Every prediction I made in this piece from 2005 on 24-hour drinking has proved to be correct: on-trade alcohol consumption has fallen, levels of alcohol-related crime haven't changed; pubs haven't made any extra money; but puritan idiots have continued to rail against the rule change anyway. The most offensively stupid puritan argument is that '24-hour … Continue reading In which your host is proved right
Category: Bit of politics
Quoth our illustrious mayor (via): I am informed that, thankfully, there have been no fatal accidents arising from collisions between cyclists and articulated buses in London since the introduction of articulated vehicles. Serious incidents are defined by TfL as those where a cyclist may have required treatment, including in hospital. There was one serious incident … Continue reading Evidence-based policymaking
...rates are still looking pretty good on UK government bonds, so even after the financial bail-out the government has plenty of room to borrow for infrastructure investment. The only danger is if politicians bow to the pressure from "let's turn this recession into a depression because we hate Keynes" maniacs and don't take advantage of … Continue reading In other ‘don’t panic’ news…
Individuals who lost more than £50,000 in the Landsbanki collapse certainly let greed get in the way of good sense, and certainly don't deserve the generous bail-out terms that the government has given them. However, that pales into insignificance compared to the 20+ local councils who've lost tens of millions between them in Landsbanki deposits. … Continue reading Anything the global financial system can do, local government can do worse
[phone rings] BJ: Wot ho, Bozza here. BC: Hello. I'm Bob Crow, and I'm evil. I'm going to lead the Tube maintenance workers out on strike (a 5% pay rise just isn't enough, you see) and paralyse the city. BC: [evil laugh] BJ: Oh. That's dashed inconvenient. Is there, erm, anything we can do to … Continue reading Tube strike conspiracy theory
The Beatles recorded Revolver in 2005. Please can we keep the Scots? I'm fairly sure they drive the average IQ up, at least compared to the English Parliament nutters...
Mr Eugenides is an extremely offensive and ranty, but also highly entertaining and generally honest, blogger. I disagree with him on most things, and sometimes feel that his commentary on female Labour MPs' stupidity goes beyond the stick they deserve for their actions into misogynistic territory, but overall he's a principled and reasonable right-libertarian. Unfortunately, … Continue reading On knowing a man by his friends
Sunny has a good piece on Commentisfree on the knife panic - worth a read. Apparently the original version linked to this post here, but the Guardian subs took it out - bad Guardian subs. Unfortunately, the comments indicate why we're never going to get anywhere with the criminal justice system, other than locking up … Continue reading On why society is basically doomed
Mark Easton at the BBC has a superb piece that's saved me the effort of doing my normal thing (dammit!) - he's looked at the actual statistics and discovered that knife crime is up slightly in some ropey bits of London, and not at all elsewhere. A very sensible point that Mr Easton makes, as … Continue reading Well worth the license fee
There's a great deal of controversy and bitterness over whether the parasitical Scots steal money from the hard-working English to spend on whisky and deep-fried Mars bars, or whether in fact the evil colonial masters are stealing the Scots' money to fritter away on Pimms and linen suits. The problem is, despite the statistical data … Continue reading On that ‘who subsidises whom’ thing