Cars in London
From our Swindon Correspondent: From On London On the face of it, then, we’ve seen red route traffic increase since March to a point where it is just a few per cent less than was normal pre-Covid for this time of year. If that is a trend and it continues, we seem to be on course for red route mileage to revert to what it used to be some…
Independent Verification
From our Swindon Correspondent: One of my favourite techniques to verify data is to try and find other data, produced by other, unconnected means that should match an effect. The problem when people are connected is that they can often base their estimations on similar root information that is wrong. For example. if you wanted to verify…
Jim, For The Good Of The Company, You’ll Be Gay On Tuesdays
There are three little problems with this idea from NASDAQ. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday approved a Nasdaq proposal that could make company boards — and, by extension, the companies themselves — more diverse. The rule requires companies listed on its exchange to report their board diversity and have on their board — or…
China, The EU And Power Over Tech Companies
I just love this confluence. The manner in which Inman, at The Guardian, licks his lips over the power the European Union will – or should – have over Big Tech. As compared to what actually happens with that power over Big Tech when someone has it, as in China. Inman: In the twilight years of the Obama presidency, it seemed that…
How Poor Are The Poor, Really?
From our Swindon Correspondent: I’m a big fan of the comedian Doug Stanhope, and there’s a routine that he once did which is about people’s poverty being their own fault. From Wikiquote If you listen to anyone bitch about the economy for long enough, just let them talk, cuz you’ll eventually hear why it’s…
It’s Worse To Be In Council Care Than To Be Abused At Home
That is one of the statements in an official report into the care of children in council homes in Lambeth. That to be in one of the homes was worse than to remain at home and be abused: Although most of the children had been taken into care after suffering violence and neglect at the hands of family members, the report noted that for some…
Electric Cars Aren’t Going To Be Cheap For All That Long
Not that they’re cheap to buy right now, but once bought they are currently cheap to operate. Which isn’t going to continue. Nope, not a chance: It’s not my Enyaq: it has been loaned to me by Škoda. This one costs £34,495 to buy, including a £2,500 government grant. Still a fair old whack, but EVs are expensive: even a little…
Yes Mr. Kirkup – But It’s How You Get Markets To Work That Matters
James Kirkup wants us all to know that net zero is going to be really lovely and easy because markets work. Well, yes and no. Markets do work but the question is how do we get them to do so? Those Tory opponents of wind power were wrong, and wrong in a very un-Conservative way: they bet against the market. They failed to anticipate one of…
How Stupid Are These People In Government?
There seems to be a certain lack of knowledge here., An absence of having met any actual human beings. Which isn’t, in fact, all that useful an attribute when considering how a group – a nation – of human beings might be ruled. Boris Johnson is to launch a government-backed rewards programme for families switching to…
Is Democracy The Highest Value Or Not?
We get told, interminably, by those over to our left that we should have a truly democratic economy. The argument being, as I understand it, that voting on stuff is the highest value. Who does what, how, at what price, is something that should be determined by us all marking a piece of paper so as to determine what the collective view is.…
Grossly, Absurdly, Stupid Claim Of The Day
Apparently we should tax the rich more because Jeff Bezos has gone into space on his own rocket. No, that really is the claim: Third, it is apparent that in the light of such failings we need tax reform. We need to tax the rich because they are rich. We need to tax them so that they do not abuse the planet in the way that these people are.…
Identifying Germany’s Actual Problem
I’m a great believer in it being systems which go wrong, not individuals who nominally control them. Russian style socialism didn’t fail because Brezhnev, or Andropov, were in charge, the Soviet system failed because the Soviet system was a shite manner of trying to organise the world. Pol Pot may well have directed the Khmer…