Five laws (and our brains) make one in a billion events happen every day March 2, 2014 YOU’RE thinking of a friend, and suddenly the phone rings and it’s them. You’re on a short break in Paris and you bump into your brother. Or, as happened to me, I go into BBC Broadcasting House to record an interview about the improbability principle, and on my way out they tell me I’m the [...]
City Matters: Tighter immigration controls risk London’s position as a global business hub March 2, 2014 IMMIGRATION is a sensitive subject at the best of times. So when figures published last week showed that net migration had climbed to 212,000 in the year to September 2013 – well above the government’s target of reducing it to below 100,000 by 2015 – it was inevitable that critics would attack the current system [...]
Crimea checkmate: Putin now has his Ukraine veto March 2, 2014 US SECRETARY of state John Kerry tends to reveal more than he ought to. In response to the Russian takeover of Crimea, he blustered, “you just don’t in the twenty-first century behave in a nineteenth-century fashion by invading another country,” as though the laws of human nature and geopolitics have been recently improved upon. In [...]
Letters to the Editor – 03/03 – Immigration, House building, Best of Twitter March 2, 2014 Immigration [Re: The coalition’s immigration policy has now lost all credibility, Friday] Obsession with immigration (and the EU) has distracted attention from implementing real reform to increase our country’s economic capacity. Few are prepared to so boldly announce their support of immigration, and it has become a real emotional rather than rational issue. Name withheld [...]
Letters to the Editor – 28/02 – Socialist Venezuela, SNP failings, Best of Twitter February 27, 2014 Socialist Venezuela [Re: How socialism has destroyed Venezuela, Wednesday] The problem with socialism is that economic decisions, and control of capital, are concentrated among a tiny ruling elite. Once this happens, the means and incentives exist for that elite to enrich itself. The pull is greater than any residual egalitarian ideals. History has shown that [...]
Forget invasion: Putin is just four steps from victory in Ukraine February 27, 2014 AS ITS currency collapses, protests flare up in Crimea, and Russia flexes its muscles on the doorstep, those in the West claiming triumph in Ukraine should remember the story of King Pyrrhus of Epirus. In 279 BC, this scourge of the Romans managed to best them at the Battle of Asculum, but at tremendous cost. [...]
Ghostbusters is the best case for capitalism you’ll ever come across February 27, 2014 YOU DON’T know what it’s like out there. I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results!” Harold Ramis, the writer of the endlessly quotable Ghostbusters, died this week. It’s a sad loss of a huge talent, a man with the rare gift for blending insight with popular entertainment. Take Ghostbusters. Superficially, a silly 80s [...]
We can solve Britain’s housing crisis. Here’s how February 27, 2014 IF WE could build and heat homes with the hot air generated by the UK’s housing crisis debate, we would solve both issues in one go. Eighteen months ago, the issue was the availability of mortgage finance. We could not build because our customers could not borrow, and that was dragging the volume of new [...]
Letters to the Editor – 27/02 – Baby boom, Socialist Venezuela, Best of Twitter February 26, 2014 Baby boom [Re: In Britain, recessions mean more babies. In the US, births fall, yesterday] Allister Heath is right to draw attention to the remarkable rise in UK fertility rates in the 2000s, and that this is good news for our economic future, provided we build the houses and schools that we will need. However, [...]
The real reason squeezing the rich makes us all poorer February 26, 2014 RADICAL reform of income tax is not only desirable, but completely possible. To achieve it, however, proponents of change need to provide a strong evidence base for a much flatter tax system, with a much lower top rate in the UK in particular. We need to show that the optimal revenue-raising top rate of tax [...]