RAPID RESPONSES April 18, 2012 Freedom in dispute [Re: UK is wrong to have turned its back on individual freedom, Tuesday] Individuals have rights, but those rights come with consequences. You have a right to smoke and drive booze and live off fast food. But if you then demand free treatment on the NHS, then the rest of us have [...]
It’s true: There’s a real danger that fracking will cause a major boom April 17, 2012 A REPORT commissioned by the government and released yesterday has given the green light to the extraction of shale gas. The report concludes that hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a technology that pumps water and chemicals underground to fracture shale formations in order to release trapped gas, is safe but requires tight regulation and seismic monitoring. The [...]
Luck-based pay makes decision making a lottery – it doesn’t improve it April 17, 2012 MY NEIGHBOUR Debbie buys Lotto tickets. At least, she pays for them. She deputises the job of going to the corner store and selecting the numbers to her ten-year-old son Wayne. Wayne receives a base wage of 50p for putting in the time and he can also earn a performance-related bonus. If he successfully returns [...]
New property tax rules will stamp on UK developers April 17, 2012 FEW readers of City A.M. may have lost sleep over the chancellor’s decision in the recent Budget to impose a 15 per cent stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on acquisitions of homes costing over £2m by “non-natural persons”. After all, why shouldn’t we clamp down on the purchase of residential properties through companies, collective investment [...]
Is Anders Behring Breivik’s televised trial giving too much publicity to an extremist? April 17, 2012 YES Nick Lowles I cannot imagine how the family and friends of those who were killed last July can watch Anders Breivik justify his actions in the on-going court case in Oslo. I find it difficult enough and I am not directly connected to the case. It’s tragic he’s getting so much publicity. I don’t [...]
RAPID RESPONSES April 17, 2012 Kept in plain sight [Re: Plain packaging: a charter for counterfeiters, yesterday] Plain packs are much easier to counterfeit. Slim cigarettes are rarely counterfeited because their pack design is of a non-standard size, and their artwork is difficult to reproduce without professional printing equipment. Plain packs standardise all pack sizes. This will increase the counterfeiters’ [...]
Labour voters leave Ken red-faced by supporting Boris’s re-election April 16, 2012 WITH just over two weeks left in the London Mayoral race, Boris Johnson looks set for victory, with the latest YouGov poll showing him 6 per cent ahead of Ken Livingstone. That is the same margin by which he beat him in 2008. But, although three polls have now shown him maintaining this lead, Johnson [...]
What the sinking of the Titanic can teach us about financial regulations April 16, 2012 SUNDAY marked the 100-year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and the deaths of over 1,500 passengers. But the tragedy did not end there. The SS Eastland was a Chicago-based passenger ship that sunk in 1915, with over 800 people drowning. It was a popular tour boat that was known to be top-heavy, and [...]
Plain packaging: Simply a charter for counterfeiters April 16, 2012 AFTER several delays, the secretary of state for health Andrew Lansley has finally announced the public consultation on the plain packaging of tobacco – looking at whether the government should force all tobacco products to be sold in standardised packets with no branding and larger graphic health warnings. He kicked off the consultation with the [...]
Is a hosepipe ban the best solution to the recent water shortages in the south east? April 16, 2012 YES Richard Aylard We’ve had two exceptionally dry years, with rainfall in March at less than half the long-term average. Stretches of the River Kennet in Wiltshire and Pang in Berkshire have completely dried up and some ground water levels are lower than they were as far back as 1976. With no way of knowing [...]