Tim Worstall

18 responses so far ↓

• 1 Herbie // Oct 31, 2012 at 12:02 pm

  5 Separate apologies, how am I to decide which to believe. Couldn’t he have just offered the one apology and kept things simple. Choice is so hard. Think I’ll have to go for a nap now, or coffee, can’t decide.

• 2 Steve // Oct 31, 2012 at 12:02 pm

  Ha ha!

• 3 Surreptitious Evil // Oct 31, 2012 at 12:19 pm

  Just remember, you’re only allowed the one type of Eoin-approved coffee.

  On the other hand, can I nominate this post as an even better example of schadenfreude than the next one?

• 4 Matt Wardman // Oct 31, 2012 at 12:37 pm

  I somehow think that the lawyers wrote it …

• 5 Interested // Oct 31, 2012 at 12:42 pm

  I always like the Good Doctor’s links, which slightly suggest he only hears one side of every argument:

  ‘Other sites I read

  Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
  Labour Left
  Left Foot Forward
  Left Futures
  Liberal Conspiracy
  Shifting Grounds
  Tackle Taxhavens
  Tax Research UK
  UK Polling Report’

• 6 Matt Wardman // Oct 31, 2012 at 12:51 pm

  By the way, you can read the original article here:
  http://87.248.112.8/search/srpcache?ei=UTF-8&p=ashcroft+eoin+clarke+horrific&fr=yfp-t-702&u=http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=ashcroft+eoin+clarke+horrific&d=27024365625478527&mkt=en-GB&setlang=en-GB&w=7e559ab9,7488aef2&icp=1&.intl=uk&sig=HV3oU2v97ylPk1rxs5hFHg–

  The Good Doctor did a pretty good web scrub, but seems to have forgotten that Yahoo has a cache with a longer life than Google.

  Details, Dr Eoin, details.

  On the article, it seems no more or less defamatory than all his other articles alleging slices of the NHS donated to companies in exchange for political donations.

  If they all notice as well, he’s going to be busy.

  I particularly like the repeated hints and almost-allegations that Fidelity are in in some way implicated because they own shares in all these private health companies.

  Don’t tell Dr Eoin that they perhaps own all those shares for their All Share Index Tracker fund. Life would be so boring then for Eoin if he wasn’t able to spend hours every day compiling meaningless spreadsheets.

• 7 Matt Wardman // Oct 31, 2012 at 12:57 pm

  Wrong link.

  The original piece is here:
  http://87.248.112.8/search/srpcache?ei=UTF-8&p=http%3A%2F%2Feoin-clarke.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F10%2Fhealth-inspectors-find-horrific.html&fr=yfp-t-702&u=http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=http%3a%2f%2feoin-clarke.blogspot.com%2f2012%2f10%2fhealth-inspectors-find-horrific.html&d=4983743351425502&mkt=en-GB&setlang=en-GB&w=4d7a4f3e,b611a0e8&icp=1&.intl=uk&sig=vHVY7FQi7Fan1IzHvuWc1w–

• 8 The Thought Gang // Oct 31, 2012 at 1:45 pm

  “I particularly like the repeated hints and almost-allegations that Fidelity are in in some way implicated because they own shares in all these private health companies.”

  I’ve been ‘enjoying’ this too. I’d love to know if he’s so out of his depth that he doesn’t realise, or just throwing out stuff he knows to be bullshit because it suits his narrative.

  And I’m glad that he’s, evidently, learned that if he goes around telling actual lies, and making libellous insinuations (not backed up by anything other than his own prejudice) then, on occasion, he’ll find that there are consequences.

• 9 Serf // Oct 31, 2012 at 2:02 pm

  ….I particularly like the repeated hints and almost-allegations that Fidelity are in in some way implicated because they own shares in all these private health companies….

  Fidelity owns shares in almost everything.

• 10 Frederick // Oct 31, 2012 at 2:12 pm

  I like the fact that the word apologise had to appear in bold font.

• 11 Matt Wardman // Oct 31, 2012 at 2:57 pm

  @The Thought Gang

  >I’m glad that he’s, evidently, learned that if he goes around telling actual lies, and making libellous insinuations (not backed up by anything other than his own prejudice) then, on occasion, he’ll find that there are consequences.

  Not convinced. The unfounded allegations continue apace in the 6 or 7 articles since.

  There’ll be another apology along in a bit.

• 12 bloke in spain // Oct 31, 2012 at 3:11 pm

  Question is, of course: how many links were done to the offending article. How many to the retraction. As it stands, there’s another load of bollocks floating around, be gospel in the usual circles.

• 13 Philip Walker // Oct 31, 2012 at 5:21 pm

  It’s amazing how the phrase ‘in return’ (original article) doesn’t in any way imply an allegation of causality (apology 3).

  I must remember that one in future: when I want to state two unrelated facts, I can set the one which is prior in time followed by the other and joined by ‘in return’, all without alleging impropriety. Very useful.

• 14 Adrian // Oct 31, 2012 at 7:06 pm

  Any unfounded suggestion that his donation to the Tories got him the contract is not just a slur against the Ashcroft. It’s a slur against the bid evaluation team, suggesting they are corruptible.

  They won’t be known to the general public, but will be known within the DoH, and amongst the industry generally, and their professional and personal reputations presumably matter to them.

  But why won’t he give them an apology?

  Is he too spineless? Too unprincipled? Or just plain too stupid to realise who he has really slagged off?

• 15 Matt Wardman // Oct 31, 2012 at 10:11 pm

  @adrian

  IMO both naive and thick.

  Think a noble savage trying to understand a BBC Micro.

• 16 The Thought Gang // Oct 31, 2012 at 10:12 pm

  Of course… whilst Eoin may a blinkered idiot, by pointing out that people with links to political parties are often well positioned to make money when those political parties implement their policies he’s not ‘exposing’ something that anyone of sound mind denies is a feature of our system.

  He is, of course, unable to make the link between his desire for politicians to have lots of power and etc etc etc.

• 17 Richard // Nov 1, 2012 at 1:13 am

  Matt (#6) said “I particularly like the repeated hints and almost-allegations that Fidelity are in in some way implicated because they own shares in all these private health companies. Don’t tell Dr Eoin that they perhaps own all those shares for their All Share Index Tracker fund.”

  I’ve said this in his comments section, plus the fact that these companies don’t own the shares for themselves but hold them for their investment funds. But I don’t think he’s allowed it through.

• 18 SadButMadLad // Nov 1, 2012 at 5:18 pm

  Matt @15, you have a point. A phD in Feminist History in Ireland definitely doesn’t do anything for expertise in political and economic matters. So definitely thick. But also stupid, but he doesn’t seem to understand that he is thick so needs to learn about what he is talking about.

Leave a Comment