Matt Ridley observes in his excellent book The Rational Optimist: Despite a doubling of the world population, even the raw number of people living in absolute poverty (defined as less than a 1985 dollar a day) has fallen since the 1950s, let alone the percentage living in such absolute poverty. That number is, of course, still all too horribly high, but the trend is hardly a cause for despair. The … Continue reading
Question Time comes tonight from Glyndwr University’s William Aston Hall in Wrexham. It is represented at Westminster by Ian Lucas MP (Labour) and was the birthplace of Sir Foster Cunliffe, founder of the Royal Society of British Bowmen. Really. That’s about as interesting as it gets. Oh, and the local church steeple is known as one of the Seven Wonders of Wales. Don’t laugh. On the panel we have Former … Continue reading
Once upon a time, Britain was a land of enterprise and development. Our brilliant inventions, our exploration and ability to push back the margins in pursuit of better lives for the many changed the world immeasurably for the better, and gave us full bellies and cheap energy. Now, our civil servants – when they are not doing the bidding of our masters in Brussels – spend their time drawing up … Continue reading
Midweek and this is well overdue, a bit like the axing of BBC License tax. Over to you! Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.
Remarkably soft interview with EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom here. As the prelude Gavin Hewitt explains why “many people” see Schengen as a lofty EU achievement! Lovely Cecilia wants to see lots of people from North Africa come to Europe to do the jobs that Europeans just won’t do. I was impressed to hear her bring climate change into her desire to incorporate Africa into the EU. Click through … Continue reading
Let us be clear, anything that brings to light the mistreatment of the vulnerable is to be commended. The BBC has made headlines itself today by revealing a pattern of abuse in a private nursing facility. Four people have been arrested as a consequence. Good – that’s how it should be. Can we look forward to similar undercover investigations into NHS facilities? Click through to read and contribute comments on … Continue reading
Richard Black seems hell bent on telling us that the oceans are turning acid. Two days ago, he posted this, and now, today, he’s added this – he faithfully and uncritically recycles alarmist predictions that clownfish are going to choke to death because of rising CO2. These clown researchers are being paid to find problems like this, and they do so, using their ju-ju models that predict doom on every … Continue reading
I was listening to a “debate” on the FIFA scandal on the BBC this morning (it was on “Today” close to 9am and Barry Hearn was one of the interviewees but there is no link to share with you) and I heard the BBC presenter Evan Davies make the remarkable suggestion that given the concerns expressed regarding the integrity of FIFA, perhaps the UN or EU should be invited in … Continue reading
Leftist agitprop fake charity Oxfam has been given the run of the BBC this morning to warn us of apocalyptic increases in food prices of up to 50% (odd nicely even statistic, btw) caused by “climate change” (They’ve obviously abandoned the global warming line formulation and are now using the more sophisticated but equally unfounded “climate change”) Who would have guessed that one of the cures for this was “to … Continue reading
It’s a consistent theme on the BBC – the demonisation of anyone deemed “posh”. Did you catch THIS discussion on whether or not it is right to be rude to posh people? For a hint on where the BBC may stand on this I direct you to the sarcastic introduction by John Humphyrs “I shall now attempt the impossible; I shall invite you to feel sorry for posh people.” Anyone … Continue reading
