Blog
Graduated benefits
While writing a blog piece on the Establishment, I wanted to include statistics for the number of MPs, civil servants etc. who graduated from Oxbridge, Russell Group or any university, and how the subjects they studied compared with the…
Stepping back
Lots of comments about how exchange rates and equity-price movements show that the UK is (a) doomed or (b) well-placed post-Brexit. Movements and values over a few days tell us nothing except the climate of hope or fear in those few days…
The worst form of government
An anti-democratic mini-meme developed amongst some of my liberal friends in the build-up to the EU referendum. For some people, democracy is a virtue and governance structures that provide more direct democratic accountability are…
Letter to my employees about the Brexit referendum
All, The CBI think that bosses should inform employees about Brexit. http://news.sky.com/story/1697273/bosses-told-to-warn-workers-of-brexit-risks This patronising suggestion is typical of the Confederation of Big Business, and of a Remain…
Talking Balls
Is Ed Balls a knave or a fool? On Newsnight, he just compared eliminating the deficit in four years to paying down a mortgage in short order. Let's consider the form that analogy should take if it were to reflect reality. Having engaged in…
Promote industry. Bag a banker.
Boris Johnson is quoted in MoneyWeek as having said to Management Today: "To the banker bashers I say, what's your economic model? We can't ignore and hate the bankers. What would that achieve? Show me how reducing financial services boosts…
Wet or dry
I'm feeling a little damp. Or at least, feeling like I look a little damp to others. I've found myself on what many would perceive as the more moderate, centrist side of the argument several times recently. I think I'm a “fractional…
Plus ça change
Maybe they really were the good times. The last few years didn't feel like it, but at least the Government was subtle enough in its winner-picking that I would have to explain how its targeted measures were really supporting losers. Now…
Rich people's benefits
Can we nail a fallacy that is becoming received wisdom, regarding the uncompensated withdrawal of child benefit payments to higher earners, as proposed under the UK government's Comprehensive Spending Review? The rhetoric claims that it is…
Foreign posting
I have a post on the subject of student loans for higher education on the IEA blog, under the heading Academic interest: the free-market case against subsidised student loans.
Borrowing and spending our way out of debt
One feature that distinguishes the current financial crisis from earlier ones is how widely the problem is spread. We have had bigger public debt than today, but never with so much private sector debt. We have had leverage-fuelled bubbles…
Cant and DECC
I was contacted recently by someone who was studying the renewable heat sector. They asked: We read your blog on Picking Losers and I guess the question is, given that DUKES Table 7.6 gives the existing renewable heat total for 2009 as 96…
Good plumbers and bad bankers
You may be interested in an article of mine at the Cobden Centre website. Received wisdom is that governments should try to ameliorate the impact of the economic crisis by setting interest rates artificially low and penalising prudence. The…
A business unlike any other
According to Angela Knight, Chief Executive of the British Bankers' Association: "A bank is like any other business - if its fixed operating costs go up then so does the price of its product." Angela has provided a nice illustration of how…
DECCadent action
Imagine you are a politician, elevated after the recent election from shadow to head of a department. You have quite a bit of experience shadowing your department, but to be fair, you haven't had access to all the information and resources…
Enlightenment time?
The economic debate is coalescing increasingly into two camps: those who think that the Government can prevent a further economic correction through deep spending cuts, and those who think that the Government can prevent a further…
A thousand thieves
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss. (-Robert Heinlein-) When there's a single thief, it's robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, it's taxation. (-Vanya Cohen-) HMRC, King Gord's tax collectors…
The end of meddling?
Eric Pickles has announced that he will abandon plans to charge people for their use of waste collection services (the "bin tax"). He will use the "carrot" of rewarding people with vouchers for the volume of recyclable material they produce…
The value of freedom
Attended an enjoyable IPN book launch this evening, for Matt Ridley's -The Rational Optimist-. It sounds well-worth reading, to keep our current troubles in perspective. Met a couple of interesting guys whose sites I wanted to point you at…
Freedom for the elite
The following is one key point of the Queen's Speech proposals, from the front of today's Telegraph: Academy schools introduced in England and Wales under plans to free outstanding primaries and secondaries from local authority control. So…
The beginning of the end
If the faint-heartedness of the cuts announced today* doesn't demonstrate the difficulties that the new British government will have when it comes to more difficult decisions, and that businesses and individuals will have in investing in…
Who are the lying, snivelling bastards?
The energy companies? Our central bankers and Treasury representatives? Or both groups? In America, prices fell in April, led by reductions in the cost of fuel and other energy. From The New York Times: -"Consumer prices over all fell in…
The Role of Law
Sometimes you find an error in a book so early and brazen that you barely feel the need to read further, and if you do, everything after that is diminished by the awareness of the author's bias or irrationality. A classic example is Marx's…
The aggregative delusion
On -Question Time- tonight, there was yet more discontent with the politicians* claiming that "the people had voted for a hung parliament". It is becoming a well-trodden but sterile debate for most non-politicians to point out that none of…
Game over. Inflation wins
I hope to examine this in more detail later. But I wanted to get on record as soon as possible that the events of the last 48 hours have taken a decisive turn in the battle between inflation and deflation. Commentators backing one or other…
Back in harness
I should have explained sooner the latest sustained silence on this site. Frustrated by the dishonesty of all the main parties with regard to the economic challenges that we face, we formed a new political party (Freedom & Responsibility…
Bureaucracy for beginners
What do they teach these people on Oxbridge human sciences courses? First the Cameroons demonstrate their ignorance of what it is that is holding British business back (clue: it isn't that it takes 14 rather than 7 days to register a…
Judge Dreck
As reported on the Environment Agency's website: -A series of civil sanctions will give the Environment Agency the discretion to avoid the time consuming and costly process of having to take businesses that commit certain types of offences…
The Ignoble Prize for Economics
The Real World Economic Review is taking votes for its Ignoble Prize for Economics, "to be awarded to the three economists who contributed most to enabling the Global Financial Collapse (GFC)." The shortlist is outstanding, and indeed many…
Why liberals lose
I have been lucky enough to be involved in several discussions recently in small, ostensibly-liberal* groups including some leading figures in public life and other fields. They were all private gatherings, and some were under Chatham-House…
The route to sound money
In a speech reproduced at the excellent Cobden Centre website, James Tyler argues for the introduction of a free money system (i.e. independent, private issuers of currency). This is part of the ongoing debate between sound-money advocates…
The simplistic, aggregative economics of our intellectuals
A couple of months ago, I sat next to a leading economist, reputedly of the free-market variety (though our conversation led me to doubt it). I suggested to him that GDP was not a good indicator of the health of the economy. He said he…
Classic Bloomberg headline
This is presumably one in a series. Look also for: Gideon Gono freed from caps on money issuance European Union freed from caps on economically-suicidal legislation Lloyds Bank freed from caps on market-dominance Energy suppliers freed from…
A Christmas thought
I think we in secular society are missing God. Too many people have an inflated estimation of human understanding, power and impact. They think that our economic activity can be understood and controlled to everyone's benefit by a few…
Merry Christmas, Google
GoogleAds has been pleased to inform me that they are donating $20 million to charities on our behalf for Christmas. I've got an idea. How about GoogleAds cuts its charges by $20 million, and we'll each decide which charity we'd like to…
The biter bit
In this week's MoneyWeek (best economic journal out there at the moment), an article by Simon Wilson on the risk of a "City exodus", prompted by Darling's special bankers' bonus levy, included the following sentence: -"The confusion over…
Corpulent Antisocial Irresponsibility
The latest Economic Affairs (the quarterly journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs) arrived today. Its leading topic - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - reminded me that I never published the short talk I gave at an EU…
Clean and Secure Energy Obligation?
Some friends of mine in the energy sector have been excited by a new report by Dan Lewis on Securing Our Energy Future. This report does indeed make some excellent criticisms of current energy policy, but I'm afraid it does not follow (as…
BA - The Final Solution
Just a thought: has it reached the point where the best thing that could be done with BA is to break it up and close it down? Is it worth less as a going entity than the sum of its parts? Is it effectively a bed-blocker to making better use…
Typical Scousers?
I love Liverpool. But sometimes you wonder if they go out of their way to maintain outsiders' perceptions... From DEFRA's Waste Strategy Annual Progress Report 2008/9. That's three incidents per Scouser. As usual, the problem has been…
Playing China's game
See this article for evidence that (a) for the Chinese, Copenhagen (and climate-change generally) is about getting as much out of the developed countries as possible without committing to any major effort on its part, and (b) Chinese media…
EEC/CERT/CESP/Warm Front
These programmes¹ are examples, like the EU-ETS, where government intervention hands commercial advantage to the VILE (Vertically-Integrated Large Energy) companies, to little beneficial effect. The VILE companies point to the fact that…
Schumpeter wins, we lose
I've been angry for years about the level of economic ignorance amongst politicians, civil servants, journalists, financial professionals, intellectuals, the public, and, above all, the mainstream economics profession. Though every…
Mandelson's latest 'winner' in pension fraud?
I can't beat the beautiful job Richard Tyler did in yesterday's Telegraph on a classic example of winner-picking under our Lord and master's revived industrial policy, so I'll just quote bits of it. Click the links to read the articles…
The Economist is dead. Long live The Ecommunist
-The Economist- just published its suicide note. Unusually, it has done it well in advance, in the full flush of health and optimism. But it has nevertheless committed itself fully to a course that guarantees its eventual demise, or at…
Sign of The Times
A couple of small stories on the property market recently have illustrated the extent to which the media seem to have given themselves the job of talking up the market. For a brief while, -The Express- stood alone in its determination to…
Crisis demonstrates need for industrial policy, says President
From the Socialist Republic of Britain's Telegraph Agency: In the time of crisis Belarus Britain attaches a special significance to the development of industrial giants, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko the Board of Trade Peter…
The limits of the laws
There is something rotten in the rugby world, and it's not Dean Richards. The sanctimonious twaddle being spoken on the subject of Harlequins' "bloodgate" by commentators and former professionals is nauseating. Rugby, they would have you…
The national sub-prime borrower
Here's a bemusing statistic to follow on from the earlier post. -Question:- Given that the US federal deficit is expected to be $1.8 trillion this year, taking the total national debt to $12.8 trillion, by how much does the US government…
"Austrian economics invented after WWII" says lefty blogger
The left tend to enjoy a smug, patronizing sense that their views are the product of great intelligence, altruism, and encyclopaedic knowledge, while the right owe their views to ignorance, prejudice and a brutish love of money. But for…
Tax hiatus or deficit problem?
It is becoming popular amongst Keynesians (and perhaps some monetarists too) to suggest that Western governments do not have a deficit problem, they just have a hiatus in their tax receipts. Government's job, therefore, is to help the…
Securing the UK's Energy Future (for us)
One thing leads to another. The APPGOPO report covered in the previous post refers to the first report by the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil & Energy Security (ITPOES) on "The Oil Crunch: Securing the UK's Energy Future", which has been…
Total Economic Quackery
The All Party Parliamentary Group On Peak Oil (APPGOPO) has released a report backing Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) as "the fairest and most productive way to deal with the oil crisis and to simultaneously guarantee reductions in fossil…
Posting elsewhere
I have a post on the effect of the Government's plans to increase by a huge amount our use of intermittent wind power on future prices and availability of electricity on the Institute of Economic Affairs blog.
The nuclear magic bullet
A virtue of -The Economist'-s focus this week on the vulnerability of our energy systems, regardless of whether they have got everything right (and there's plenty that's good as well as some that's bad) is that it has brought attention to…
Lucas - I'm sorry you misunderstood me
Is it me, or is Robert Lucas's apologia for modern, mathematical macroeconomics in this week's -Economist-, effectively saying that their models are pretty good at predicting the economy will carry on in the direction it's currently going…
How to make a bad argument for a good idea
There are lots of good arguments for a carbon tax. Trust -The Economist- to come up with a bad one. "A tax on carbon is hardly going to stop the lights going out in a few years, but it would provide a floor price for power, giving investors…
Energy ≠ Electricity, Part 963
It's -The Economist-'s turn to be hit repeatedly with a big stick on which we have painted the inequation: Energy ≠ Electricity. Their leader, "How long till the lights go out?" is on an important subject and makes quite a lot of important…
Thresholds of pain
The Government and the opposition parties believe that climate-change and energy policy should revolve around identifying the technical solutions and their potential, calculating what each of them needs to encourage their deployment, and…
Merton doesn't Rule, OK
One way that politicians and civil servants have tried to drive the uptake of renewables is through the application of what became known as the Merton Rule (after one of the first councils to introduce the measure) to planning policy. The…
Attack or surrender in the battle of ideas
In the long run, it's ideas that matter. And they aren't all equal. Truth is not subjective, and neither are right and wrong. Political tactics and novelty may seem all-important to the chattering class, but expedient can never make wrong…
Poor consumers
Speaking of the IEA (see previous post), Richard Wellings, their excellent Deputy Editorial Director, has posted a piece on their blog, on the recent slew of climate-change policies and targets from the Government. It is mostly well-judged…
The remorseless decline of tribal socialism
My copy of Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell's book, The Plan, arrived today. Haven't read much yet and don't agree with all that I've read, but all the same, if you haven't got a copy, you should. It's well worth the read, and more right…
Judged and found wanting
This week's Spectator includes an article by Elliot Wilson about nuclear power and Barbara Judge, one of the great-and-the-good, chair of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (amongst many senior roles), and wife of Sir Paul Judge (he of The Jury…
Growth
Many of the more delusional, socialist contributors to the Claverton Energy group of energy fantasists (as I labelled them previously to their founder member's apparent offence) are persistently and vehemently opposed to "growth". See, for…
Wind in the sails of our patronage state
According to the Guardian: -"The government will today demonstrate its willingness to exert influence over Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group by announcing £1bn of lending to wind farm developers whose schemes have been…
What a waste
According to David Kidney, Energy Minister with responsibility for fuel poverty, the Government has -"spent £20 billion helping people in fuel poverty since the year 2000"- (it's near the end of the interview). At 3.5 million, the number…
Stepping marginally
Here's a graph from the Renewable Energy Strategy, of a type that the Government has been growing increasingly fond, as it steps up the complexity of its efforts to calculate outcomes and costs of support policies: The first and most…
Tripe and baloney
For connoisseurs of government tripe on energy and the environment, the last couple of days have been like a banquet. The releases of the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, the Low Carbon Industrial Plan, the Carbon Reduction Strategy for…
Constant as the wind
The Government intends to rely on renewable electricity to meet the largest part of its renewable-energy targets, and for wind and other intermittent generators to supply most of that renewable electricity. To be precise, they have produced…
Old Hat
Just came across a post on Richard Murphy's blog (via Bishop Hill and Tim Worstall, who have both been laughing at a more recent contribution from him) that claimed to show that cutting public-sector jobs would cost the government more…
That's not a pensions crisis. Want to see a real pensions crisis?
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a drinks party for a Climate Campaign organized by the Conservative Energy & Climate Change team. The crowd was amiable enough - mostly pin-striped types with a leavening of tweedy country squires and the…
Hedonic losses
One of my new socks has a hole in it already. That's no surprise. Nowadays, at least one of each pair that I buy usually develops a hole within weeks. Or I buy size 10-12s and within a couple of washes, they are down to a size 8 (I am a…
Temporary lacuna
Sorry I've gone quiet again. Although I work in the energy industry, my greatest passion (policy-wise) is the perversity and cruelty of welfare policy and the overwhelmingly negative effect it has on our economy and the wellbeing of those…
Devaluation or deflation - are these genuine alternatives?
The choice for countries like Latvia, whose currency-peg to the Euro is crippling their economy and which have borrowed heavily in Euros, is routinely presented as devaluation or deflation. Either they must allow their currency to float…
Consultation on the IMS&ER of the EUEEUP&ELF Directives
I have just received the following invitation from AEA Technologies (energy bureaucrats who have separated but not divorced from the greater bureaucracy, and who are "managing" this aspect of the "Market Transformation Programme" for DEFRA…
Construction as leading economic indicator
The core business of our family company is producing aggregates (sand and gravel) for the construction industry. I focus on our energy activities, and don't have much to do with gravel, so wouldn't normally comment on it. However, what I…
Jury Trial
Just a quick follow up to my post on the Jury Team. It seems the British public have no more taste than I do for people who stand for everything and nothing. At a time when independents should benefit, and the Jury Team had had a fair…
The Money Hole
Superb satire from The Onion: In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?
The Department for Picking Winners
The press seem determined to ignore a crucial aspect of Peter Mandelson's accumulation of power. They are very interested in the symbolic and honorary aspects, such as the award of the titles of First Secretary of State and Lord President…
Sun stroke
I have been in France for a couple of days, visiting a potential business partner's sites. They have plans to install a huge area of photovoltaic (PV) panels at both sites. In both cases, they claim that the PV will pay for the cost of the…
Responsible to whom?
From the BBC's live blog of Gordon Brown's press conference yesterday: 1705 The prime minister says he "will not waiver and will not walk away". He adds: "I admit there have been full mistakes made and I accept responsibility…
Finishing the job
Staying to "finish the job" has become the favourite excuse for failures clinging limpet-like to their jobs. Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown have both used the excuse in the last couple of days. And many of our failed bankers and other…
A parliament swept clean of ideas and principles
Something is starting to bother me about the MPs' expenses scandal. I do not defend those MPs who have taken advantage of the lax rules that they instituted. They should go. But it is starting to feel to me that, for most people, this is…
Freedom and Responsibility
I recently heard a former central banker (not British) tell the story of a conversation he had with a Non-Exec Director of a bank, who had formerly worked for their government's finance department. The central banker asked the Non-Exec if…
Scotland - land of the unfree
Does anyone need more evidence of the need for England to devolve from the socialist Gaelic republic than the episode of Question Time from Dunfermline just now? I have nothing in common with most of the audience and the panel, and would…
Environmentally vulnerable
Mental illness is no laughing matter, so I hesitate to take the piss out of the following. On the other hand, it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry when you see something like this. You can fill in your own punchlines about the mental…
All shall have prizes
Just came across this lottery-funded scheme: You'd think, with a name like that, this would be a spoof, or at least an ironic reference. But apparently not. They appear to be "serious". Is this the apogee of the New Labour philosophy?
Inverse learning
Renewable energy has a number of benefits and disadvantages. The most significant of the benefits are the avoided carbon emissions and the energy-security benefits. The latter is more debatable - diversity is undoubtedly the key to security…
In the land of the quangocrats
Spent the morning at a Regen SW workshop on the Heat and Energy Saving consultation. Before we got to the main course (a presentation by the DECC civil servant responsible for the consultation), we were treated to an hors d'oeuvre from…
Replacing the state with charity and community action
This is a mantra of the right. Martin Vander Weyer voiced a fairly standard version in today's Sunday Telegraph: -Those reductions of state provision will be met in part by a reinvigorated voluntary sector, to which the retired and unjobbed…
Renewable redistribution
It was a miserable budget. Lots of people got screwed. The main ones will be picked up by the commentariat. Let me add to that list a group who many might imagine had done quite well: renewable developers. But didn't Darling throw lots of…
More Tory spend-save
It's not true that the Tories don't have any policies. They have a policy for each of us. Do you want lower taxes? They support that. Do you want more public investment? They support that too. Worried about the national debt? They are…
More from Mark "externalities are internal" Wadsworth
Further to the earlier post about the dumbest economic argument in the world, the perpetrator (Mark) has now published the results of his poll, which asked "-Who is best placed to decide what to build on any particular plot of land?-" He…
Hot air freight
Carbon-capture and storage (CCS) is already one of the biggest political lies around. The Government is poised to grant permission to the development of several coal-fired power-stations, so long as they are "CCS-ready". They don't actually…
Cleggover blunders again
Martha Kearney just nailed Nick Clegg (again). This time he's claiming he knows how much money will be brought in by removing various tax loopholes, but doesn't know how many people will be affected. He then comes up with a figure of 1…
Hoover: Austrian or interventionist?
Following an interesting debate with Paul Halsall on Austrian economics and the possibility of economic calculation in a socialist system, Paul posted half the text of an Anatole Kaletsky article in The Times, which made various spurious…
Another calamitous consequence of Callamity's time at Ofgem
There is much talk in energy circles of the "capacity gap" - the shortfall between operating capacity and demand that may arise as a result of the imminent closure (mostly within 6 years) of many of our coal-fired and nuclear power stations…
Sir Callamity McCarthy - a real villain of the depression
Fingers have been pointed in the direction of many different culprits for the critical condition of our economy. I am surprised that they have not been pointed more frequently at Sir Callum McCarthy. We don't need to swab him for gunshot…
What Callamity did next
I should have known better than to think that politicians and civil servants would have learnt from Callamity's disastrous tenures at Ofgem and the FSA. In fact, he stepped straight from the FSA into a job as a Non-Exec member of the…
More evidence that it's terminal for Labour
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and then... Polly Toynbee, discussing Labour's and Gordon's failings on Newsnight tonight, was unusually reasonable and realistic. Has she reached the acceptance stage of dealing with Labour's terminal…
Callamity's rewards
In his last year of "service" at the FSA, after his failure had already become plain (with the collapse of Northern Rock), Callamity McCarthy was paid over £480,000, an 11% increase on the previous year. What is he being paid now for his…
Callamity, Part II
Great timing. I blogged last night about the mind-boggling incompetence of Sir Callamity McCarthy. I wake up this morning, and what does the FT have on its front page, but an indictment of the behaviour of the FSA during Callamity's reign…
Are the Tories spending or saving?
On the front page of today's FT is the headline: "Osborne warns of big spending cuts to come". But in a speech yesterday, he announced 10 measures that should be implemented in the Budget to "kickstart a green recovery". Just his first…
Government auctions - good or bad?
I have been having a debate with Paul Lockett on Tim Worstall's site, which I have found very interesting and illuminating. The topic was the TPA's green-tax-calculator, and what it said about costs of carbon in this country. I claimed that…
Carbon tax petition
Nick Monether of Greenfields Consulting has launched a petition on the No.10 website, to press the Prime Minister -"to Adopt a Carbon Tax ratified and harmonised with the EU and the G20"-. As the petition explains: -"The tax payer and/or…
I'm quite proud of this
On 7 April, I posted an article comparing the car-scrappage schemes with Bastiat's broken-window analogy. The following is the leader from today's FT: Great minds think alike.
Dollar or Euro votes?
Noticed this poster at a tube station today: My immediate thought was: none of your bloody business. (After a moment's additional thought, perhaps I should moderate that to: none of your bloody business between the two on the right, and…
Is this the dumbest economic argument in the world?
-What is market value other than "the community's valuation of the external costs and benefits of the activity"?- External costs and benefits are, by definition, costs and benefits that are external to the market value. If they were within…
More political funding from Gordon's Investment Bank
£150m (almost half the total cost of the scheme) for the M80 PFI scheme in Scotland £500m as a starter for the M25 widening, with possibly more to come. It is not clear how these projects meet the EIB's objectives, but very clear how they…
From this week's MoneyWeek...
Good call. Indeed. Heavily over-priced at that.
Gordon's Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank (EIB) "has 6 priority objectives for its lending activity": Cohesion and Convergence Support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Environmental sustainability Implementation of the Innovation 201…
The Socialist Utopia
From the English Eclectic blog of Paul Halsall, a socialist historian, in somewhat self-deluding response to Iain Dale's suggestion that we might have to cut public spending: 'I would expect that within less than 10 years we will have the…
Scrappage and broken windows
Henry Hazlitt, in his marvellous Economics in One Lesson, cites Frederic Bastiat's exposition of the broken window fallacy. The fallacy is that vandals breaking a shopkeeper's window have benefited the economy, because the glazier will get…
Right-to-Move-Out, not Right-to-Move
ConservativeHome's ToryDiary reports on a Right-to-Move policy to be announced tomorrow by Grant Shapps. Under this scheme, "good social tenants can demand that their social landlord sell their current property and use the proceeds, minus…
"Falling emissions in declining economy" shock!
Preliminary data released today (as reported in EurActiv, and picked up by OpenEurope) indicates that emissions from the sectors covered by the EU-ETS fell 6% in 2008. Naturally, the pro-EU-ETS brigade have hailed this as evidence that the…
The 14th century solution to moral hazard
Just looking something up in Peter Spufford's -Money and its Use in Medieval Europe-. Came across the following passage, which seems to have relevance to the modern day: -In Barcelona, from 1300, book entries by credit transfer legally…
Government ≠ Country
Alistair Darling, explaining that the downside of reduced bonuses in the City is reduced tax revenues, said (on the Andrew Marr show this morning): -"that's why our income as a country has gone down"-. No Alistair. That's why your income as…
'There's no shame in going to the IMF'. Oh really?
What does it mean if a government has to go to the IMF for funds? The government couldn't run a balanced budget. The economic outlook was so poor that there was little prospect of the budget coming back into balance over a reasonable…
McKillop vs Myners
Much too late, but I had to get it off my chest... Why do all the journalists and opposition politicians seem simply to have accepted Tom McKillop's version of his discussions with Lord Myners about Fred Goodwin's pension? One of them is…
The public-choice incentives of the economics profession
I am a supporter of and enthusiast for the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the leading free-market think-tank. So I was shocked to read, in what I think is the best post I have seen on Guido's site, that the IEA's Shadow Monetary…
What to do about MPs' expenses:
Besides each candidate's name on the ballot paper should be their declared annual budget. The successful candidate's budget will be raised from local taxes. There will not be any indexing. There will not be any expenses or other allowances…
Tax sovereignty
Tim Worstall covers the efforts by Dan Mitchell to persuade the American government to step back from its efforts to clamp down on tax havens. This is picked up and expanded at Sounds in the Hickory Wind (nice blog, added to the blog roll…
What do we mean by bureaucracy and red-tape?
It occurred to me, as I wrote the last post, that we have a problem with terminology. I am sure I have been as guilty as David Cameron of lazily attacking bureaucracy. And attacks on red-tape are commonplace amongst the right. But the left…
The post-bureaucratic age?
I've just been reading David Cameron's article in last week's Spectator, which presents the idea that they will "usher in a post-bureaucratic age" as the Tories' big idea for the next election. A post-bureaucratic age will presumably need…
Has Brown united the country?
Plenty of people hated Maggie, but plenty of people admired her too. Jim Callaghan and John Major may have been failures, but this was tempered by a sense that they were decent men trying, however ineffectually, to do the right thing. When…
Time-travelling economics
BBC journalists were reporting last night that Gordon Brown, who is apparently an avid student of history, was explaining how it was important to reach agreement at the G20 on a broad, fiscal stimulus, or it would be like 1933, when failure…
The prudential cost of the financial crisis
-"Borrowers have been warned they face higher mortgage rates for up to nine years as banks hit customers with the cost of tighter regulation."- So begins the lead article in the Money section of this week's Sunday Times. The problem, it…
Smoke and solar mirrors
A member of the Claverton group of energy fantasists (of which I am amused to be a member), posted the following article not only to the other members, but to Ed Miliband, Mike O'Brien and Joan Ruddock. See if you can spot the flaw…
Government "achievement"
We know that what follows is typical of how they see the world, but rarely do we see it spelt out so clearly. In the recently issued consultation on a Heat and Energy Saving Strategy, the Government details (p.13) "What we have already…
Name our Tea Party
There is a movement developing in the States to send tea-bags to senior Democrats (including the President) and to hold local "Tea Parties", in reference to the Boston Tea Party, in objection to the massive Obama programme of bail-outs and…
'Ere mate. Can you spare a few billion for a wind farm?
Classic example of corporate rent-seeking in the Business section of today's Sunday Times. In the past week, the Renewables Obligation (RO) Order 2009 has been passed. This converts the previously (roughly) technology-neutral RO into a…
Disintegrating our oligopolies
Privatisation became the totem of the 1980s efforts to move our economies away from the disastrous, increasing socialism of the previous century and more. I propose that the equivalent focus of policy that is needed today should be…
How government stimulus works
My company is in a very immature sector. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that no company in the sector is making a profit at the moment. Those of us in the business are ploughing money into it in the belief that it will become…
The Jury Team
Sir Paul Judge was on Andrew Marr's show this morning, promoting his new party of independents, the Jury Team. I have posted the following on their website: -If I vote for my local Jury Team/Independent candidate at the next election, what…
Make work doesn't work
Charles Steele has posted a brilliant, accessible explanation on his Unforeseen Contingencies blog of why the stimulus and "make work" plans of most of the major governments are based on bad economics. I can't do it justice in a sentence…
Hot air on green gas
For numerous reasons (some set out on other posts on this site), heat is a huge, vital, yet ignored sector of our energy systems. It is responsible for nearly half the carbon emissions from the energy sector. It is the reason we are so…
EU economics: boost the economy by using today's money to pay for white elephants in five years' time
Attention focused on the renewables component of Obama's stimulus plan today. But the Americans aren't the only ones using the credit crunch as an excuse to plough vast sums of public money into their pet projects. The European Commission…
Scottish pots and Swiss kettles
Gordon Brown wants us to make a mental connection in some way between our financial troubles and the competitive tax regimes in countries like Switzerland. I have just come back from Switzerland, where we are looking at investing. The…
Killed by state greenery
Bishop Hill has a shocking exposure of how local government in the fire-hit regions of Australia prevented locals from taking actions that would have reduced the risk to their properties and lives. However, a word of caution. There will be…
The 1920s - the previous NICE decade
John Prescott has just repeated, on -Newsnight-, the Labour party's favourite myth, barely challenged by the opposition, media or academia. According to the myth, the Labour government ran the economy successfully for the decade preceding…
"Do nothing" conservatives
We might have done nothing. That would have been utter ruin. Instead we met the situation with proposals to private business and to Congress of the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of…
UFOs, apocalyptic visions, and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme
Prices in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) have hit new lows in Phase 2 (just over €10/tCO2). The mechanism became worthless in Phase 1. It looks likely to do the same in Phase 2 (as some of us predicted). It is not providing…
British bullshit for British voters
The latest spate of humbug surrounded the "British Jobs for British Workers" strikes. Even the application of the term "strike" was a piece of humbug. The protesters didn't work there, so how could they go on strike? This was secondary…
Western standards of trade and investment
In this week's Spectator (3 Jan), Robert Salisbury, reviewing Michael Stuermer's book "Putin and the rise of Russia" says "We have an interest in a stable and peaceful Russia and, even if we cannot hope to impose our own ideas of government…
Russian gas and the big political lie
The dispute between Russia and Ukraine is yet again demonstrating the bleeding obvious that our Government manages to ignore because the big energy companies would rather look the other way. Our Government, opposition politicians, most…
DFS next to go bust?
How desperate do you have to be to set "wood pellets" as one of your keyword combinations in Google AdWords, if you are in the business of selling furniture?There is nothing in your product range that is remotely related to wood pellets…
Dependable wind
Bishop Hill has rightly pointed out that the current weather is casting the Met. Office's claims of technical superiority in a bad light. But let's not limit it to the Met. Office. It is also making a monkey of wind fanatics. The current…
Popping back in from time to time
The credit crunch and weakness of the Pound have made the Swiss project a remote prospect. As this cannot be a full-time occupation for now and we are short of management resources for our other investments (in the UK), I have volunteered…
Valuing economic activity
On Radio 5 this afternoon (5 Jan), Seb Coe said something like "It is often forgotten that, between now and 2012, the Olympic preparations will make up around 5% of economic activity in the capital". It is one example of a common refrain in…
Wood pellets
Not the most exciting thing, but Google resolutely refuses to notice the website for Forever Fuels, the business I am running and trying to promote. We don't get listed at all under a search for wood pellets, even though we are the UK's…
Cap-and-trade - a steaming dish of tripe and baloney
I've been beating a fairly solitary path on this for a while, and in the process making myself unpopular with the major players in the electricity industry (which provides another clue to the huge rent-seeking potential of cap-and-trade…
Pissing into the wind
My policy of paying no attention to the news had been going well, and then the boss decided that we simply had to respond to an article in -The Times-. So it's temporarily back to banging my head against a brick wall, as you may have…
Sorry, and goodbye for now
Apologies to the regular visitors to this site (both of you), for the abrupt termination of posts, and then the more recent disappearance altogether (a technical hitch that went uncorrected because I wasn't paying attention). A combination…
Review of the Papers, Friday 28 September
Government Thousands of five- to seven-year-olds are still being taught illegally in classes of more than 30, according to Government figures released yesterday. An annual census of state schools published by the Department for Children…
Benn sees the light
The government has made a sensible choice on the issue of light bulbs, I believe. The headlines ran that traditional light bulbs will be phased out by 2012 - but the key here is that the initiative is voluntary. Supermarkets and energy…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 27 September
Government Gordon Brown has vowed to close any tax loophole that benefits private equity, in an attempt to allay Labour concerns that he has been too generous to the "super-rich". The prime minister was challenged on Wednesday at the Labour…
Heard it all before...
The new Brown government is doing an incredible and shameless job of presenting a whole new load of ideas as though the past ten years were a massive mistake that was none of their doing. In the same way we don't vote for a Prime Minister…
The Government got it wrong, wrong, wrong
Ed Balls has finally admitted that the government has got it wrong on education over the past ten years and that their pledge to have their three main priorities as education, education, education has been a total failure. At least, he…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 26 September
Government An independent exams watchdog is to be created in an effort to limit the annual debate about grade inflation and "dumbing down", the government will announce today. Ed Balls, the children's secretary, will announce plans to…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 25 September
**Government ** The defence secretary is today set to announce that British troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are to receive a 25 per cent cut in their council tax bills. Des Browne will tell the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth…
Review of the Papers, Monday 24 September
Government Executives at high-profile companies cannot rely on being bailed out of emergencies by the government - in spite of the precedent set by the state's help for Northern Rock savers - Alistair Darling warned on Sunday. "No…
Darling u-turns
Apparently “-No government should ever be in the business of protecting executives who make the wrong call or bad decisions-,” or so said Alastair Darling at the opening of yesterday's conference. But isn't this exactly what he did little…
Clean hospitals? What a novel idea
Yesterday Gordon Brown made one of the most ground breaking, novel, ingenious, brilliant promises any politician has ever made. The saviour of the NHS promised us clean hospitals for all. Yes, that's right - while the rest us having been…
Review of the Papers, Friday 21 September
British ministers are refusing to cooperate with the US criminal investigation into allegations of corruption against BAE, Britain's biggest arms company, the Guardian can disclose. More than two months after an official request for mutual…
1.4 million people can't be wrong
Another day, another report telling us that the government has wasted £43bn of taxpayers' money on the NHS. This time the source is... the patients themselves! And not just a few disgruntled ones either. 1.4 million of them were surveyed…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 20 September
Government The first comprehensive official analysis of the impact of migration on public services and British life will be published next month, Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, promised yesterday. The study, by the Migration Impacts…
Big Daddy wins again
Government consultation are a bit like the old Saturday afternoon wrestling, with the government playing the role of Big Daddy and the rest of us the enormous, yet hopeless, Giant Haystacks. Everyone knows who is going to win, but we have…
That NHS upgrade system - it's not very good, is it?
Security breach on Government's £12bn upgrade computer system shocker! So the new computer system in the NHS isn't a tight as Fort Knox or even as secure as the flies on John Prescott's trousers it turns out. What a surprise. Amusingly…
Not worth the paper they are signed upon
The Times is reporting that town halls would be forced to take action over petitions with more than 200 signatures under new proposals to devolve power to voters. This is Hazel Blears' big idea for making councils act on demand of the power…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 19 September
Government Town halls would be forced to take action over petitions with more than 200 signatures under new proposals to devolve power to voters. Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, is to publish a consultation paper detailing new…
Government to underwrite all risk from now on
So the Government has promised that it will guarantee Northern Rock savers by underwriting £28bn of deposits? Darling has, in theory, just nationalised the savings industry - yet you get the distinct impression that he is making this up as…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 18 September
Government Fifteen government departments and agencies, including Whitehall's biggest spenders, face the threat of legal action for failing to carry out their duties under race equality legislation, according to a final report from the…
Teach them to learn, not teach
Education, education, education. I wonder how many blog entries I have started with those three words over the past year? Incredible as it is to believe, but it was education that was the single biggest issue the Labour government was…
Judges to be formally assessed
What is the best way to improve the performance of our judges? Well in typical New Labour fashion it seems the answer is to set target levels and dumb down. It is being reported that judges’ performance in court could well be monitored by…
Review of the Papers, Monday 17 September
Government Britain could be sent into an economic spiral profound enough to undermine confidence in the economy and in Gordon Brown's Government, economists have warned amid evidence that the crisis at Northern Rock has deepened. Experts…
Review of the Papers, Friday 14 September
Government A scathing report by MPs has condemned the "disgraceful" accommodation in which Britain's armed forces are living and said the situation can only be fuelling the retention crisis. The blunt report from the Defence Committee comes…
What is the NHS for?
The very reason we have an NHS is to ensure that those in society who may not be able to afford the luxuries in life can at least have free (at the point of use) health care that is of the same quality to that every one else gets in society…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 13 September
Government Companies are struggling to find skilled staff as thousands leave school with a poor grasp of the three Rs, Tesco's chief executive has claimed. Low standards of literacy and numeracy among the young has left the economy exposed…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 12 September
**Government ** The country's top police officer will today urge a new blitz on red tape and form-filling after the first review of policing for a generation. Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, is expected to blame…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 12 September
Government Firms such as McDonald's and Vodafone could have their staff training schemes accredited by the government, John Denham has said. The innovation, universities and skills secretary called for an end to the "outdated" distinction…
The Health system is archaic and broken beyond repair.
More bad news for Alan Johnson. It really is starting to pile up for him - though that is what happens when you are Health Secretary. Sir Derek Wanless, an advisor who was one of the Brown's men who were behind increasing the NHS budget…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 11 September
Government Thirty-year-old train carriages are being brought out of mothballs by the Government to try to ease the rail overcrowding crisis. Inter-city trains, whose heyday was the late 1970s, are making a comeback with four operators…
Review of the Papers, Monday 10 September
Government Plans for the world's first personal carbon trading scheme, in which people buy and sell their rights to produce pollution, are unveiled today. The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) is…
Policy Announcements, Monday 10 September
Government Gordon Brown has defended his decision to hold down this year's public sector pay rise, saying he does not want a return to "boom and bust" economics. The prime minister told the TUC in Brighton that financial discipline was…
HIPs Episode 1007
The first casualties of the HIPs fiasco have already fallen. It is being reported that many of the first packs have to be scrapped because they have been deemed invalid. It is also reported that other packs are being held up because local…
Fan the flames to put the fire out..?!
It is getting to him - and so soon too. That is to say Alan Johnson is already suffering from his role as Secretary for Health as it makes him come out with bizarre policy suggestions. The latest one sounds as though it should have come…
The Government Lied to us all. Allegedly.
Do you ever get the feeling that the government is pulling the wool over your eyes? It seems they can never be straight about how much money they are going to take off you to spend on their latest social experiment or landmark building…
Intermission
Haven't had time to post for the past few days, thanks to preparing our response to the latest in the never-ending stream of consultations the Government has been running to make it look like they are listening, before proceeding to do…
Dave, National Service and the end of societies ills
Vote Dave! He has come up with a sure fire, water tight, can not fail, genius idea to save the future of this country. It won't be long until we leave our front doors open again, teenagers will stop their underage drinking, boys will stop…
Government in poor value for money shocker!
Government in poor value for money shocker! This time, however, it is a "-master class in bungling-"! Edward Leigh MP, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has described the Single Farm Payment Scheme, introduced two years ago…
Missing the point on investment... again
The education debate has rumbled on longer than usual it seems this year in the aftermath of the annual GCSE/A level dumbing down standards debate. One of the reasons, I suspect, is that the mass investment from the Labour government is…
MTAS strikes again!
Despite reports last week that the NHS has gloriously balanced the books and managed to hoard £1bn of public money to "reinvest" in the health service, there are reports that Junior Doctors are being short changed by £500 a week due to…
Pricing the future
There was a flurry of triumphant snorts on Friday when some libertarian blogs picked up a post from earlier in the month, which had commented on the recent paper by William Nordhaus on carbon-pricing. The ASI got it from voluntaryXchange…
Tax reduction priorities
Mark Wadsworth (whose blog is one we recommend in our blogroll) managed to get a long (by their standards) letter published in yesterday's FT, criticizing John Redwood's focus on reducing corporation tax, when in Mark's opinion greater…
The French "right" and competition
GdF is an energy company, Suez operates in the energy and environment sectors. They want to merge. The French government is intervening to tell Suez that it must divest itself of its environment division if the merger is to go ahead. Why is…
Lies, damn lies, and government statistics
I listened this morning to Nick Ross and James Brokenshire (Tory spokesman on Home Affairs) arguing about crime statistics on Radio 4. Brokenshire claims that the statistics show that violent crime is on the increase. Ross accuses him of…
Fixing the energy market
The Institute for Paternalism, Protectionism and Regulation today published a report on Energy Security. It is, in the most part, a rehashing of received wisdom, without understanding or insight, but one phrase in the Executive Summary…
What are they so worried about?
Picking Losers usually focuses on the British Government's failed attempts to introduce policy to make our lives safer, fairer and better - the consequences almost always being that they create more problems than they solve and blow a whole…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 30 August
David Cameron said last night that the level of immigration to Britain was too high and placed unacceptable pressure on public services and housing. The Conservative leader had previously been reluctant to speak on immigration, a subject…
Easier exams means bad doctors
The Daily Mash has really hit the nail on the head today. Yesterday I wrote about the incredibly stupid idea of encouraging more people to take up science at GCSE by making the exams easier. Today the Daily Mash reports: -Brain surgery…
Crime Policy isn't working
Do you think the Government's crime policy has come a little unstuck? Or perhaps it never worked in the first place. Either way, you'd have thought they would think something was up from this example alone... Thirty one prison sentences…
Capitalist pigs of the media
Tim Worstall picked up yesterday on George Monbiot's rant against "neo-liberalism" and its promoters in the Mont Pèlerin Society and elsewhere. George names a large number of participants in the global conspiracy to promote the view "that…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 29 August
Government Plans for 3m new homes in the UK will be dealt a blow on Wednesday by an official report recommending a lower rate of housebuilding growth for the south-east, the region at the heart of Gordon Brown's plans to increase home…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 29 August
Government The government has unveiled new regulations which will see graphic images placed on tobacco products as part of the latest drive to put people off smoking. The 15 images - chosen after a public consultation and vote - include…
How about ruining the economy and taxing the hell out of everyone?
Why don't the Tories just shut up about the environment? Probably because it was only thing that they haven't been absolutely panned for talking about so far. They have been falling apart at the mere suggestion of education and Europe is…
Educayshon, Educayshon, Educayshon
As the education dumbing down debate continues where one side argues that exams are getting easier while the other suggests that teaching is getting better, it seems that the Joint Council for Qualifications is looking to resolve the debate…
This is what they call research in the public sector...
What better way for our council workers to spend our council tax than to clock up 200,000 miles around the world to pick up tips on increasing bills for homeowners! At least the trip will pay for itself - though I think I'd rather they'd…
Policy Announcements, Tuesday 28 August
Lib Dems The Liberal Democrats have set out plans aimed at making Britain carbon neutral by 2050. Included in the 10-point plan to be debated at next month's party conference are measures to improve the rail networks and increase lorry…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 28 August
Government Large businesses are subjected to an excessive number of tax investigations with only small sums of money at stake, according to a National Audit Office report. Despite an attempt to focus more closely on high-risk businesses…
Cap-and... oops-nothing-to-trade
Cap-and-trade mechanisms scored early successes when deployed within national boundaries against pollutants like SO2 and NOx. That success led politicians and economists to think that the approach could be extended to all emissions, and to…
Review of the Papers, Friday 24 August
Government The Government is likely to miss its latest target for cutting back greenhouse gas emissions by a wide margin, a report said yesterday. Instead of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by at least 26 per cent by 2020, as it pledged…
Picking a loser for education
The FT reports today: -Students at UK grammar schools outperformed their private-sector counterparts for the first time this year, grabbing a higher proportion of top GCSE grades, results revealed on Thursday.- Yet further proof that…
Government target horror story
Government targets are often classic examples of picking losers. The intentions are almost always spot on, but the result is aiming for a target for all the wrong incentives. For example, crime is too high - set the police a target to get…
The real lesson of the Tories' campaign on hospital closures
The Times reports that the Tories' hospital campaign "was in disarray last night". One can pontificate on whether the campaign was the right point of attack (no), whether the mistakes are serious (in credibility terms, yes), and whether the…
Review of the Papers, Thursday 23 August
**Government ** Householders may be charged to dispose of their rubbish through the use of prepaid waste sacks or wheelie bins with microchips. The Local Government Association (LGA) said yesterday that people may also have to pay…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 22 August
Government The true economic benefits of the Heathrow expansion have been vastly exaggerated, according to an independent investigation into the White Paper on the third runway. The claim of a potential £7.8bn benefit to the economy, used…
Policy Announcements, Wednesday 22 August
Government Troublemakers causing or contributing to alcohol-related crime or disorder can be excluded from places such as a town centre or village green for up to 48 hours by police, under a new power coming into force today. The new…
Blundering on with HIPs...
The latest HIPs calamity is reported today. It is becoming apparent that some mortgage lenders are refusing to accept a crucial part of the reports. Solicitors, mortgage lenders and even some HIPs providers warned that many homebuyers…
Because life's not risky enough in Indonesia?
The government of the cash-strapped Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which is prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and storms, is considering buying - from a "former fertiliser exporter and vodka salesman" - "floating nuclear…
And the MTAS fiasco continues too...
Despite former secretary for Health, Patricia Hewitt, saying that while MTAS was about no doctor would be jobless, more than 10,000 trainee doctors could find themselves without posts within weeks. In order to hand out as many jobs as…
Review of the Papers, Tuesday 21 August
Government Thousands of newly qualified nurses are facing unemployment because of hospital cutbacks, with vacancies at their lowest for 10 years. New National Health Service figures have revealed how difficult it is for nurses…
Mickey Mouse degrees
How do you fancy an outdoor adventure with Philosophy? How about some fashion buying? Some Aromatherapy and Therapeutic Bodywork? A bit of lifestyle management? Not got a clue what I'm on about? Believe it or not you can do all these…
Quangocracy - euthanasia or liberation?
Not for the first time, I have been scattering observations on an issue, in comments dotted around the place, rather than pulling the strands together for a piece on here. This time, the topic is the rising cost of the quangocracy. As a…
Daddy!
Are they by any chance related? (Picture of Ted from US DoD via Wikipedia, and of Dave from today's FT. Or is that the other way round?)
Review of the Papers, Monday 20 August
Government Family doctors have been warned that unless they agree to open at evenings and on Saturdays, private companies will be contracted to take over their practices. A letter sent to local NHS organisations has ordered them to improve…
HIPs - implementation judders on
The government has announced that HIPs will now apply to all three bedroom houses earlier than expected - September 10th. This has meant that anyone who thought they had bit of time before any October deadline has, once again, been shafted…
Bloody hell!!!
Can we finally stop pretending that cap-and-trade and our other half-baked "carbon-pricing" mechanisms aren't simply offshoring our carbon? Global coal production has increased by one-third in 3 years (and by over 50% since the turn of the…
Planes, trains and automobiles
Tim Worstall has challenged, in a recent post, the logic of the DfT's suggestion that Air Passenger Duty (APD) needs to be increased further to take full account of the contribution of aviation to carbon-emissions. By Tim's calculations…
Osborne finds 14 billion new ways to waste our money
George Osborne has welcomed the report of John Redwood's Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, which identifies £14 billion that could be saved by cutting red tape and bureaucracy and recommends tax cuts of £10 billion, as "the most…
Was that tax cuts or no tax cuts?
So John Redwood has spelt out the future of the economy with a raft of tax cuts. So John Redwood has spelt out the future of the economy by promising that a Tory government will ensure the stability of the economy before committing to any…
Review of the Papers, Friday 17 August
Government Rail regulators were last night threatening to put the brakes on huge fare rises. Amid public anger over fare increases up to 30 per cent on some routes, the Office of Rail Regulation has agreed to define what increases should be…
Policy Announcements, Friday 17 August
Government The government has said it will extend its Home Information Pack scheme (Hips) to cover three-bedroom homes in England and Wales from 10 September 2007. Hips are intended to speed up house sales, but critics say it makes the…
Pickles' rubbish economics
Here is Cameroonian Conservatism in action. If people are inclined to avoid paying for goods, get taxpayers to pay for them, so they appear to be "free" at the point of consumption, in order to reduce the temptation to commit unlawful acts…
The Government cop-out
We have, to a certain degree, an anti-social drinking problem in this country. The solution? Ban it. But what are the real causes of this problem? It doesn't matter - ban it. We are told today that nearly 200 MPs now want the…