Tim Worstall

So The Boy Dave is being shouted at because he’s suggested offering a tax credit for employing a maid. You know, like exists in the icy social democracies of the Nordics? And the people shouting at him are of course those who would like Britain to be more like the icy social democracies of the [...]

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This year alone, high youth unemployment will cost government £4.8bn in lost tax revenues and unemployment benefits, more than the budget for further education for 16 to 19 year-olds, and cost the economy £10.7bn in lost output, the report said. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), which contributed to the report, said [...]

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“We do not require the aid,” he said, according to the official transcript of the session. “It is a peanut in our total development exercises [expenditure].” He said the Indian government wanted to “voluntarily” give it up. According to a leaked memo, the foreign minister, Nirumpama Rao, proposed “not to avail [of] any further DFID [...]

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Unless ministers produce a drastically different document in the next few weeks, this experience is going to become commonplace throughout the country, not least because – as a report by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) will reveal on Monday – the reforms will withdraw a 25-year-old safeguard from more than half of the [...]

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Her essential argument is that private, Christian, charity is filling, successfully, the inevitable holes in the State’s welfare provision. Therefore we must do more. Eh? Doesn’t the fact that the holes are being filled mean that the holes are being filled?

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Today the TaxPayers’ Alliance has released new research which shows that the average family pays £656,000 in taxes over their lifetime. That tax payment is around and about equal to the amount which, if saved over the years, would put said household into the top 10% in terms of wealth (850k in net assets). And [...]

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A good idea, clearly: The largest proportion of money paid out is for housing, he says. “While all that £500 a week might get you in central London is a one-bedroom apartment, in Rotherham, Yorkshire, it would get you a six-bedroom house,” Mr Byrne says. He proposes a body that could decide what level of [...]

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We’ve experienced 30 years of public service “reform” which means that many public services, certainly those at local level, are already delivering serious value for money. All the fat was long ago pared away. Rilly? Employer: ISLINGTON COUNCIL Posted: 20 January 2012 Ref: CR/2339/ST Contact: Emma Marinos Location: London Industry: Education , General , Government [...]

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Ouch, these numbers hurt: A fifth of all council house tenancies may be fraudulent, according to investigators who have conducted the first large-scale examination of the problem……… Fraud investigators matched 27,000 tenants – the entire tenant roll of two councils and four housing associations – against mortgage and credit databases. They found “indications of fraud” [...]

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At the time they stated: “Where there is a valid polygamous marriage the claimant and one spouse will be paid the couple rate … The amount payable for each additional spouse is presently £33.65.” This has subsequently been increased to £38.45 a week for second and subsequent spouses, while the husband and his first wife [...]

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Yes, this is a good idea. Michael Gove has brushed aside Britain’s economic problems to propose the public donate a new royal yacht to the Queen as a mark of respect during this year’s diamond jubilee celebrations, according to a confidential letter to fellow ministers. Why not? At £60 million it’s just under a £ [...]

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Below the breadline on Liverpool’s workless estates One-third of households are now on the dole as downturn forces some benefits claimants to survive on less than £20 a week He just ain’t being asked to survive on £20 a week. He gets about £67 a week as jobseeker’s allowance, but £15 is instantly deducted in [...]

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Wadebridge responded. A packed meeting of 600 people last January set up a non-profit co-operative to get 30 per cent of the town’s electricity from local renewable sources within five years. As it grew, more and more of the £10 million a year the town spends on energy was to be retained in the area, [...]

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Couples with young children will be hardest-hit by changes in the tax and benefit system, with the typical family losing more than £1,200 over five years, a new study has estimated. The benefits system,whatever you think of it it, is aimed at being most generous to couples with young children. Thus any limitation of that [...]

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She added: “We’re stuck in this position. Whoever is making these decisions has obviously never been in the position of being poor.” My word, what is happening? The dripping’d crust that is the only meal of the day being torn from her toddler’s fingers? The teenage daughter being sent out to make pennies on corners [...]

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Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister, aims to clamp down on abuse of the council and housing association sectors which is estimated to cost taxpayers between £5 billion and £10 billion a year. Last night he said the current system was a “scandal” which the coalition was determined to end. Ministers are expected to launch two [...]

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Lie detector tests are being used to help officers decide whether to charge suspects in a groundbreaking scheme by a British police force. The thing is, you see, that lie detectors just don’t work.

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Travelling in London is nearly three and a half times more expensive than Paris and 10 times dearer than in Rome, according to research by the Campaign for Better Transport. With successive Governments in Britain allowing fares to rise faster than inflation, the gap has also been widening in recent years. OK. Simple, factual, information, [...]

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The Department for Education is lifting restrictions that force schools in England to charge the same price for the same item for every pupil, in order to allow them to offer price promotions. I’m sorry? What? We’ve had the central government in a country of 65 million people determining the school lunch pricing policies of [...]

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The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act makes it a criminal offence, punishable by fines of up to £20,000, to sell London 2012 tickets on the black market. Dear Lord, are they really that damn stupid? Ticket touts appear because the official price of the ticket is different from the market clearing price of [...]

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