The political purity spiral as experienced by the Instagram knitting community
I cannot knit and I am not on Instagram, but as someone who sews and is into politics, I cannot think how I came to miss this article from Gavin Haynes when it came out in January of this year. After...
View ArticleThe sad story of Scots Wikipedia
Hats off to the Guardian for the pun in this headline: Shock an aw: US teenager wrote huge slice of Scots Wikipedia Nineteen-year-old says he is ‘devastated’ after being accused of cultural vandalism...
View ArticleActually, I think there was enough context
“It’s actually a Republican myth that has, over the last 20 years, really crawled into even leftist discourse: that the small-business owner must be respected, that the small-business owner creates...
View ArticleSamizata quote of the day
“If anti-state fanatics have been calling the shots for decades, why is the federal government bigger today than it was 40 years ago?” – Oliver Wiseman, writing a review of a book that alleges that...
View ArticleWelcome to the future
‘Why did it take nine hours to go 130 miles in our new electric Porsche?’, was the question Linda Barnes and her mysteriously un-named husband found themselves asking at the end of a very long day, as...
View ArticleHow State lockdowns make actual planning difficult, if not impossible
One of the paradoxes of the current lockdowns/restrictions that have been imposed by the State is that they make it much harder for private firms and individuals to plan ahead, particularly when the...
View ArticleThis proves what I always said about Brexit!
Says absolutely everyone. UK faces Brexit limbo after talks deadline missed Britain risks weeks without trade transition plans from 1 January after missing EU parliament Sunday deadline – The Guardian...
View ArticleCOVID-19 and the Political Economy of Mass Hysteria – a quotation
Investigating the possibility and extension of a mass hysteria related to COVID-19 is beyond the scope of this article. In this article, we analyze a more fundamental question, namely, the role of the...
View Article“Adam Smith was on the side of the angels …”
The following is the text of an email that I and all the many others on the Adam Smith Institute email list received today, from the ASI’s Eamonn Butler: Today marks 245 years since the publication of...
View ArticleA fine speech by Joe Biden
Joe Biden, addressing the Senate of the United States: “In the summer of ’37 Roosevelt had just come off a landslide victory over Alf Landon. He had a congress made up of solid New Dealers. But the...
View ArticleSome fallacies will never die
“SNP MSP claims border with England would ‘create jobs'”, writes Tom Gordon in the Herald. AN SNP candidate has claimed that a new a trade border between Scotland and England resulting from...
View ArticleReaders’ poll: what on earth did Boris mean?
Sky News on Twitter: “Boris Johnson has suggested the world’s leading nations should support a more ‘gender-neutral and feminine’ way of post-COVID economic recovery.” “Gender neutral and feminine”?...
View ArticleBe not afraid… on second thoughts, be afraid. It pays better.
The Metro reports, NHS receptionist handed £56,000 after being sacked for being afraid of patients A receptionist at an NHS clinic who was petrified of patients was wrongfully dismissed, a tribunal...
View ArticleIn Lebanon, the leaves are falling off the magic money tree
This excellent article in the US Spectator by Paul Wood is two weeks old. That probably means all the prices he quotes should by now have an extra zero at the end. The vividness of his portrayal of...
View ArticleHey, Scottish council workers, how about we use your pension to build social...
To its credit the Times publishes several columnists who go against the opinions of its readers. Sometimes, however, I suspect that the Times ignobly picks writers who are not the best ambassadors for...
View ArticleSorry mate, I can’t afford to risk giving you a job
The BBC reports that the Labour Party now says, “Give workers full rights from day one.” Workers should be given “full” employment rights from day one, Labour has said as it announces plans to...
View Article“They’re not coming. You’re on your own.”
Even people who habitually decry the uselessness of the State often have a soft spot for the emergency services. When catastrophe strikes, they say, enlightened self interest will not make men run...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
“When Boris Yeltsin visited a Houston supermarket in 1989, the sheer choice of goods and services on offer compared to stores in Soviet Russia shocked him. `Even the Politburo doesn’t have this choice....
View ArticleI wrote to my MP, and she wrote back
A few days ago I did something I am not used to doing, which is I wrote to my MP, who is Nickie Aiken (she is MP for Cities of London and Westminster). I have met her several times; personally, I like...
View ArticleSteal Labour’s clothes, look like Labour
Britain’s electricity supply is in peril. On Monday (20 Sep) the Financial Times reported, Peter McGirr wanted to modernise the British consumer energy market when he founded Green three years ago,...
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