Tim Worstall

I see from Twitter that this is apparently something for me to read. Further, that Sunny actually refused to publish it: actual evidence of editorial standards no less. The essential trope is that Johann’s a lefty and should therefore be forgiven. Heart’s in the right place therefore transgressions can only possibly be minor. This amused [...]

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On the afternoon of 14 September, a courier returned the plaque which had been awarded to Johann Hari on winning the Orwell Prize for Journalism 2008. There was no note of explanation. The prize money (£2000) has also not been returned.

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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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Which I have put up at Forbes. Hunting Hari: Judging Johann’s Journalism. Fair and balanced I think you’ll find.

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Oh this is lovely. Johann Hari’s defence doesn’t actually work. However, when interviewing someone, a journalist uses skill and labour in recording quotes accurately and selecting those most appropriate for publication. So the quotes in an interview are protected by copyright. If any are to be used by another publication then the fair dealing defence [...]

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Can this be true? Really? What are purported to be interviews are in fact quotations from the interviewees other writings? Tsk.

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Hungary kept on pursuing sensible moderate measures, instead of punishing the population. They imposed taxes on the hugely profitable sectors of retail, energy and telecoms, and took funds from private pensions to pay the deficit. Stealing peoples’ pensions is “moderate” in HariLand. So when in 2001 the IMF found out the Malawian government had built [...]

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Says Johann Hari. As a recommendation.

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And fails, badly. Here’s what we learned during the Great Depression, when our view of economics was revolutionized by John Maynard Keynes. In a recession, private individuals like you and me, perfectly sensibly, cut back our spending. We go out less, we buy less, we save more. This causes a huge fall in private demand, [...]

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The same predictions are made about every disaster – that once the lid of a tightly policed civilization is knocked off for a second, humans will become beasts. But the opposite is the case. It sounds grotesque to say we should see reasons for hope as we watch in real time while the earth is [...]

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I walked around the neon warrens of the West End – through the theatre-throngs, and past the fancy fashion stores – with two volunteers from the charity the Simon Community. …. I couldn’t find a single person in the field who believes Cameron’s claim that volunteers will make up the difference – or even get [...]

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This statement rather surprised me: But let’s step back a moment and look at how all this came to pass. The bishops owe their places in parliament to a serial killer. Henry VIII filled parliament with bishops because they were willing to give a religious seal of approval to him divorcing and murdering his wives [...]

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There is an obvious medium-term solution: break our addiction. The technology exists – wind, wave and especially solar power – to fuel our societies without oil. It would free us from our support for dictators and horrific wars of plunder like Iraq. It’s our society’s route to rehab – but it is being blocked by [...]

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So he goes to meet the environmental activists who are trying to stop this poisoning of their children, and watches as – terrified – they are carried away to prison. (Imagine if Al Gore had been imprisoned for exposing Love Canal, and was still in solitary, and you get the idea.) Oh Aye? “I called [...]

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In the US, volunteerism is highest in high-tax Massachusetts, and lowest in low-tax Mississippi. In Europe, volunteerism is highest in high-tax Sweden, and lowest in low-tax Eastern European nations. Well yes of course. It’s called the tax wedge. There’s lower labour market participation, higher household production, when the government takes more of what you can [...]

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The debt was more than twice this level in 1945, and we still built the NHS and secured decades of prosperity. Would have been helpful if you’d pointed out that Major Atlee was running budget surpluses at the time, no?

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To fight furiously to keep the gigantic Bush tax cuts for the elite richest two percent of Americans, even though this alone will add two trillion dollars to the deficit over the next decade. That is, I think, an estimate of the entirety of the Bush tax cuts if they were extended. Letting President Bush’s [...]

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He does have a way with history, doesn’t he? Let’s start with the most hopeless and wildly idealistic cause – and see how it won. The first ever attempt to hold a Gay Pride rally in Trafalgar Square was in 1965. Two dozen people turned up – and they were mostly beaten by the police [...]

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