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Tim Worstall

Super

Secondly, the power structures within neoliberalism are also immensely destructive of our mental health. This is, in fact, glaringly apparent within our economy. It is said that economics is a study of scarcity, which supposedly affects everyone in society, but that is completely untrue. Neoliberalism does, in fact, guarantee that one part of the population knows nothing of any consequence about scarcity at all because they have the means to live at a level in excess of their needs. We know that because this 10% also the population save considerable sums, which is the clearest possible indication of that excess existing. The pretence, in that case, that scarcity is a condition from which we all suffer is yet another of the propaganda claims of modern economics that is wholly unjustified.

The existence of savings proves that there’s no scarcity.

That letter with the invitation to Stockholm cannot be far behind.

BTW, economics is the study – in the phrasing used – of the allocation of scarce resources. If the man’s trying to insist that resources are not scarce in this universe then he’s really slipped the rope tethering him to reality.

The question is, which politician, or politicians, or political party, is willing to stand up and say this?

Do we have enough nutters to make a political party these days?

Jeebus

Why does Nigel Farage get to play British politics on easy mode?
Andy Beckett

The UK’s electoral system traditionally makes it hard for new parties to succeed. Not Reform. Sitting back from the fray, it sets the agenda

It’s taken 30 years to get this far. Easy mode my arse.

What is it with these damn people?

Ireland’s planning body, An Bord Pleanála, will determine later this year the fate of an ambitious proposal to build the country’s first underground railway. Residents of the Irish capital won’t be holding their breath, however. Since it was first proposed 25 years ago, MetroLink has been cancelled, revived and rebranded. The latest version of the plan, which involves just 18.8km of track, has been subject to delays, costs that have spiralled to five times the original estimate, and fierce opposition from homeowners, heritage bodies and businesses.

A wide-awake city of tech firms, theatres and tourist attractions, Dublin is one of the EU’s richest metropolitan areas; it is also the only large western European capital without a metro. No Dubliner would have been more frustrated with the situation’s absurdities, and MetroLink’s slow progress, than Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Fully autonomous taxis will be up and running before you even break ground on a metro. What in buggery are you doing?

Whoo, Boy

When is a rescue deal not a rescue deal? The rushed sale of pound-shop peddler Poundland to Gordon Brothers comes with all the bog-standard fanfare.

“Poundland remains a key player in UK discount retail, with millions of customers annually and a well-loved brand and proposition,” according to Stephan Borchert, boss of Poundland’s Polish parent Pepco.

Really? So well-loved that Pepco slashed the value of Poundland by a stonking £650m six months ago, blaming a “significant decline in performance”?

Such a compelling proposition that Pepco was willing to let it go for less than a pound? Talk about an ignominious end if ever there was one to owning a business that pioneered the cheerless pound-shop model.

Competition, Mate, competition.

When there’s one One Pound shop buying up the scrag ends of overruns and discontinued lines then wholesale prices on scrag ends are pretty cheap. When there are half a dozen bidders for the same wholesale scrag ends then prices rise and margins on One Pound shops decline.

This is how business works.

There’s a reason I’m not employed by the Telegraph’s business pages these days.

The bastards

Sir Brian is also expected to recommend that the public should be spared jury service if a case is going to last more than 12 months because of the “unfairness” of it taking a year out of their lives and livelihoods. Instead, such cases would be heard by a judge without a jury.

So anything complicated doesn’t get a jury then. Railroad time!

Of course, this is lawyers so they’re being lying, sneaky, duplicitous little bastards.

He suggested one type of case judge-only trials could be where there was significant “public opprobrium” over the case such as sexual or sadistic violence and could sway the jury

It’s all about having the rape trials heard by judges suitably prepared by feminist indoctriniation. None of that basic societal “But that’s not rape!” is to be allowed.

Guess what?

MacArthur today introduced a program on Native self-determination as a step forward in our ongoing commitment to the strength and well-being of Native communities. Guided by the voices and leadership of Indigenous Peoples, this program will increase resources and deepen relationships in ways that reflect mutual respect and long-term partnership, while building on the Foundation’s past support for Indigenous communities.

This will not include funding for Anglo Saxon communities in England.

Ho Hum.

There is? Where?

There is an assumption in economics that all growth is good. As a matter of fact, that’s not true. There is growth that is of benefit that is indisputable, but just as likely is growth that causes harm. And unless economics works out how to differentiate these two, and actually deliver growth that is beneficial to humankind, whilst eliminating that which is harmful, then we are at real risk.

Well I never, eh?

Now, among people who don’t actually read any economics there is an assumption that economics claims all growth is good. But that’s more a signifier of people who don’t read any economics than it is of economics.

Ah, yes, well, Spud, that explains that then…..

So, what’s the excuse now?

The tax burden on workers is greater than at any time over the past 40 years and is likely to rise to a record level within three years, according to a free-market think tank.

The Adam Smith Institute says “tax freedom” day falls on Thursday, six days later than last year and 20 days later than before the pandemic. It has not been this late in the year since 1985 when the Thatcher government was attempting to rectify the disastrous public finances after the economic crises of the 1970s.

Tax freedom day is a symbolic indication of how long into the year the average person would have to work to pay their annual tax bill, with all money earned thereafter going to themselves.

The think tank says that under government tax and spending plans, tax freedom day in 2028 will not arrive until June 24, which would be its latest date. That would make the tax burden higher than it was during the Second World War or the Napoleonic Wars.

Well, there isn’t an excuse, is there? We’re not fighting off the Germans nor the French. We’re just suffering from the fiscal incontinence of the babykissers that get elected.

Bring Back The Tyburn Tree!

Seems like a good idea

GB Energy’s promised £8.3bn budget raided to pay for small nuclear reactors
National energy company effectively loses £2.5bn to separate body tasked with spearheading nuclear renaissance

Nice to see that at least some of the money put aside for energy is being spent upon useful energy that actually works.

Not every reforming idea is a good one

Reform’s plan to overhaul the Bank of England will leave markets more exposed to financial shocks, a senior official at the central bank has suggested.

Victoria Saporta, a director at the Bank, signalled that the party’s scheme to stop the Bank paying interest on money held there by commercial banks could return Britain to a world of “significant” volatility in financial markets.

After all, who would want to be caught supoporting an economic idea Spud approves of?

No, not a good idea at all.

Oh, well done, well done

Plans to overhaul Britain’s energy market being studied by Ed Miliband would prompt a surge in the number of wind farms in the South of England, officials have confirmed.

Fintan Slye, the chief executive of the National Energy System Operator (Neso), said breaking the electricity market into regions under so-called zonal pricing would encourage developers to put turbines up in the South.

He backed the idea and said the current system of setting wholesale power prices nationally was giving renewable developers the wrong “price signals” over where to locate wind farms.

Vast, land hungry, industry to be located on most expensive land in the country.

Well done there that man, vry well done.

Hmmmm

Youths wearing balaclavas targeted the sports facility in Larne, Co Antrim, a seaside town 20 miles east of Ballymena where disorder was triggered by the alleged attempted rape of a schoolgirl at the hands of two Romanian-speaking teenagers.

A previous description of them was as Romanian.

D’ye think it will change again to Romany perhaps? I have a suspicion it might…..

Aha, aha, aha.

Hafnium usage is maybe 500 tonnes a year. -ish, -ish. Scandium, mebbe 10 tonnes a year.

They’re gonna sell 3 million tonnes over a 31 year life of mine, are they?

Snigger.

British food, best in the world

Top chefs tell us their go to snacks.

Yes, of course there’s the usual poncey crap (special type of Spanish very lightly pickled mussel on special Spanish crisps, Lord forgive the poseur) but a couple that work:

Jason Atherton
I like prawn cocktail crisp sandwiches with grated cheddar and HP Sauce.

Acshully, not quite wholly sure there. Salt and vingear perhaps…..

Hannah Evans
Spread Marmite across a tortilla wrap, sprinkle on some grated cheddar, fold it in half and zap it in the microwave for 15 seconds until the cheese has melted.

Ah, yes, now that does work.

Erm, what?

Survivors of Ireland’s mother and baby homes are being “retraumatised” by the prospect of losing benefits in the UK if they accept compensation from the Irish state, Westminster has been told

Benefits are for those without a pile of cash. If you’ve got a pile of cash you don;t get benefits. And?

Ireland has begun the process of confronting one of the most painful chapters in its history by offering compensation to thousands of unmarried mothers who were shunned by society and hidden away in the church-run mother and baby homes.

However, up to 13,000 of those survivors who are living in Britain risk losing access to essential means-tested benefits if they accept the compensation, which can range from €5,000 to €125,000 (£4,230 to £105,000) depending on the length of time people were resident.

“Sadly, for thousands of survivors in Britain, what was meant to be a token of acknowledgment and apology from the Irish government has instead become an additional burden,” the letter states.

Bugger off.

We might, might, be able to explain this

Europe was promised a new golden age of the night train. Why are we still waiting?
Jon Worth
Romance, excitement and sustainability – continent-crossing sleeper trains should be a hit. It’s time for the EU to catch on

Worth’s blog is, for some dim and distant reason, in my reader. So, I gain access to years and years of mithering over why the 6.01 am to Mainz is late. That’s the general level of content.

‘E just loves ‘is continent spanning trains.

As Europeans woke up to the joy of travel post-lockdown, it looked as though we were in store for a resurgence of continent-crossing night trains. Sleeper train fans hailed a “night train renaissance” and a “rail revolution”, combining some of the nostalgia for an old way of travelling with modern climate and sustainable transport concerns.

The long-distance European train journey might be slower than a short-haul flight, but it is surely better in terms of the environment and the traveller experience. For those on a budget, the prospect of saving on a night in a hotel appeals too.

But as anyone who has tried to plan a holiday train trip for this summer is likely to have found, night trains are still few and far between, especially in western Europe. And if there is a night train at all on a route, it will often be booked up months in advance. That’s not all: reliability and onboard service are often not up to scratch, with carriages on many routes pushing 50 years old.

There’s a surely in there which means no.

Why this insistence on slow, dirty, smelly, late and expensive? My assumption is that he got laid on a night train once as a teenager. As it’s not happening much since then and therefore the romance etc.

Now, as it happens, I once got laid on a night train. Very enjoyable it was too – as was the 5 month affair that followed. But the experience left me with a hankering for bouncy American redheads not the InterCity 125 from Inverness.

Takes all sorts I suppose.

Which parts of Europe?

Drought fears in Europe amid reports May was world’s second hottest ever

According to one report at least we’d had 180% of annual rainfall by mid-May. They’ve been releasing water from the dams they’re so damn* full.

*See what I did there? Chortle, chortle.

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