Tim Worstall

At the ASI. Free immigration really does undermine the welfare state.

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Man’s a genius I tell’ee. The solution to our banking woes? Candidly, we have to prepare now for the complete, even if temporary, nationalisation of banking. How excellent, we’ve now just bankrupted every sovereign in the world. For of course when the sovereign owns the banks then the banks’ liabilities become liabilities of the sovereign. This is what Ireland did, [...]

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Every pound avoided in tax is a pound less to spend on childcare, social care, health or education. Nonsense. Entire bollocks. Every pound avoided in tax is a pound less for the government to spend on childcare, social care, health or education, this is true. But when someone pays themselves a dividend not salary (recall, [...]

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At the ASI. There’s more to those US poverty figures than you think.

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At the ASI. We really don’t have ever longer working hours you know.

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Able to give me a telephone number to track these peeps down to? NÁZEV: GEOMET s.r.o. GEOMET s.r.o. – náhled vizuálního zobrazení vztahů obchodního rejstříku IČO: 27752976 DIČ: CZ27752976 ADRESA: Přístavní 531/24, Praha 7 17000 ZÁKL. KAPITÁL: 200000 Kč

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About Low Value Consignment Relief on shipments from the Channel Islands, Ritchie tells us that: I’ll tell you – although Gauke is not doing so – that the EU has said the UK has carte-blanche to act to stop this abuse altogether – so the only question now is when will they do so? I’m [...]

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My take on Kweku Adoboli‘s little troubles is there.

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Most, of course, are simply trying to protect consumers. But is that strictly necessary? Have we really taken leave of our senses? We are all perfectly capable of using the equipment we possess, along with common sense, to take responsibility for ourselves. Both sniffing and examining fresh ingredients is a perfectly reliable way to tell [...]

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Dear Tim, I would like to draw your attention to a debate on EU Financial Transactions Tax, which is currently starting on Debating Europe, a platform for discussion supported by the European Parliament. Feel free to contribute your thoughts and/or share the following link amongst your network: http://www.debatingeurope.eu/2011/09/15/should-we-have-a-financial-transactions-tax/. Best regards, Alessandra Baldissin So I do: [...]

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The most important point is that, while you could make a political criticism of Hari, and many people have done so, over the years, what’s done for him is professional criticism. Namely, not his opinions but his basic journalistic standards. In fact, more so as the criticism has centred on the technical journalistic side. Tim [...]

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The claim … is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable,

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Here. Maggie (and later, John Major) were right you know.

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This is a surprise: The government’s “nudge unit” wants to encourage the use of smokeless nicotine cigarettes, banned in many countries around the world, in an attempt to reduce the numbers killed in the UK by smoking diseases each year. The Cabinet Office’s behavioural insight team – better known as the nudge unit – wants [...]

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The EU code of conduct group has approved Jersey’s proposed amendments to a tax regime previously deemed ‘harmful’. Ritchie was adamant that it would not be approved, that it would be found illegal and that the island would go bust. Wasn’t he?

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In it he will claim Mrs Palin had a one-night stand with basketball player Glen Rice, who went on to play for the Miami Heat, less than a year before marrying her husband Todd. Single woman has sex. I’m unconvinced that this will shock all that many Americans.

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Property developers are sitting on more than 300,000 plots with planning permission for new homes, undermining the case for controversial government planning reforms. Campaigners say that the “land banks” are enough for more than two years of house building, meaning there is no need to water down current planning laws. This really is cretinism. 1) [...]

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I have now read it. Yes, they are still cretins. Here.

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And replace it with my own feelings! So there! Take some examples: – This morning’s headline that 50p tax does not work, when there is no evidence to prove that case: this is just far right promotion of the Laffer curve by Mirrlees Sir James tells us: ‘It is not clear whether the 50% rate [...]

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Really? Gosh, who is this report by? The activity of financial speculators is overwhelming agricultural commodities markets, fuelling global food price inflation and hunger, according to new analysis from the anti-poverty group the World Development Movement (WDM). Teenage Trots claim capitalism is bad, M’Kay? Rilly? This is news? I shall read the report later but [...]

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