The Blogger Himself

Dear Customer,
Thank you for sharing your perspective. We understand your point that a change in ownership does not necessarily mean that the airline itself is being “sold by the UK,” and that the distinction between the company and its shareholders is important.
We appreciate your feedback and would be happy to address any specific concerns you have regarding easyJet.
Please provide:
Phone number
Booking reference
Kind regards,
easyJet Customer Service Team

The only place I’ve made that point about “the UK” is on Twitter. And I substantially doubt that Easyjet is monitoring that, connecting it to my email, then writing to me about it.

But then I also substantially doubt that some scamster is going to all that palaver either. So quite what this email is about I’m at a loss to explain…..

I’ve been known to say “Jobs are a cost, not a benefit”. And I’ve assumed that I picked up the idea – and phrasing – through osmosis. Something I’ve seen somewhere, perhaps slightly differently phrased, and then it just stuck.

My assumption, as so often with good and pithy economics, is something from Thomas Sowell. Seems likely at least.

So, in a spare moment this morning, I put the phrase into Google. Now, we all know search isn’t as good as it used to be. But the first few references all do seem to be to me. ASI, Forbes, Washington Examiner – hey, never underuse a good idea, right? – but that’s not a proof of anything. For given that search isn’t as good as it used to be I have a feeling that “my” search results might well be biased in favour of me.

So, can a few try it? That phrase, stick it into a search engine and see if it gives references to other than me? The concept is obviously true – as AI itself states – but that phrasing, hmm, would be fun to know whether – and who from – I have copied it.

From Norman of this Ilk:

Imberbus 2026

If you think the idea of a row of Routemasters running from Warminster to the abandoned Salisbury Plain village of Imber hilarious, it’s happening next Saturday 15th August. Details here: https://imberbus.org/imberbus-2026/

Departures approximately every 10-15 minutes from Warminster Station to Imber from 9.30am onwards, with buses returning from Imber at regular intervals until 5.30pm. No pre-booking: turn up and pay a tenner, cash. Buses serving Tilshead, Chitterne, New Zealand Farm Camp, West Lavington, Market Lavington and Brazen Bottom at least twice an hour throughout most of the day.

If we’re going to have a Worstallite get-together and a laugh, I reckon we either agree on a convenient departure time from Warminster and meet there, or sort out a pub to meet at afterwards. I’d rather like local knowledge to prevail here. I’ll be there in my daft orange Panama with my Japanese wife, so should be easy enough to spot. Weather forecast is good. I’m looking forward to it.

I approve. Given that I’m 1500 miles away I won’t be there. On the other hand, seeing that village the MoD has stolen from the inhabitants this 80 years is something that should be seen, no?

You’ll enjoy it more without me there anyway…..

Which seem to be indicating that an E-type roadster (1969) is the same price as a Morgan roadster (1989).

Well out of my price range, either of them (80k) but I’m not sure whether that’s about right or is some blip?

Daily Mirror ran the parentals wedding:

Dec 27th – first day after Advent you could get married – in 1956. Tho’ they upgrade Pops to Lt Commander which is a bit previous for a 23 year old outside a major war. Lt at that time.

The family story has always been that it was the Mail – but noooo, the Mirror ran the piccie.

Another family story is that Gpops Worstall went through Cranwell with Frank Whittle, he of the jet engine. Which, unlike some other family stories, turns out to be true:

There the class is all being promoted for having completed etc.

I do?

Tim Worstall
Casino expert and lead reviewer at aea.asn.au

TW
Tim Worstall — Casino Expert & Lead Reviewer

Focus: payments & withdrawals · online pokies & RTP · bonus fairness · responsible gambling

Reviews based on real deposits, real play and real cash-outs.

Tim Worstall is the casino expert and lead reviewer at aea.asn.au, responsible for testing and rating the real money online casinos that accept Australian players. Every casino he recommends is one he has deposited into, played at and withdrawn from, with a particular focus on withdrawal speed, payment methods such as PayID and crypto, and fair bonus terms. This profile explains his areas of expertise, how he tests casinos, and the editorial standards behind every review on this site.

Now it’s possible that there’s a Tim Worstall in Australia who isn;t me. But I do think it’s unlikely, it’s a very unusual name indeed.

So if I’ve been doing all these reviews then where is the cash for having done all these reviews?

So, clearing out Mum’s old house. Shipping some of the furniture to me. One removals company is asking for:

Death Certificate

Will of deceased

Passport of deceased

Inventory list

Passport of person inheriting the items

I refuse to believe that such documentation is necessary to ship a few bits of furniture from the UK into Portugal. Just cannot see that this is eve possibly necessary.

So, what’s the scam being run here?

Yes, another one fell out of the tree. Eating soaked cat food already.

How spiralling costs are cutting off expats from their families
As jet fuel prices soar, Britons abroad face tough choices

Ryanair (no picking and choosing, just two near random dates about 2 weeks ahead) wants to charge me all of £75 for a round trip Faro to Bristol.

If life has led to £75 being a spiralling cost then perhaps expattery isn’t, quite, something for you?

So this little fledgling that turned up on the doorstep. As I’ve said, he hung around our front door for 5 hours after a nest got blown over – and there was an adult bird dead that we had to clean up. That he – and a sibling – hung around for 5 hours showed that there weren’t any worried parents.

So, into an outhouse w”em. One died, Jack was not eating. But, he survived two days, so, tough little bugger. At which point, into the cat box (no, we no longer have cats, but we do have lots of storage space, outbuildings, see?) and feeds of well soaked cat biscuits etc. Three pieces of kitty kibble every couple of hours. He’d gargle that amount and no more.

So, 7 days of this and this morning I moved him back to an outbuilding. So he can practice flying without wifey moaning about birdshit on the furniture. He could fly, but, well, bit variable.

This evening? Open the door to see if he’d been eating, mebbe feed him by hand? Whhhhr, Spitfire leaving France in 1940 just past my head and off. He got over the hedge and I went to see. From there, straight up onto the garage roof. Then off over to next door’s roof. OK, so he can fly, right proper, if he wants to.

Not sure he really knows how to eat, he was still gawping to be fed. But, well, he’ll find out and I won’t and there we are.

At a guess he’s 16 to 18 days, which is about the right time for this anyway.

Yes, obviously, he’s going to end up in the food chain. But then so does everything – us too. The interesting question is always how soon. I suspect it will be soon for Cap’n Jack but it’s at least a week later than it would have been. And who knows. Tough little bugger (and could be Jill, a buggerette, bird sexing is not my thing), can fly up onto a roof when he wants to. So, you know, good luck?

*What in buggery else are you going to call a sparrow?

Put him down on the desk to let him have a look around – and he’s decided he can fly. My office is up in the “sotao” (loft/attic, but not wholly) and he flies down the stairs and down there it’s pretty open plan. Cannot find him so do something else for an hour. Come back, can see him, get him.

Capture!

At which point he just wants feeding. Run away, hide, when caught demand my lunch. Yep, male.

So, the little sparrow who got blown out of his nest. Or, as I think happened, the nest came down, one of the parents died, and he (?? how to tell with birds? Is it something only lady birds need to worry about?) ended up, with a sibling, huddled by our front door for 5 hours.

To keep them away from the neighbourhood cats I stuck ’em in a spare room in the outbuildings and put some food down. And found they’re too young to eat on their own. One died.

So, in Jack comes, sits in an old cat carrier basket by my desk, when he chirps he wants feeding. Cat biccies soaked in water. Kitten kibble, really. Perhaps two pieces, two and a half – by the half – and he’ll gawp for that and then stop. Won’t take more. I get the general impression he thinks the long handled teaspoon is actually the food, whether he gets the kibble is more luck than anything.

Anyway:

As you can see, I’m not good at these photo things. But to give you an idea I have small hands – Trump Disease no doubt – so that is still a small, small, sparrow.

And, well? Dunno. Why bother? Dunno. Actually, I do. I’ve never done this before so why not?

And, well, ‘ees tryin’. I know, I know, don;t rescue them, they’ll never survive and nature take its course and so on. And yet….

So, I cannot get the bugger to eat. Yes, seen the videos. Tap the beak atc. And he will just not open that mouth for feeding.

So, err?

Aha! Found it.

And the Gazette March 1942.

So, anyway, that regular commenter around here who doesn’t like me claimed, just recently, that of course my grandfathers were simply lanyards. So Hal was one of them, the other was Bill Worstall.

1945: Command Engineer Officer, HQ Fighter Command.

And. OK. Lanyards then.

“Someone willing to publish results opposing what he wishes to be true”.

Doctors and nurses have been ordered not to say “it’s raining cats and dogs” and “the early bird catches the worm” to avoid offending foreign patients.

Yer wha’?

NHS claims ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ is culturally insensitive

So I shall have to go back to being wholly culturally insensitive then. Because if this sort of pap leads to hte accusation then might as well be hung for a sheep, eh? Not sure I’ll go all the way like Huck Finn but there’s a good chance that Jamaican carpenters will regain the nickname Chalky.

But this place is very tempting. Spent a couple of years of childhood living just to the left of that first picture. In the background there is Capri, that lake in the foreground is one of the entrances to Hell – Hades, rather – Lake Avernus. Just behind where the camera is standing is the Roman tunnel through to the Sybilline grotto at Cumae.

Not quite sure how much the desire is that it really is a damn fine house in a lovely place and how much is that call of childhood…..

now corrected…..

On the road for the next few days so service might be intermittent….

Readers reply: what would be the most socially useful way to spend a billion dollars?

So?

A few years ago I wrote a book taking this idea and running with it. In How to Spend a Trillion Dollars I end up using most of the money on transitioning to a net zero society, and in restoring nature globally. With a billion dollars, I would set up a progressive thinktank funding climate-positive and nature-positive lobbyists to counter the malign, fossil-fuel funded influence of Tufton Street and the Heritage Foundation. Rowan Hooper, podcast editor, New Scientist

Every action creates its own reaction, so £1 billion into the lefit notthinkosphere means more money into the right think tank o’sphere. Thus my pay goes up.

Cool!

My maths is so bad that no, I can’t do this.

So, US Real GDP since 1929.

OK, what was the growth rate 1929 to 1938? What was the growth rate 1945 to 1980? The growth rate 1980 to today?

And, finally, what was the growth rate 1929 to today?

Just the average over those selected years. So, total growth rate over that period divided by number of years.

Anyone who can actually use a calculator care to do that for me?