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Did you hear what John Major had to say yesterday? “The ‘green shoots‘ of economic recovery are on the way as ‘darkest moment’ passed” Oh my God, I guess we are closer to the brink than I thought. – Perry de Havilland over a glass with some Samizdatistas. September 16th, 2012 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
 It says here “Egyptian protesters condemned what they said was the humiliation of the Prophet of Islam under the pretext of freedom of speech”… Pretext? I don’t think that word means what they think it does, unless it lost something in translation. – from a conversation overheard between two people in a cafe in London, reading the news on their iThingies. September 11th, 2012 | 27 comments - (Comments are closed)
Profiling whole populations instead of monitoring individual suspects is a sinister step in any society. It’s dangerous enough at national level, but on a Europe-wide scale the idea becomes positively chilling. September 2nd, 2012 | 24 comments - (Comments are closed)
Not so long ago, politicians in both Britain and America were preparing for a political realignment. Labour was readying itself not just for defeat but annihilation, and the biggest surprise on election night was how many of its MPs were left still standing. Obama’s 2008 victory was accompanied by hubristic talk of a new Democrat era – but Republicans were back to take control of the House of Representatives two years later. The global debt crisis has created problems too big for any government, Left or Right, to solve easily. As a result, incumbents everywhere are vulnerable – and politics is becoming thrillingly unpredictable. – Fraser Nelson, who apparently has only just noticed which lizard get elected for being the lesser evil does not actually matter all that much when the choice is between getting fucked by Lizard A or buggered by Lizard B. August 30th, 2012 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
I used to consider myself a patriot… no more. There is simply nothing to be proud about and we have the government the voters deserve. But I didn’t leave England, England left me. – Thaddeus Tremayne, overheard over dinner. August 12th, 2012 | 29 comments - (Comments are closed)
July 6th, 2012 | 35 comments - (Comments are closed)
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free. – P. J. O’Rourke June 29th, 2012 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
To hire an opinion pollster as a strategist is to put a spinning weathervane where a compass needle ought to be – Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph. Now where did I see the leader of this dismal crew described as a weathervane before back in 2007? June 28th, 2012 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
In the 1950s, Anthony Crosland argued that we could take capitalism’s strength for granted. A future Labour government would be able to heap up the tax burden as well as the regulatory one – and the capitalist milch cow would continue to pour out the milk. Through experience, we in the UK have learnt that Croslandism is as flawed as any other form of socialism, but Europe, albeit unwittingly, is still in his thrall. June 24th, 2012 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
How do I know that my narrative is better than yours? The experiments of the 20th century told me so. It would have been hard to know the wisdom of Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman or Matt Ridley or Deirdre McCloskey in August of 1914, before the experiments in large government were well begun. But anyone who after the 20th century still thinks that thoroughgoing socialism, nationalism, imperialism, mobilization, central planning, regulation, zoning, price controls, tax policy, labor unions, business cartels, government spending, intrusive policing, adventurism in foreign policy, faith in entangling religion and politics, or most of the other thoroughgoing 19th-century proposals for governmental action are still neat, harmless ideas for improving our lives is not paying attention. June 20th, 2012 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
All you have to do, is to see whether the law takes from some what belongs to them in order to give it to others to whom it does not belong. We must see whether the law performs, for the profit of one citizen and to the detriment of others, an act which that citizen could not perform himself without being guilty of a crime. Repeal such a law without delay… If you do not take care, what begins by being an exception tends to become general, to multiply itself, and to develop into a veritable system. – Frederic Bastiat June 3rd, 2012 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
Britain’s energy reforms are billed as a key part of the Cameron government’s growth strategy. To understand why the U.K. economy is flat-lining, look to a government that believes a policy to raise energy prices and squeeze living standards is good for growth. Unless Mr. Cameron wants to share Jimmy Carter’s electoral fate, he’d better push the reset button on his energy policy – fast May 31st, 2012 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
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