relationships because society, as well as the individual, has [...]

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A new Tax and Financial Transparency Bill to recover billions of pounds of lost tax, by forcing companies to be more transparent in their accounting, is on the agenda for debate in Parliament on Friday (10 June). The Bill, launched by the MP Caroline Lucas in March this year, Gosh Tax Research UK estimate Wow [...]

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The Guardian makes the usual mistake here: The latest life expectancy data for the UK is out and reveals a north-south divide in ages of death – of four-years. The data from the Office for National Statistics shows that for men in the south-east of England it is 79.4 years, while in Scotland the figure [...]

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London 2012 organisers have been left with red faces over their green promises, coming under fire from the watchdog that monitors their sustainability claims after admitting defeat in a bid to make their Olympic flame the first low carbon version. Unveiling the design of the Olympic torch to be carried by 8,000 runners, London 2012 [...]

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I was wondering where this sense of entitlement he seems to have came from. You know, this idea that what he does and what the little people do should not be compared? Anthony David Weiner (pronounced /ˈwiːnər/; born September 4, 1964) is the U.S. Representative for New York’s 9th congressional district, which includes parts of [...]

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“The scale of the land deals being struck is shocking”, said Mittal. “The conversion of African small farms and forests into a natural-asset-based, high-return investment strategy can drive up food prices and increase the risks of climate change. Growing more food through investing in growing more food is going to drive up food prices how?

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So, you’ve finally noticed: Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, has issued a broadside against the coalition government, claiming it is forcing through “radical policies for which no one voted”. We live in a representative democracy. This means that when we vote we vote for individuals. For specific people. Then we send them off to [...]

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The existence of the document, written by Robert Galvin, a senior EU official who is the parliament’s chief internal auditor, was first disclosed by The Daily Telegraph in 2008. Despite public controversy across Europe over misuse of generous allowances paid to MEPs, parliament officials have fought tooth and nail to keep the Galvin report, number [...]

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We collaborate, cooperate, in a market based manner on this one. Take it away Christie.

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Lordy but the man can be dim: There is a problem: integration is not the opposite of competition. Collaboration is the opposite of competition. Integration implies a disparate selection of independent bodies have to be meshed as well as possible one with another, with at any time there being risk of one component being replaced with an alternative. Relationships [...]

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Groupon: The adjusted CSOI measure is the one I find a little disturbing. This measure backs out “online marketing expense, acquisition-related costs and stock-based compensation expense.” Not counting online marketing expense seems, uh, ridiculous. The company writes that “online marketing expense primarily represents the cost to acquire new subscribers and is dictated by the amount [...]

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If you’re old enough to remember the Thatcher years, you may have an answer to this question, but it’s still worth asking: in living memory, have thousands of us on the left ever felt so bleak? Every day, I seem to have at least one conversation that ends with sighing expressions of fatalism about where [...]

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I have a feeling that Pliny there wasn’t quite as wise to that continent as some think. Equatorial Guinea has built a multimillion-pound deluxe “city” to host African leaders while the majority of its people live in dire poverty. Sipopo boasts 52 luxury presidential villas, a conference hall, artificial beach, luxury hotel and the county’s [...]

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