A BBC article on alcohol consumption statistics features a stupid comment: The figures also suggest that alcohol consumption is increasingly a problem among the middle classes. Men and women in "managerial and professional" households drank an average of 15.1 units a week. The same study also shows that men drink, on average, twice as much … Continue reading BBC channels Anti-Saloon League
Category: Bit of politics
I've got a new piece up at the Sharpener on the myth that London is a crime-ridden wasteland that anyone in their right mind would do well to flee before they get their throat slit. Enjoy... Also, Burning Our Money has a slightly silly piece on the Cheap Booze Menace - it highlights that you … Continue reading Sharp-ish
Is this piece very heavy irony, or very scary neo-Soviet loonery?
People have been blethering on about the 'moral hazard' created by government deposit insurance for banks. Unfortunately, they're idiots. Deposit insurance *does not* encourage financial institutions' shareholders to invest in risky assets, because it doesn't prevent the shares from losing all their value when the risky assets go tits-up and the company goes bust. Since … Continue reading Northern Rock and moral hazard
From the Observer: Of 377 National Health Service and private hospitals surveyed in England, 173 - 46 per cent - were found to have poor cleanliness in their kitchens, or canteens or cafes used by staff, patients and visitors. Nine of the 377 were private hospitals, of which six were found to have at least … Continue reading NHS food ‘OK, considering’
Apologies for absence; I've been working insane hours on a pharmaceutical industry project, which is now over. Interesting tangentially related statistic #1: a patented cancer drug takes seven years to bring from the start of human trials to market, and has a 9% chance of actually reaching market. Even after successful Phase II trials (which … Continue reading Booze, work, outrage
I've got a new piece up on the otherwise increasingly moribund Sharpener, about the terrifying public and press reaction - both in the UK and in Iran - that risks escalating a minor diplomatic incident into a casus belli. Hopefully sanity will prevail: ideally on both sides, but at the very least on ours...
The London Astoria is one of the capital's best-known live music venues; hundreds of groups ranging from Nirvana to the Stones have played there over the last 15 years. It's also reportedly "under threat" from property developers in sinister allegiance with the Olympics and most recently Transport for London's evil machinations. Indeed, it is true … Continue reading You have picked the wrong villain
The Pine Marten breaks his summer of silence, with more historical allusions to political events. Always good to see. The Bandit doesn't, for the time being.
Mostly, I've been working and having a life. However, I've also written a couple of articles that have gone up at The Sharpener: Defend the Lords (by electing them) and It's morally right that people should die for my amusement. I'd rate them as worth a read, but then I would, wouldn't I?