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I’ve spent the last 18 years writing frankly, freely and without apology — a practice that’s becoming rarer in Britain. As far back as 2016 more than 3,300 people were detained or questioned over online posts, and recent coverage shows thousands more arrests under the Communications Act and Malicious Communications Act. Thoughtcrime is no longer fiction; it’s becoming policy. Even very recently, Lucy Connolly was sentenced after a post calling for mass deportations — her case has become a flashpoint in the debate over where free speech ends and criminality begins. (Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, The Guardian)

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Ho Hum

Inequality is extreme

First, inequality is now extreme by any measure. The report says this plainly, with the following being representative of the data included within it:

“The top 10% of the global population’s income-earners earn more than the remaining 90%.”

“The wealthiest 0.001%… control today three times more wealth than half of humanity combined.”

Wealth concentration is so great that the bottom half of the world “holds only 2% of global wealth”.

Those numbers are not abstract. They describe a world in which economic power is held by a group so small that they could fit into a football stadium, while billions share what amounts to nothing.

The UK is not exempt. In fact, it has always been one of the global pioneers of the policy framework that has produced this outcome.

“High” inequality is defined by hte World Bank as a Gini over 40. The UK does not have a Gini over 40. Therefore the UK does not have high inequality.

Also, global inequality has been falling these past decades of neoliberalism.

Aha! A testable hypothesis!

So let me suggest an alternative hypothesis. It is this:

There is no growth because that is no longer possible on a finite planet. We have actually reached our limits, at least within existing income distributions, which mean that many are now denied the chance to meet their needs, let alone their wants.

So, other places are able to produce more output from the same inputs. Other places have higher total factor productivity that is.

Therefore – as so often – Spud is wrong.

And, given that 80% of market economy growth last century came from increases in tfp, he’s wronger than even he thinks too.

Left hand, right hand

ICE issues deportation order for Belarusian woman extradited by FBI

No, really:

An ongoing FBI investigation into a Belarusian woman accused of smuggling US aviation parts and electronics to Russia is teetering on the brink of collapse after being caught in what one judge called a “Kafkaesque” case brought on by the Trump administration’s attempts to deport her before she faces trial.

Federal prosecutors had worked for over a year to secure the extradition of Yana Leonova, who faces multiple charges including fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. But their efforts unraveled when immigration officials abruptly issued an order to detain and deport her soon after she was flown into the US last month, a move that plunged the case into legal chaos.

“Indeed, it is both preposterous and offensive for the government to bring someone into the United States against their will and then turn around and seek ICE detention because that person is here ‘illegally,’” magistrate judge Zia M Faruqui said in a written order.

Not even the Trumpian state is efficient…..

Well, there’s always a possibility here

At the turn of the decade, gay male and non-binary pop stars seemed poised to take pop music by storm. Lil Nas X broke out with Old Town Road – which blew up on TikTok, sold about 18.5m copies and remains tied with Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You as the longest-running No 1 single in US history – and artists such as Sam Smith, Troye Sivan and Olly Alexander from Years & Years were all singing about gay love and sex.

But the initial promise has stalled. Lil Nas X’s attempts to build on his smash debut album have fizzled, and he is publicly dealing with mental health issues. In October, Khalid released his first album since being outed by his ex last year but only sold 10,000 copies in the first week in the US. A previous album, 2019’s Free Spirit, sold some 200,000 copies in the first week and led to him briefly dethroning Ariana Grande as the most listened to artist on Spotify.

That the rest of the music isn’t all that good?

This pushes some artists into behind-the-scenes roles as writers and producers, such as MNEK, who says: “Major labels aren’t searching for an openly gay pop star. They are searching for something that sells and is palatable for families and middle England.”

This also works and works even if we reverse it. The vast majority are not gay so people who sell to hte vast majority are not going to be talking about – say – minority sports like gay sex. You know, it’s a business?

Well observed there

Why do we need a politics of care? This is why we do:

More than one in 20 people are homeless in parts of London, according to research published by the charity Shelter on Thursday after ministers set out a new strategy to stop people losing their homes.

Some 382,618 people are estimated to have nowhere permanent to live across England, an annual increase of 8 per cent, according to the charity’s analysis of government data.

Both of these are staggering statistics, and the sort of data that drives me to believe a better world is possible.

What The Sage misses is that of those 382,618 people counted there not one of them is sleeping outside. Rough sleepers are counted separately, you see?

So what this actually is is the number of people the welfare state – that politics of care – is saving from sleeping in the street.

Big surprise, eh?

“Unacceptable” delays at a new safety regulator have trapped residents waiting for dangerous flats to be fixed and halted thousands of new homes, according to a House of Lords report.
Bottlenecks at the Building Safety Regulator have pushed up costs for flat owners and put the government in danger of missing its target of 1.5 million new homes by 2029, the industry and regulators committee of cross-party peers said in a report on Thursday.

Regulation means delays. My word.

So, just the basic point again. Economic growth is people doing new things, old things in new ways or even just more of those old things. If we iterpose a layer of bureaucracy whose permission is required to do new things, old things in new ways or even just more of the old then economic growth will be slower.

That’s just how it all works. Doing stuff slower just does mean slower economic growth.

Call that a bargain, the best I ever made

Conservative governments spent £325m creating 67 free schools that subsequently failed or disappeared, many through lack of demand, according to data revealed by a freedom of information request.

The figures from the Department for Education (DfE) show that the government committed more than £10bn to building new schools between 2014-15 and 2023-24, compared with £6.8bn for rebuilding existing schools, which critics say left England with a backlog of crumbling and decaying buildings.

So the claim is 3% of the budget was wasted. Given the norm in government spending that’s pissant, isn’t it, trivia.

Isn’t this amusing?

One of the reasons the global rich rather liked living in London – you know, big, civilised sort of place as long as you’ve got money – was the non-dom scheme. One of the reasons those same global rich didn’t use the US in the same way was that global income would be subject to US taxes if you lived there. So, we abolish non-doms, or worsen the terms at least. And Trumpie?

A “Trump Platinum Card” is also “coming soon”, according to the official website. This card will allow holders to spend up to 270 days in the US without being subject to US taxes on non-US income. It will cost $5m.

He’s creating a non-dom regime for the US.

Now, my personal belief is that the moment the lefties get in again that’ll be rescinded. And the global rich will assume that too so there won’t be that much effect. But say that doesn’t happen? Won;t that be fun, real and direct competition for the non-doms?

Ethics? Place east of London, innit?

The Duchess of Sussex has accused the Daily Mail of breaching “clear ethical boundaries” by reporting from the bedside of her estranged father, following his claims he had not received his daughter’s messages.

Thomas Markle appealed to Meghan to see him in a Mail on Sunday interview at the weekend, after he underwent serious surgery in the Philippines.

However, a spokesperson for Meghan said she had been attempting to reach her father, and criticised the paper’s behaviour.

“Given that a Daily Mail reporter has remained at her father’s bedside throughout, broadcasting each interaction and breaching clear ethical boundaries, it has been exceedingly difficult for the duchess to contact her father privately, despite her efforts over the past several days,” the spokesperson said.

We know the Amerians get all uptight about journalistic ethics – when they’re not shagging interviewees – but it’s not really ever been a thing in this country….

Most amusing

Italy first country to win Unesco recognition for national cuisine

Italy is one of those places which doesn’t have a national cuisine. There is a series of highly distinct regional ones. And they really are distinct too.

So, an amusement then…..

Sigh

Spud fails to grasp. You can’t use the one thing to control many different variables.

First, we would need a new Capital Management Act. That would give the Treasury powers to require registration and reporting of cross-border financial positions, to impose quantitative limits or charges on classes of flows (for example, short-term wholesale funding), and to direct the Bank of England and the regulators to use their tools to achieve those aims. The old Exchange Control Act is a precedent: it shows Parliament has done this before.

Second, the Bank of England’s remit would have to change. Alongside price and financial stability, it must have an explicit duty to maintain external and capital-flow stability. It would then be required to use macro-prudential tools, such as counter-cyclical capital requirements on foreign exposures, reserve requirements on short-term foreign liabilities, and limits on FX mismatches, to pursue that goal. Access to sterling liquidity could be restricted to institutions that comply.

Third, the PRA (Prudential Regulation Authority) and FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) rulebooks would need to be revised. All sterling payment, clearing and repo activity for UK residents should take place in supervised entities that disclose their beneficial ownership and meet new reporting standards on FX, derivatives and securities financing. Time-varying regulatory charges (otherwise known as a Spahn tax), which are the equivalent of a transactions tax, could be applied to destabilising, short-term financial flows. Highly leveraged non-banks reliant on foreign funding could face tighter liquidity and leverage rules as a result.

Finally, we should not underestimate the importance of transparency. A public register of major cross-border positions, linked to company accounts and trust disclosures, would itself change behaviour.

Yes but.

You can control capital flows, sure you can. You can control interest rates, sure you can. You can control the FX rate, sure you can. But you cannot control interest rates, capital flows and the FX rate all at the same time. This was the old complaint about Bretton Woods, recall? Sure we controlled the FX rate, we had capital controls and then interest rates were out of our hands – because we had to use them to manage the FX rate.

Sigh.

Ah, yes…..

Andrew Lauder obituary: record label executive who shaped rock
Influential A&R man who signed the Stranglers, Buzzcocks and Motörhead in the Seventies but let Queen and Elton John slip through the net, dies aged 78

OK:

As head of A&R at Liberty and then United Artists in the late 1960s, his British signings ranged from the cosmic space-rock of Hawkwind to the surreal humour of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band via the high-octane electric blues of the Groundhogs

And:

He was one of life’s incurable enthusiasts. Into the 1970s he signed Dr Feelgood, Motörhead,

There’s a definite thread that connects Groundhog, Dr F and Motorhead.

Conventional explanations are conventional

Between beavers and meerkats — how humans score on monogamy rating
People rank near the top of a new multi-species fidelity league table. We aren’t as faithful as some mammals, but we are far less promiscuous than chimps

So, why?

Why would our species rank so high? We cannot know for sure, but Dyble points to the effort required to raise a human infant. Our children are demanding creatures, born helpless, slow to mature and equipped with energy-hungry brains that take years to develop to a point where they can fend for themselves. Pair-bonding encourages paternal investment, helping to meet these demands.
Overall, the data may help correct both romantic idealism and cynical tropes about “natural” infidelity. Humans are not perfectly faithful, nor are they wired for sexual anarchy. By mammalian standards, we are remarkably monogamous — most of the time.

The conventional explanation uses this to describe tits, concealed ovulation, the female orgasm and why mothers in law always insist the baby looks just like the putative father and much else. Even, why the human economic unit is the household, not the individual.

We can even extend this to a description of why the shagadelic communes tend not to work out…..

Fun stuff, conventional wisdom, right?

Well, yes, sort of

On the regal Queen Square, minutes from the sights and smart boutiques of central Bath, the grand grade I listed Francis Hotel is a series of adjoining Regency townhouses undergoing a £14 million tarting up.

Actually, the eastern end is post-war reconstruction. The Germans bombed it out in the Baedeker Raids.

But, you know….

Surprise!

Traffic to pornography websites in the UK has fallen in the wake of age checks being introduced this year while use of specialist software to dodge viewing restrictions has increased, according to the communications watchdog.

The explanation:

UK porn traffic down since beginning of age checks but VPN use up, says Ofcom

Who could have predicted that, eh?

Well, Sir Isaac could have: Isaac Newton Explains The Laffer Curve

Ideology and propaganda, eh?

The whole section on Europe is steeped in decades of European far-right ideology and propaganda. The EU and migration policies are held responsible for “transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence”. According to the document, if “present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognisable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies”. Indeed, the Trump administration believes that “within a few decades at the latest, certain Nato members will become majority non-European”.

As ever with anything said the first test is “Is it true?”

And if it is true then what?

After all, varied lefties have been gleefully predicting that the US is about to become non-majority white for decades now. We can imagine the same thing about certain European entities too. Like, say, London.

Well, OK. So the thing to be discussing is is this true, do we want it to be true and if not what then? Rather than shouting at the messenger….

I always like these reports

Scientists have issued an urgent warning that some of the synthetic chemicals that help underpin the current food system are driving increased rates of cancer, neurodevelopmental conditions and infertility, while degrading the foundations of global agriculture.

The health burden from phthalates, bisphenols, pesticides and Pfas “forever chemicals” amounts to up to $2.2tn a year – roughly as much as the profits of the world’s 100 largest publicly listed companies, according to the report published on Wednesday.

Most ecosystem damage remains unpriced, they say, but even a narrow accounting of ecological impacts, taking into account agricultural losses and meeting water safety standards for Pfas and pesticides, implies a further cost of $640bn. There are also potential consequences for human demographics, with the report concluding that if exposure to endocrine disruptors such as bisphenols and phthalates persists at current rates, there could be between 200 million and 700 million fewer births between 2025 and 2100.

The biggest source of endocrine disruptors in modern societies’ water is women pissing out the byproducts of the pill. Strangely, no one ever does say women should have to pay for this pollution.

Well, I have done, a couple of times, and didn’t I get stick for having done so?

You know how Crossroads was determinedly low budget?

After it went off-air, Adams was seen only infrequently on TV, with small one-off parts in dramas such as Bergerac and Doctors, although he returned when in 2001 ITV decided to revive Crossroads. To his pleasant surprise, the show was given a decent budget for the first time, with an editing suite and even a wardrobe department. Throughout the earlier iteration, he had been required to wear his own clothes.

Intentions and outcomes

Some sex workers’ groups and campaigners have advocated a return to certified brothels as a solution to the difficulties they now face.
Prostitutes have had to work in parks and other potentially dangerous places as a result of a 2016 law intended to improve their lot.

Ho Hum.

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