Tim Worstall

Workers in the rural employment program aren’t allowed to use machines, for example, and have to dig instead with pick axes and shovels. The idea is to create as many jobs as possible for unskilled workers.

[Read more →]

This is one area at least where Marx certainly knew what he was talking about. In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Japan’s harbours threatening military force if Japan did not open its borders to free trade Yes, yes, I know Mark is supposed to have been some sort of prophet but the communist Manifesto [...]

[Read more →]

As ever, a “community group” is trying to shake down one of the supermarkets. In this case it’s one in DC, trying to extort from WalMart. Worth reading the whole list but these three stood out for me: Provide free shuttle transportation to and from the nearest Metro station to each D.C. store every 10 [...]

[Read more →]

The Guardian prints an article saying that not everything is peachy in Cuba. And of course, we all count down, 3…2…1…..to see how quickly the comments section starts to slag it off. A child born in Havana will still live longer than a child born in Washington. But apparently the Amerikan ‘freedom’ to choose from [...]

[Read more →]

It started with Jon Cruddas and I going down to the Guildhall in the City of London with the Billingsgate porters, all dressed in their whites and boots, to protest against the fact that the Corporation of London was taking away their civic inheritance. The court of common council was voting to abolish “the fellowship [...]

[Read more →]

We had talks outside Lehman Brothers’ old headquarters, expressed our solidarity with USUncut outside the Bank of America who paid $0 in tax last year…. So, err, why did Bank of America pay $0 in tax last year? Umm, 2010 results: Bank of America posted a $2.24 billion net loss 2009 results? income applicable to [...]

[Read more →]

Dear BBC Management, I was disturbed to read in yesterday’s Guardian that the Metropolitan police have made contact with BBC journalists to request unbroadcast footage of the protests in central London on March 26th. Mm, hmmm. It took a full week following the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests, for example, for the [...]

[Read more →]

The co-host of the BBC’s Springwatch programme said that everyone must do their bit for the environment. “If I didn’t recycle and shop locally, I couldn’t see the point of being human,” he told the Radio Times. That’s Chris Packham. Art, religion, the beauty of a summer’s day. love, no, all are worth less than [...]

[Read more →]

Connections are there none: Laurie Penny in “You Say You Want a Revolution”: “There can be no question that the conditions are right for a youth movement. The young people of Britain are suffering brutal, insulting socio-economic oppression. There are over a million young people of working age not in education, employment or training, which [...]

[Read more →]

They’ve just appointed Will Hutton as Principal. As of 2006, the college had a financial endowment of £52m. Won’t take him long to burn through that, he managed to get the Work Foundation to eat its capital efficiently enough.

[Read more →]

Finally, what they’re complaining about: At 3.30pm we gathered on Oxford Street and moved toward a new tax-dodging target, Fortnum & Mason, to stage an occupation. This foodstore is owned by Whittington Investments, which runs a devious tax avoidance scheme, stuffing money in Luxembourg and avoiding £10m a year in tax. This money could pay [...]

[Read more →]

Friggin’ morons. Fortnum’s is owned by a charity, dingbats. The Trustees would therefore be looking to make grants of around £40 million as usual during the next financial year. The grants made, as usual, support a wide range of charitable activities, but the largest overall grants in terms of value were made in the Art [...]

[Read more →]

The Low Carbon Kid touts himself as the one who knows about renewables and energy. Renewable energy is free You what? Given that Solar PV requires a 46 p per unit subsidy it’s very diffiult indeed to make any sense of such a drivellingly stupid statement. The rest of the piece is similarly filled with [...]

[Read more →]

Well, not “we”, but “they”: The Muslim LGBTQI group Imaan today criticised the East End Gay Pride event, saying its organisers had close links to the English Defence League. The event was organised for 2nd April, supposedly in retaliation to homophobic stickers being placed around East London declaring it was a ‘gay free zone’. It’s [...]

[Read more →]

But what really shocked me was that no one appears to have the authority to call out the campaign. When I filed my complaint, I was told by the ASA that it can’t interfere and that it’s a matter for the Electoral Commission. The latter, however, now says it’s a matter for the ASA, as [...]

[Read more →]

The repercussions of these cuts can be seen already, with recent figures showing that the number of women aged 25-49 on jobseeker’s allowance is now at its highest since records began in 1997. It is time to take to the streets. Number of unemployed women goes higher in first recession since 1997. Scary how things [...]

[Read more →]

The massacres in Libya are a deeply shocking outrage. Hundreds of Libyans have been killed by armed forces acting under the orders of the government. This unfeeling brutality from the Libyan government towards its own people is something that the whole world should condemn in the strongest language. Hmm.

[Read more →]

Another bunch of numpties appears: “It is simply unfair that aviation pays no VAT. Why should one of the dirtiest and noisiest industries in the world get away scot-free when ordinary people are charged VAT on basic necessities like toilet rolls?” Oooh, I can answer that question. “VAT Air travel, like all UK public transport [...]

[Read more →]

Take VAT, which describes itself as a “UK Uncut-esque” action group, was formed last month to raise awareness of companies that avoid paying VAT. These range from companies such as HMV and Tesco, which use a VAT loophole to sell CDs and DVDs VAT-free from the Channel Islands, to airlines. No VAT is charged on [...]

[Read more →]

Hey, this guy has the Nobel for Economics, you going to listen to him at least? What’s behind the surge in food prices? The usual suspects have made the usual claims — it’s all about the Fed, or it’s all about speculators. But I’ve been looking at the USDA World supply and demand estimates, and [...]

[Read more →]