Tim Worstall

Yep, OK, we can buy into the idea that building things employs people. But building what and where? Spain is to partially close 30 of the nation’s 47 state-run airports in an attempt to reduce the costs of its “white elephants” built throughout the nation during the boom years. Hmm. Some of the airports have [...]

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Oh my. Written evidence submitted to Parliament by a former chief auditor at A4e shows how an “unethical culture” led to “systemic fraud” at the company, which holds major government contracts. When concerns were raised about wrongdoing with senior managers, little was done to address the widespread abuse of taxpayers’ money, the whistleblower alleged. Of [...]

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Worst civil servants to be sacked Under-performing civil servants will be identified and fired under plans to rank all government officials in order of ability, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. From the union side will come outrage about the very idea. Employers should train up the incompetent, not fire them. And isn’t it discrimination against [...]

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A new Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill. An adjudicator will be given legal powers to ensure that supermarkets give their suppliers a fair deal. Supermarkets bullying or treating farmers and other suppliers badly will be “named and shamed” and may be fined. Is St. Vince an idiot or a fool?

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A quarter of the population is involved in providing some form of care for older family or friends, it finds. And almost one in five of them regularly spend at least £100 a month. The figures emerge from a report detailing how a “secret generation” of carers is helping prop up Britain’s crumbling social care [...]

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Mr Moore added there were “well-rehearsed plans” in place and the agency was “fully prepared” for busy periods during the Olympics. Asked how he would feel if there were four-hour queues to enter Britain during the Games, he said: “If that is necessary in light of the threats and risks that we face at that [...]

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“It is long established government policy neither to confirm nor deny speculation of this sort. However, given the intense interest in this case it is, exceptionally, appropriate for me to confirm that Mr Heywood was not an employee of the British government in any capacity,” the foreign secretary wrote in his reply. Employee has, of [...]

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Here’s another eccentricity: if a basic-rate tax payer – ie 87% of the population – gives £1, the state adds another 25p in gift aid to the charity, but the donor gets no tax relief. Only 40% or 50% tax rate donors can claim a personal benefit and get their tax bills cut. Since those [...]

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Despite the Coalition’s five-year programme of spending cuts and tax increases, the national debt is to rise from 72 per cent of gross domestic product this year to 76 per cent in 2014-15. Debt will peak at £1.5 trillion in 2016-17. As a sensible precaution against future crises, the OECD said the developed countries should have [...]

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The implosion of one of Labour’s rotten boroughs shows that the Tories will lose? And no, no, they’re not are they? Hurry forward with policies in the making on house building, rent controls Rent fucking control? Have these people lost their minds?  

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Employers could be sued under age discrimination laws for taking part in Nick Clegg’s £1 billion scheme to get young people jobs, the Government’s own official guidance has warned. Specifically subsidising jobs for the under 25s is age discrimination against the over 25s. Makes you wonder how these people get their trousers on the right [...]

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Mr Maude also turned his attention to the government’s big private sector suppliers. Last Wednesday, Oracle, the US IT giant, became the latest to bow to pressure to agree in-year and recurring price reductions on its existing contracts across Whitehall, saving taxpayers more than £75m by 2015. The deal followed a breakthrough agreement with a [...]

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Just a thought on this idea that people should be paid something close to local pay levels, not national, dependent upon the costs in an area/prevailing local wages. It’s entirely possible to have a principled stand that the same job should pay the same wage anywhere in the country. It’s a pretty bad principle and [...]

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Cancer screening ‘risks being a casualty of NHS reform’ Councils given public health funds by Lansley will spend it on potholes instead, experts warn . The argument being that when national politicians decide how money is allocated and spent they get it right but local politicians will inevitably mess it up. So much for democracy [...]

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They do not include those that involve the power of arrest and the other duties of a sworn constable. Oh, so they’re not in fact privatising the police. Back to sleep then.

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I’ve only just realised: David Cameron is “likely” to have ridden Rebekah Brooks’ ex-police horse, it has emerged It was an ex-police horse. A retired one. So, what does the Met do with retired police horses? Offer them out to whoever agrees to take care of them or what? Would be interesting if someone actually [...]

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Chris Huhne has accepted a taxpayer-funded payout of more than £17,000 despite being the first Cabinet minister in history to be forced out of office due to a criminal investigation. Well, we didn’t did we?

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The four ceremonies together will cost £81m, after the government used public funds to double the budget following a presentation to the prime minister by Boyle and Stephen Daldry. How lovely. Every income tax payer in the country has to pay £2.75 each for a disco party for lycra clad druggies. A disco party they’re [...]

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This rather amuses: A shortage of private accommodation in London could mean homeless people are moved as far away as Hull, where rents are cheaper, housing charities are warning. They fear there will be an exodus from the capital of people at the bottom of the housing ladder as the coalition’s Localism Act, which comes [...]

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One senior civil servant was awarded an £85,831 bonus on top of their six-figure salary – at the same time as members of the armed forces have been subject to a two-year pay freeze and 20,000 are to be made redundant. The bonuses have been paid since April last year and have seen more than [...]

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