Pricing the future
There was a flurry of triumphant snorts on Friday when some libertarian blogs picked up a post from earlier in the month, which had commented on the recent paper by William Nordhaus on carbon-pricing. The ASI got it from voluntaryXchange…
Tax reduction priorities
Mark Wadsworth (whose blog is one we recommend in our blogroll) managed to get a long (by their standards) letter published in yesterday's FT, criticizing John Redwood's focus on reducing corporation tax, when in Mark's opinion greater…
Lies, damn lies, and government statistics
I listened this morning to Nick Ross and James Brokenshire (Tory spokesman on Home Affairs) arguing about crime statistics on Radio 4. Brokenshire claims that the statistics show that violent crime is on the increase. Ross accuses him of…
The French "right" and competition
GdF is an energy company, Suez operates in the energy and environment sectors. They want to merge. The French government is intervening to tell Suez that it must divest itself of its environment division if the merger is to go ahead. Why is…
Fixing the energy market
The Institute for Paternalism, Protectionism and Regulation today published a report on Energy Security. It is, in the most part, a rehashing of received wisdom, without understanding or insight, but one phrase in the Executive Summary…
What are they so worried about?
Picking Losers usually focuses on the British Government's failed attempts to introduce policy to make our lives safer, fairer and better - the consequences almost always being that they create more problems than they solve and blow a whole…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 30 August
David Cameron said last night that the level of immigration to Britain was too high and placed unacceptable pressure on public services and housing. The Conservative leader had previously been reluctant to speak on immigration, a subject…
Easier exams means bad doctors
The Daily Mash has really hit the nail on the head today. Yesterday I wrote about the incredibly stupid idea of encouraging more people to take up science at GCSE by making the exams easier. Today the Daily Mash reports: -Brain surgery…
Crime Policy isn't working
Do you think the Government's crime policy has come a little unstuck? Or perhaps it never worked in the first place. Either way, you'd have thought they would think something was up from this example alone... Thirty one prison sentences…