Tim Worstall

According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), 11.2 per cent of all shops on high streets and in shopping centres are vacant. Isn’t that a surprising statistic? Based on ONS experimental Internet sales series, the non-seasonally adjusted average weekly value of Internet retail sales in July 2011 was £523.4 million which was approximately 9.1 per [...]

[Read more →]

No, put aside all of the wibble about root causes and listen to me. Any society, every society of 58 million, contains within it a few tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands who will happily riot given half a chance. You can call them feral rats if you like, chavs, the lumpenproletariat, whatever, but [...]

[Read more →]

The reason, I’ll warrant, is that the male distribution of ego has a right tail that stretches far into the horizon.

[Read more →]

Entrepreneur Joe Cohen explains why he’s backing Devcamp, a series of summer workshops designed to give East London students from disadvantaged backgrounds the skills to compete in a digital economy. Can’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work and plenty of reasons why it should. We’re talking about exactly the same recruiting ground that The [...]

[Read more →]

Reports of looters queuing? If nothing else, we’ve been able to teach them that part of Britishness.

[Read more →]

The report is that the bullet that lodged in the police officer’s radio was actually a police issue bullet. Well, sorta. From what I’ve seen it’s a hollow point. Which is indeed what is police issue. And yes, it is illegal for most of us to get ahold of such ammunition. Except if you happen [...]

[Read more →]

J K Rowling, the creator of the Harry Potter novels and one of Britain’s most famous lone parents, has discovered she comes from a long line of single mothers while taking part in the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?. Recall that what actually happened with eugenics was that those birds who [...]

[Read more →]

Norwegian killer probably insane, his lawyer says There’s a certain obvious truth to the claim, too. “Your client claims he murdered 90 people because he’s one of the new Knights Templar?” “Correct M’Lud”. “I take it that “raving nutter” is not a medical diagnosis?” “Not normally M’Lud, no, however….”

[Read more →]

The number of low-skilled workers claiming the dole since the start of the recession has risen eight times more than the level for job seekers with advanced qualifications, official figures reveal. A wide-ranging analysis of jobs and unemployment since 2008 shows the number of people with little or no skills claiming jobless benefits rose by [...]

[Read more →]

Well, yes: Sir Paul said that while he was resigning with his personal integrity intact And the louder he talked of his honour the faster we counted the spoons.

[Read more →]

A Cumbrian village was hailed as a vanguard of the ‘big society’, but the projects set up by residents have a much longer history than Cameron’s idea, writes Peter Hetherington We’ve been having projects being set up by residents since long before we had a central state. Whatever the Anglo-Saxon version of a barn raising [...]

[Read more →]

So when I read about Jenni Murray’s second thoughts about accepting her DBE – “becoming a traitor to my class by rushing headlong into the bosom of the Establishment” In what way does having presented Women’s Hour for 24 years not put you at the heart of the establishment anyway?

[Read more →]

So, if Southern Cross, the operator of a number of care homes or crumblies, goes bust, what will happen? They all get turfed out on the street or something? Southern Cross, which has 750 care homes and 31,000 residents, has said it will cut its rental payments for four months over the summer as it [...]

[Read more →]

In Greece. Yes, that really is piano playing by penis. Via.

[Read more →]

It’s the Worstalls. No, really. He was killed near two of the Pakistani military training schools. William Worstall set up one of the Pakistani military training schools after independence. Bin Laden’s body was taken to Bagram in Afghanistan. There’s a Worstall running the cuisine for part of that camp. And now we’ve a third Worstall [...]

[Read more →]

Col Gaddafi’s second son and heir apparent appeared on television late in the evening to say there would be “rivers of blood” and that Libya was on the brink of a civil war that would burn its oil wealth. “Our spirits are high and the leader Muammar Gaddafi is leading the battle in Tripoli, and [...]

[Read more →]

In the text on one of the videos, for example, Mr. Loughner states, “No! I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver.” Or stupid, one or the other. For of course, even if you are a gold/silver nut, in fact, especially if you’re a gold/silver nut, you’re absolutely delighted [...]

[Read more →]

Asks Jemima Khan. Because you’re a) rich and b) grandstanding?

[Read more →]

True, it did. Well, a satellite made of cheese at least.

[Read more →]

Historically, over the history of the species that is, we think that something like 80% of women had children. One in five women is childless by age of 45 So we seem to be bang on the long term average then.

[Read more →]