If you think that Gordon Brown carried out a tax raid on pensions in 1997, which was the main cause of the end of final-salary pension schemes in the UK private sector, then you are wrong. In 1997, the government did indeed abolish the tax relief on dividends paid by firms into pension funds. But … Continue reading More clarifications of the obvious
Banditry
David Aaronovitch is one of the few Decent-ists that I like and respect. So it's good to see him stating the obvious truths that more or less everyone (whether left or right) has forgotten as we descend in to a Cassandrine orgy of unwarranted gloom: Taking modern Britain, for all that any country is beset … Continue reading Reality check
As one ought, I've been looking up my ancestors (well, people with my not-especially-common surname) on the Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913 website. There's a disappointing lack of criminality among my lot. Only three Bands were prosecuted at the Old Bailey over the whole period, and one of them was acquitted, whereas we seem … Continue reading Just as well they didn’t have t’Internet back then
Diamond Geezer has an excellent piece on the sterling work that Boris Johnson has done in eradicating crime, misery, poverty, racial disharmony, etc from the town of Henley, and how useful this experience will be if he's elected Mayor of London... Would throbbing multicultural London (population seven and a half million) be a better place … Continue reading Ready to face any challenge
Whatever else it may be, a walk-out among well-educated civil servants over not getting the same large pay rises they've received for most of the last 10 years is not The Workers Sticking It To The Man.
No, not "more severe", just "less effective": Firearms offences also increased, up 4% in the whole of 2007 to 9,967... however, gun deaths fell to 49, seven fewer than in the previous 12 months. What's wrong with kids today? I'm fairly sure that even when I was 15, I could have achieved a better-than-0.5% hit-rate... … Continue reading Gun crime is getting worse
Today's "this is what the Internet was invented for" site is the automatic random proverb generator. Favourites it's given me include: Blood is thicker than the eye of the beholder. He who lives by the sword shall die by a vacuum. A little learning is money. Quality stuff. From B3ta, obviously. As is this link: … Continue reading A lie has a good ending
"Can someone please explain on what basis I am supposed to care more about the plight of the white working classes than that of, say, Congolese people driven out of their homes by war?" (an oasis of sanity in a thread dominated by horrible bigots)
Here is a table showing projected growth in real GDP per capita [*] for 2007-08, according to IMF data released this month: 2007-082008-092009-10 Canada0.0%0.6%2.0% France0.8%0.7%2.0% Germany1.5%1.1%1.9% Italy-0.1%-0.1%0.4% Japan1.4%1.6%1.8% United Kingdom1.3%1.4%2.1% United States-0.5%-0.4%1.9% In other words, credible independent people who understand economic forecasting (note: not people who couldn't tell GDP from a CDR but who think … Continue reading Sky in ‘not falling’ shock
A question for the multiplicity of blogging non-bigots [*] who support the Ham & High's decision to run an advert for the BNP ahead of the current London elections on Voltaire-ish 'free speech for all, however disgraceful' grounds: would you have supported the H&H on the same grounds had it run an advert advocating the … Continue reading I’d defend to the death your right to say anything… err, except for that