Tim Worstall

Over at Avoncliff, one of the very loveliest parts of Britain, the millowners are having trouble with the Environment Agency. To the point that they now think that there has been criminal action by said agency. All complex so follow it here.

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Renationalise Royal Mail or lose millions in donations, CWU tells Ed Miliband Labour must agree to renationalise Royal Mail within three years of coming to power or lose millions in donations, postal unions say. Bit of a bugger, eh? Billy Hayes, the CWU’s general secretary, said: “Privatisation is an old-fashioned idea. We’ve seen it fail [...]

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John Prescott’s idiocy lives on: The Liverpool mayor’s cabinet on Friday approved progress on what the council calls “exciting and ambitious plans to deliver the comprehensive transformational regeneration” of the area, by agreeing to accept the lowest bid to destroy about 440 houses, according to protesters, though planning permission has yet to be formally granted. [...]

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We’re seeing a lot about how Maggie “wasted” North Sea oil. Anyone got any numbers on how much it actually was? I’ve not even got a feel for what portion of the economy the government managed to snaggle of it. I really don’t know whether it was 0.1% of GDP, or 100% of GDP (err, [...]

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EU rules would double cost of British pensions “Reckless” new EU rules could double the cost to British companies of providing “gold-plated” final salary schemes, new figures show. Public sector pensions are inflation proofed, guaranteed and largely final salary (although that is slowly changing to average salary I think?). And it’s certainly possible to work [...]

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The man who delivered the Olympic Games to Britain has been brought in by the Government to kick-start negotiations on bringing new nuclear power stations to Britain. Currently nuclear costs are running at what, twice the first budget? So we bring in someone associated with the Games? You know, the ones supposed to cost £2 [...]

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When you see this at the bottom: This mythbuster is part of a series co-ordinated by the New Economics Foundation and the Tax Justice Network. Their argument is that because the national debt isn’t as high as it was during the Napoleonic Wars nor WWII then the UK isn’t bust. Except….. Major Attlee ran budget [...]

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He was receiving £20.30 a week child benefit for the eldest of the 11 children in the house and £13.40 each for the others, according to the Times, making £8,023.60 a year tax free. According to Revenue and Customs, Mairead, with six children, would be entitled to £20,560 in tax credits and Miss Willis to [...]

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In a hearing with the expenses watchdog, MPs raised a variety of complaints about their dinner allowance, which they may claim up to the value of £15 when “required to be at the House of Commons” because it is sitting beyond 7:30pm. Slaughter the lot of ‘em. That someone on 65 k a year plus [...]

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An online petition calling on Mr Duncan Smith to give up his £134,565 salary and live on just over £200 a month had obtained 300,000 signatures. But Mr Bennett’s challenge, delivered via John Humphrys, the presenter of the Today programme, was not all it seemed. It later emerged that Mr Bennett, who was back on [...]

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Polly is decrying the coming cuts in benefits. Well, why not, we’d rather expect her to do so. And maybe they’re good cuts and maybe they’re not. But I think we can pinpoint where the left actually lost this argument. It was right back at the beginning. When the top limit for housing benefit was [...]

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Dear me, I need to go have a little lie down. I’m not sure that I agree with her reasoning but I do with her conclusion. Paying benefits on a card not in cash is a nasty, vicious thing to do. And we shouldn’t do it. Yes, I know, a certain political party favours this [...]

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‘Ruthless’ power chiefs should not use the cold snap and shortage of gas reserves as an excuse to increase fuel bills, the Energy Minister warned last night. John Hayes has told power firms he will not allow them to argue they need to increase prices as a result of obtaining extra gas supplies at short [...]

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Driven by an ideology that’s as natural as breathing for David Cameron, Oliver Letwin, George Osborne and their circle, the crisis continues to gift them their unique opportunity: to cut spending permanently, to shrink the state, and to let low-wage/high-pay inequality grow as a functional necessity in their vision of capitalism. No doubt they are [...]

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Two children of Civil War veterans listed as still receiving pensions from V.A. of $876 a year each Sure, this costs the US government some $1,600 a year. But you really do have to be careful about the tail end of your pension liabilities. Don’t forget, this war ended 150 years ago.

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In an overtly political move with an eye fixed firmly on the 2015 general election, Mr Osborne announced that the Government would offer five-year interest-free loans worth up to 20 per cent of the value of new-build homes costing less than £600,000. From January, another scheme will see taxpayers underwrite mortgages to those with small [...]

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There’s more than just a subsidy to booze inside the Palace you know. Apart from the obvious populist appeal of scrapping the ridiculous subsidy on parliamentary booze, which costs the taxpayer some £4 million per annum, That is the subsidy on all the catering arrangements. But more than that, it also misses out why booze [...]

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This one is apparently from the bloke who used to sell pasties. Unless there’s two Greggs out there. But it’s got all the usual flavours of Ritchienomincs in it. Just print the money via QE and build lots of houses. It also contains this absolute gem: While there are plenty of suitable sites for building [...]

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It’s just like PJ O’Rourke said. Once the legislators get to decide what can be bought and sold the first thing to be bought and sold will be the legislators. Telegraph investigation: Three councillors reveal their involvement with consultancies which specialise in helping companies to win planning permission for developments across the country. Why on [...]

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So there’s a new report on modern slavery: The major study by the Centre for Social Justice, which will be published on Monday, The first and major proposal of which is: The post of anti-slavery commissioner should be established to develop independent monitoring and reporting on the UK’s response to the issue. And we all [...]

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