Writer complains about having paid off all her debts by winning literary prize. Why oh why are such prizes funded by large corporates? And why will Costa Coffee open in Totnes when 75% of those polled said no to Costa Coffee? CiF regulars ask: 1) So you’re handing back your prize money in protest are [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Comments at CiF'
Most fun at CiF
September 15th, 2012 · 17 Comments
Tags: Comments at CiF
Recycling rare earth metals
September 27th, 2011 · 13 Comments
Usual ill informed rant at The Guardian about the recycling of electronics and rare earth metals. My reply in the comments there. Oh dearie me. This is just the standard rant about mining and recycling with “rare earth metal” dropped in every so often. There’s absolutely no understanding at all about what a rare earth [...]
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Fun at CiF
August 26th, 2011 · No Comments
The Guardian ensures that purported authors at least read and approve of what goes out under their names. Rilly? I myself have ghosted pieces for this very newspaper when working as a press officer. When Mr. Seaton was running CiF in fact. And while I’d have been caught very quickly indeed if I’d said something [...]
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Whining about American taxes
August 10th, 2011 · 5 Comments
Writing from NYC we get some woman complaining about how low taxes are in the US. My response there. Yes, the federal income tax rate is 35%. Add the NY State income tax of 8% and the NY City rate of 4% and you’re at 47%. This isn’t a low income tax rate by anyone’s [...]
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CiF of the day
June 28th, 2011 · 5 Comments
So what starts out as The G telling us all how appalling private rentals are (using the experience of a post-grad student who in no historical circumstances whatsoever would have got council housing) turns into, in the comments, a “You what?”. Quite fun actually. Mature students struggle to find suitable, affordable accommodation – the choice [...]
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Guardian editorial on how appalling it is to measure the value of nature
June 3rd, 2011 · 3 Comments
My response there: Blimey. No one is in fact saying that a nightingale’s song is worth £5. What we’re trying to get to is a set of relative values. So, we start with, well, people act as if a nightingale’s song is worth £5 to them. They also seem to act as if their own [...]
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Those lovely Guardian commentators
May 23rd, 2011 · 9 Comments
On an article discussing Sakharov’s 90 th birthday, including how the zeks returned from the Gulag, we get this delight: Dekulakisation was a necessary strategy moving forward. If you will not play ball, then consequences must be suffered. Stalin understood that the Dictatorship of the Proletariat was in actual fact not an option, particularly when [...]
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Best answer about the Gary Glitter/Glee thing yet
March 12th, 2011 · No Comments
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BP should be forced to….
March 10th, 2011 · 9 Comments
At The Guardian: But if these corporations really are part of Britain’s industrial fabric then it is time to press them into “greener” action, too: encourage BP to rebuild its UK carbon capture and storage interests Erm, you do know why BP gave up on those? They were going to take natural gas, strip out [...]
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Whining about the cooption of the counter culture by the mainstream
March 5th, 2011 · 2 Comments
My response there: Err, this is how markets work. So there’s a whole bunch of experimentation out there as people try different ways of doing things. Some of these are entirely crap and reach three and a half people. Some of them are pretty darn good and snowball into wider popularity. This is as true [...]
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Quotas for women on boards
March 3rd, 2011 · 2 Comments
From The Guardian’s comments section, of course: It’s also difficult to show that the females made the companies more profitable. Not so much actually. http://www.theglasshammer.com/news/2010/03/11/is-norway-working-the-case-for-women-on-boards/ Dittmar and Ahern’s study found that when a board had a 10% increase in the number of women, the value of the company dropped. The bigger the change to the [...]
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Andrew Simms: still not getting supply and demand
March 1st, 2011 · 3 Comments
in which rising demand departs from flattening supply, This is impossible. After that, the gap between demand and supply inexorably widens. So is this. There is no such thing as “demand”. There is no such thing as “supply”. There is only demand at a price and supply at a price. For example, there are all [...]
Tags: Comments at CiF · Economics · Environmentalism
Responding to Will Straw
February 26th, 2011 · 2 Comments
Will’s got a new little book out telling us all how “smart government” will save us all. My response at CiF: An alternative approach is needed that understands the role of smart government in promoting growth. Well, yes Will. The question is, how do we get the smart people to go into government? Further, how [...]
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Another comment
February 11th, 2011 · 5 Comments
At CiF: “He doesn’t say that moving things about isn’t wealth creation. He says that moving money about isn’t wealth creation.” Which is a blindingly stupid thing to say. Moving the short term deposits in our bank accounts (the little amounts that vary over the month in our current accounts for example) into long term [...]
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Comment on a Guardian editorial
February 10th, 2011 · 5 Comments
“Then there is the small print: the lending “will be subject to its normal commercial objectives … as well as the availability of the required funding”, while that £190bn will only be lent “should sufficient demand materialise”. Nor is there any way of enforcing this target.” How could it be any different? No, seriously, think [...]
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Sunny’s latest piece
November 5th, 2010 · No Comments
The Liberal Democrat leader need only look as far as Tony Blair to see where a disenchanted left will leave his party In power for 13 years?
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CiF can be glorious!
July 6th, 2010 · 4 Comments
So, Jagdish Bhagwati, an eminent economist, writes a piece on the myths and costs of protectionism. In the comments we get: Professor Bhagwati is an economist, of course, and his views should therefore be taken with a very large pinch of salt. That is, we shouldn’t listen to an economist talking about economics because….he’s an [...]
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CiF comment of the day
June 20th, 2010 · No Comments
On a piece commending Rick Astley for having given up his pop “career” to be a stay at home father, we get this: Personally I think Paul Gadd gave up a lot more for children
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I have a feeling that this comments section could get ugly
March 11th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Brooke Magnanti writes on science for CiF. And, if I’m allowed to be so rude, not very well either.
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Something for Mr. E
January 23rd, 2010 · 1 Comment
It is Mr. E who tells up about the doings of Councillor Terry Kelly isn’t it? Yes, I think so. On one of CiF’s regular columns about how Cuba isn’t really badly off you know, it’s just a different set of priorities, the distinguished Councillor has made a number of comments. All of which have [...]
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