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Tim Worstall

Umm

My starting point is definitional and a departure from conventional framing. A government bond, or, in the UK context, a gilt, is not in any meaningful economic sense a loan that the government takes out and must repay. It is the equivalent of a fixed-term bank deposit account.

But a bank deposit account is the bank borrowing your money from you. And yes, we are all rather keen on banks repaying our deposit accounts.

Depends what he axes, no?

Outlining plans to axe the digital ID scheme, a spokesman for Mr Burnham said: “One of the first things this government will do is put its focus where people need it right now: creating breathing space and delivering change they can feel in their everyday lives.
“That means all the time and resource that was going to be spent on a national ID scheme will go instead to where it’s most needed, such as helping with the cost of living.
“This government is determined to bring power back to communities, instead of hoarding it in Whitehall. We will work every day to lift this country back up to where it belongs, with growth in every postcode, and hope in every heart.”

Will anyone using Companies House still have to have one? If so then it’s not really axed, is it?

So, not going to solve the problem at all then

The options. Burnham could revisit the idea of tightening eligibility requirements, or he could reduce the value of some benefits. But this seems unlikely given his political instincts and pledge to avoid “crude cuts”. Instead he will probably focus on reducing demand.
Clues. Burnham has already given indications he intends to pursue this path. He has promised a massive programme of council house building and described the growing number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neets) as “deeply concerning”.

He’ll destroy a vast amount of wealth – council houses are worth very much less than it costs to build them – and not kill any part of the benefits bill.

Well done, Andy.

Snigger

The grants are part of a broader shift that has caused dismay among veterans of the state department. In interviews, five former officials suggested that there has been a months-long effort by Trump-aligned individuals in the state department to subvert normal funding procedures and allocate US taxpayer money to conservative and Maga-aligned causes in the UK and Europe.

They’d prefer all the money continue to go to the usual NGO types, obviously. But, you know, when you concentrate so much power into government and then you have an election that power does become available to your enemies, no?

Umm, OK.

Patrick Spencer was seen on camera coming up behind two women and putting his arms around them at the private members’ club during a night out in August 2023, less than a year before he was elected to the seat of Central Suffolk and North Ipswich.

Spencer, 38, was accused of “cupping” the breasts of both women, who he did not know, before “fist pumping” towards his friends nearby.

During his police interview, Spencer apologised for grabbing hold of the two women – from behind – and conceded it was “not acceptable in this day and age”. At his trial at Southwark crown court, Spencer insisted that he had not touched the breasts of one of the women, while contact with the other woman had been unintentional.
…
Spencer is the son of Michael Spencer, a billionaire donor to the Conservative party. He told the court he had drunk red wine with his father at lunch, beers at Twickenham while watching an England rugby match, and drank wine and negroni cocktails at the members’ club.

Umm, well, I dunno.

Drunk slobbering over titties in a club is, well, yes, sexual, we can call it an assault, but “sexual assault”? According to the wimmins, yes. But what’s a crime runs into the wall of what society as a whole considers to be a crime. Drunks slobbering over titties might be something considered to be one of those things best met by a punch to the mouth. Or ejection, say. And the people who decide this are the jury. Or even, just one of those things.

No wonder they want juryless trials, right? How can you impose your vision upon society if there’s a roadblock of the commonplace wisdom?

My own view tends toward much of life being best managed by us, the people, rather than by the law. Which is rather Burkean, Hayekian, even, and it’s easy to mock that view too. So it’s open season on titties then, is it? For drunks you say? At which point I’m left mumbling well, but, yes, that is the best way large parts of life should be managed. By us in the right here and now.

Pfft.

Don’t clubs have steps people can be thrashed upon these days?

At lesat they’re mentioning it now

In Spain, firefighters used to dealing with a couple of blazes at a time say they struggle with an increase in number and strength. The situation has been worsened by recent wet winters and springs that allow vegetation to flourish – leaving more surplus fuel when it inevitably dries in summer – as well as the abandonment of farmland that once broke up flammable countryside. On Thursday, authorities said they expected a large fire in rural Aragón, one of dozens still burning across the country, to take days to control.

Wet winters means more fireload. Abandoned land the same.

Sure, they’re still going “Oooooh, climate change” but at least they’re mentioning the right reasons now.

Ignorance, ignorance

The Washington Consensus was the notorious neoliberal prescription delivered to many developing countries by both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank from the late 1980s onwards.

My glossary entry on this subject is well worth noting. It explains how these two Bretton Woods agencies were captured by neoliberal economics to spread its evil around the world, and what it meant.

It was actually a list of 10 bad things that you shouldn’t do to an economy. And the astonishing fall in absolute poverty out there over the past 50 years shows that it was a pretty good list, a pretty good consensus, too.

Just can’t trust ’em

Drivers have been hit with parking charges while queueing for petrol pumps in a possible breach of consumer law, the competition watchdog has said.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating Euro Car Parks over whether its practices at petrol stations and its handling of appeals may have broken the law.
The watchdog said it would consider whether it was “fair” for drivers to receive parking charge notices while “queuing for, or using, petrol pumps”, as well as other services at forecourts such as car washes and EV chargers.

Euro, d’ye see? Forriners.

Because it’s said in Parliament

Nicola Sturgeon tried to destroy Alex Salmond to stop him uncovering her husband’s embezzlement of SNP funds, MPs have been told.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Sir David Davis said that Ms Sturgeon “knew full well” that Peter Murrell was stealing money from the party and using it to fund “luxury purchases”.
But the senior Tory MP said that “her most evil act was stitching up Alex Salmond to hide the truth” about Murrell’s crimes.

It can be said, we can repeat it.
But probably best if we do not discuss it all the same. But it is a fun and interesting claim, no?

Bugger the locals

The reality is that these colonies will sooner or later inevitably become part of their continents. They cannot indefinitely be protected by a European patron, and Argentina’s claims are not going away.

Doesn’t matter what the locals think. Which is odd, when the whole decolonisation thing was driven by ew must do what the locals think, eh?

See the point, no?

What distinguishes Reform from other parties, however, is its refusal to believe that words have consequences. Inextricably wedded to unfettered free speech online, its answer isn’t to regulate platforms that algorithmically amplify and normalise hate but simply to build ever higher walls around the targets of that hate

Free speech is important, yes. So, the claim is that only Reform are for free speech….

Hmmm

Unite, the union representing most cabin crew, which has 30,000 female members in the sector, last year found that 34% of women had been sexually assaulted at work (this includes ground staff); 67% had experienced unwanted flirting, gesturing or sexual remarks;

Unwanted flirting? But how does anyone know whether flirting will be wanted until it is tried?

Skittles do fall just right for him, don’t they?

Man arrested over threat to shoot Farage
Police detain suspect over social media post that said ‘I am going to shoot you in the head if you win’

So two weeks back the press was in full cry hunting him for accepting money to pay for security. Now this.

This is only a comment as with Napoleon’s desire for generals who are lucky. It’s not about what has actually happened at all. Rather, that he just is lucky in that everyone starts shouting about him over x and then y happens that shows that x was, in fact, quite right.

Further, the harder he works at it the more this luck happens.

There’s also the fun that apparently this is a Hindu Lib Dem terrorist. Which is a new one….

Bollocks

Starmer said: “British Steel is part of the fabric of our nation and a cornerstone of Britain’s industrial strength.

“Today’s decision secures the future of steel making in the UK, protects skilled jobs and safeguards a vital national capability. This government will always act in the national interest to support British industry, strengthen our economy and ensure the industries we rely on can thrive long into the future.”

It’s a technology well past its use date and is worth less than nothing. Which is why we’ve all got to subsidise it, obviously.

Sigh.

Fuck off, Honey

Layla Moran, the committee’s chair and a Liberal Democrat MP, highlighted the widespread advertising and availability of unhealthy food, and urged ministers to take strong action

We’ve only just solved humanity’s most basic problem – do we have enough food? – and now you want to ban the stuff?

It happens

IBM is on track for its biggest share price slump on record after warning that AI is eating into its business.

More than $68bn (£50bn) was wiped off the company’s value at the start of trading on Tuesday after the company said customers were ploughing money into the AI boom rather than its products.

Eventually – and this may not be that, yet – every technology is replaced by a newer one. Takes a long, long, time – the London Hydraulic Power Company still had an installed base into the 1960s – but it does happen.