Tim Worstall

Run the Boston Marathon next year. Walk it even. A landslide I tell ya.

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British factories boosted their output by 7.5pc between the second quarter of 1979 and the third quarter of 1990, when she left Downing Street, according to the Office for National Statistics. Output had grown another 4.9pc by the start of 1997, when the Tories were booted out. Given the bitterness of the 1980s’ recession, caused [...]

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Last week I ran a small online poll, asking people to nominate inspiring, transfiguring ideas. The two mentioned most often were land value taxation and a basic income. As it happens, both are championed by the Green party. On this and other measures, its policies are by a long way more progressive than Labour’s. Given [...]

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Prison is, therefore, a perfectly proper punishment; so why do many people feel uneasy about the incarceration of the pair? They are of previous good character, they are otherwise decent upstanding citizens. One was even in the Cabinet, for goodness’ sake. The logic here is false. That one was in the Cabinet is evidence that [...]

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As pressure on the Prime Minister’s leadership intensified, Dr Wollaston called on Mr Cameron to reshuffle his Cabinet within weeks and promote more women. Go on, go on, Gissa Job!

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Look how he’s briefing the papers through a “friend” the day before he gets sent down. “How can she claim they were in a happy marriage for 25 years and at the same time claim he had made her have an abortion. They were not happily married. They weren’t even sleeping in the same bedroom. [...]

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So, let us compare the proposed rise in hte minimum wage in the US with the cut in government spending in the US. A 3% cut in planned future expenditure is a disaster. A 24% rise in input prices to business is something they’ll just suck up with no problem. We might ask the same [...]

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But the shift in women’s attitudes goes far beyond a reaction to the assault from Cameron and George Osborne. Women in Britain are now significantly to the left of men – and more socially liberal – on most key political controversies of the day. I’m afraid that it really isn’t that more women are now [...]

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What are the election expenses limits in a byelection? The Lib Dems bombarded the voters with half a million pieces of literature over the course of the campaign. In a general election the limit is £30,000 per constituency I think. And you’re not going to get leaflets printed for 6 pence each these days, are [...]

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Report finds shocking absence of women from UK public life The number of women in senior levels of the judiciary, education, the arts, finance, the civil service and government is plummeting, according to a new report, Sex and Power 2013. Women’s representation has gone into reverse The reason being that we’ve tried this and we [...]

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At fiery rallies, shedelivers similar nationalist rhetoric in front of images of Evita. But according to a former Kirchner insider, she now also suffers the same delusions of grandeur and power. “She is a paranoid, arrogant person which in turn hides a deep insecurity,” he said. “She’s also a very mistrustful person who surrounds herself [...]

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Conservatives accused of taking cash for access as Labour insists receptions for its donors are different From the front page of The Guardian. Seriously, how could anyone think that paying cash to meet politicians is the same as paying cash to meet politicians?

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He first swam out of the mire into my consciousness over the case of the Australian Holocaust denier. The one that Germany wanted to extradite under the European Arrest Warrant. Huhne popped up in the media shouting that this was an appalling injustice, Great English legal System, human rights, extradition evidence etc. He signally failed [...]

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There are the obvious ones: that all politicians are lying scumbags for example. But here’s the real lesson: cheating on a wife who has provided you with an alibi is a pretty stupid thing to do Quite.

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My colleage Esther Addley has just tweeted this. Chris #Huhne pleads guilty to perverting the course of justice — esther addley (@estheraddley) February 4, 2013 Seriously? Have we actually had a Cabinet Minister plead guilty to this charge before?

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As for Galloway, he has spent his entire adult life planting wet kisses on the buttocks of tyrants. That’s fun. And this is even better: They point out that the revolt in the SWP is led by Richard Seymour, a puffed-up political hack, who is just as totalitarian as the apparatchiks he seeks to replace. [...]

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And it is undermining the ability of HMRC to administer and collect the tax, by cutting its resources too far and too fast. The reduction in HMRC headcount is a direct consequence of, indeed part of the plan of, the merger of Inland Revenue with Customs&Excise. Something planned by George Brown when Chancellor. And the [...]

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Our pragmatist Prime Minister David Cameron is set on winning a full term in No 10 so he can see through policies, not out of some crazed will to power He has neither policies nor a crazed will to power. David Cameron’s motivation is quite simply that the country ought to be run by people [...]

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MP tries to find out why voters hate politicians Because you’re ignorant fuckwits who steal all our money. Next question?

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John Bercow’s attempt to call time on Westminster’s hard-drinking culture was in tatters last night after plans for a total ‘no-alcohol’ policy for Commons staff were ditched. The Speaker has taken action to curb excessive drinking at the Commons after Labour MP Eric Joyce assaulted colleagues in a Westminster bar. Waiters are now told to [...]

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