One Ann Kittenplan sees some sort of equivalence between ‘tax avoidance’ and benefit fraud: see her comments on my post about the moral vacuum that is Graham Norton, including: I do have a problem with unfairness… a) what are the relative costs to the economy of benefit fraud, tax avoidance, […]
Here’s a short piece by Raedwald on little wooden doll stereotypes of Polish Jews: But this trip, for the first time, I briefly explored the old ghetto, and visited one of the old synagogues, where I listened briefly to a young American woman talking history to a small group. She offered […]
I have written something for Telegraph Blogs about Trust in Europe (and scorpions). I’l put up the link when there is one. It refers to this piece by Matthias Machnig, which, strive as I do, I simply cannot understand: Economic growth has reached the limits of what is ecologically viable. […]
Leading UK journalist Angus Roxburgh has written a book about Putin and Putinism, drawing on his extensive experience in Russia (including a stint as a media adviser to the Putin team): The book is good in revealing all sorts of fascinating stories about the Putin period. My favourite is the […]
A good Guardian newsfeed on the developments in Moscow as demonstrators are arrested gives us this: Andrei Buzin, an election expert at Golos, said that the falsifications were not widespread enough to have left Putin with less than 50% of the vote and require a run-off, but the vote was […]
Thanks to the democratic miracle of #Twitter I have ended up in an unlikely place, namely the website of Labour Teachers (Labour at the chalkface). I was pointed in this direction by a Tweet picking up on my Commentator piece about teaching grammar. And there I find a really good […]
Here’s another truly horrible piece at Social Europe Journal that caught my beady eye. It’s by one Kinga Pozniak (someone of Polish origin no doubt, an anthropologist who lectures at the Western University in London. Not London, England. London, Canada). It’s entitled "Poland’s ACTA Protests – Molecular Change in an unlikely […]
When we look at the savage ‘cuts’ in public spending (not), why not start at the top? Namely the FCO’s busy anti-bullying industry? This is what you taxpayer suckers are spending your money on! Powerpoint slides for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office describing what to do to avoid bullying or […]
Here as a treat is the answer to those who wail about Greed and Inequality. Not because Inequality is OK. Or because Greed is OK. Rather because any of the usually proposed solutions for reducingh such distortions trend towards prioritising other forms of Greed and Inequality, in which collectivists take decisions […]
This is how 2011 and our civil liberties limp to an end. With a supposedly arty chair in a shop in Lewes being accused of falling foul of the Obscene Publications Act. Look at what is going on here. A woman designer of this tedious piece of furniture has decided […]
