So Glasgow gets the Commonwealth Games. The announced budget is some £ 288 million. The real budget is some ten times that. Funny how these budgets always rise, isn't it?
It would appear that Bob Herbert has been studying at the Polly [...]
Given that the majority of my income is denominated in US dollars I'm not all that wildy excited about the fact that it is fast approaching toilet paper in value. However, it is in fact what is necessary. I mean, when you've got Paul [...]
"Never has so much been paid by so many for so little"Persons of genius are, it is true, rare and are always likely to be a small minority, but in order to have them, it is necessary to prepare the soil in which they grow. Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom.
– J.S. Mill (1806-73), On [...]
This week's Economist praises the educational reforms of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg – and with good reason. As the article notes:
The government is expected to signal its intention to change the rules on political party funding in today's Queen's speech. "Thus the collapse of the American housing market, the explosive growth of American home repossessions and the discovery that ’structured [...]
Students at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington have done exactly what individuals on the free market will do when left on their own – found the least expensive and most efficient means of exchange mutually beneficial to all. 
The ASI's latest report, Working Welfare, is released today. It has already been sent to the government in reponse to their consultation paper 'In work, better off: next steps to full employment', which was published in July.
Gerry Sutcliffe MP displayed a poor grasp of economics when he complained about the price of season tickets and the wages of Premiership players. In reference to John Terry’s wage Mr Sutcliffe believed it to be "obscene at £150,000 a week" and he also criticized [...]
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labour the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.
[...]
Could Scotland be up there among Europe's richest nations as Alex Salmond suggested, or is it a welfare-dependent basket case? David Leaske and Douglas Fraser report on a special investigation by Scotland's Herald newspaper. They try to scotch (their pun, not mine) five key myths about [...]
US Republicans are in a bit of a pickle – a unifying presidential candidate has yet to emerge. Mitt Romney is a Mormon who 'flip-flopped' on abortion and instituted mandatory healthcare in his home state. Rudy Giuliani has been divorced several times and once kissed Donald Trump [...]
Yet more evidence that politicians can never get anything right. The seemingly simple task of drawing four football teams out of a hat (the now imaginary hat used in all draws!) was completely fouled up by Alex Fergusson MSP on Thursday. 
I've touched on this idea here before, that we should abolish corporation tax. It's not just that the costs of collection are so high (think of all those tax advisors, not just what it costs the government) but that in reality, companies don't actually pay the tax. [...]
Last night during the Democratic presidential debate, Senator Barack Obama accused Hillary Clinton of frequently changing positions. After hearing this, Bill Clinton said, 'I wish.'[...]
– Conan O'Brien
Charles Rangel, chairman of the US House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee, proposed on Tuesday a tax plan so radical even Nancy Pelosi (the Speaker of the House) won’t endorse it. Rangel's idea best represents the logical outcome of heavily taxing the wealthy and successful in [...]
The direct result was that Bangladeshi textile factories stopped employing children. But did the children go back to school? Did they return to happy [...]
Now, here's a tough one. On the Downing Street website, the petition opposing the Chancellor's changes to Capital Gains Tax has accumulated over 15,000 signatures. "We the undersigned," it says "petition the Prime Minister to Keep the CGT taper relief as a major incentive to [...]
This is a really neat garment. You wear it for gaming, and when you get hit you feel it. Erica Naone reports that the vest, from TN Games, has an air compressor and 8 pneumatic cells that produce impacts on the wearer's body in response to [...]
"In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that the whole population under his rule is kept going only by his efforts, and in this consciousness of being indispensable every administrator finds the chief reward of his labour and efforts."
– from War and Peace, by Leo [...]
Memo to suburban voucher opponents who "support public education": you're already sending [...]
"Verbal and physical abuse of staff will not be tolerated," shouted the sign in the Post Office – which then went on to list the dire penalties that would be imposed on transgressors. I'm glad the Post Office does not allow its employees to be assaulted with [...]
Pictured with Republican Presidential Candidate Rudolph Giuliani is Kari Gronemeyer, formerly of the ASI. Whilst in her junior year at Drake University she is working part time as an intern on Rudy Giuliani's Iowa campaign. Last week she was involved with introducing Mr Giuliani at her University [...]
This week, my half term, I have been doing work experience here at the Adam Smith Institute. As a Year 13 student from Tonbridge Grammar School, Kent, who has just applied to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University, this has not only been an interesting and [...]
Free speech is about the communication of the human experience. Without it, we are diminished: we put our minds in neutral and let others think for us.[...]
- Henry Porter, writing in The Observer about geneticist James Watson.
Yesterday the UN released another 'doom and gloom' report about the world’s environment, claiming that humanity could face extinction if it doesn't change its wicked ways. 
Chris Edwards over at Cato has caught a delightful little point from a recent book decrying the (perceived) foolishness of supply side economics. Before we get to that though it's worth pointing out that "supply side" means something different to different people. The way we use it [...]
My book choice this week is The Road to Southend Pier - One man's struggle against the surveillance society by Ross Clark (£6.49). A chance encounter with a talking lamp-post got Ross Clark thinking: could he get from London to Southend without Big Brother knowing where he [...]
Justin Muzinich, a hedge fund worker, and Eric Walker, a Harvard business professor, had an excellent op-ed piece in the New York Times over the weekend. Reacting to Barack Obama's proposal that the US double it spends on foreign aid, the authors call [...]
The public panic caused by climate change alarmists is actually worsening our supply of natural resources, as predicted by some skeptics. This is certainly the case with bio-fuels, which have dramatically increased food prices, causing severe problems for import dependant developing countries. Now it is even threatening [...]
Over history measured in centuries, the evolution of the family can be summarized as a movement of work from the household to the market...
That is, one’s family income is more important to your health status in Britain [...]
People are asking where the Liberal-Democrats might go. A new leader is to be elected on Dec 17th, after the old one was booted out for looking too old and acting too square. The problem is that their traditional centre ground is being squeezed from both sides. [...]
I was on BBC Northampton's lunchtime phone-in show yesterday, to talk about the EU Reform Treaty (i.e. constitution). It was pretty clear from the other calls which way the public was leaning – it is beginning to look like the government are the only ones who don't [...]
The BBC's Director-General Mark Thompson revealed plans yesterday on how to create a "smaller, fitter BBC" for the digital age. The plans, which include a net 1,800 redundancies and the sale of the flagship Television Centre are designed to make up a £2bn budget shortfall. 
There has been much erudite talk about the EU Reform (i.e. Constitution) Treaty, but it is instructive to look at what its provisions actually mean for ordinary folk, rather than for the politicians.
According to the BBC, the largest ever UK study into obesity has concluded that "individuals can no longer be held responsible for obesity and government must act to stop Britain 'sleep-walking' into a crisis." Although the authors admitted there was scant proof that any anti-obesity [...]
The debate on the EU Reform Treaty – we're not supposed to call it a 'Constitution' – is hotting up, with the government proclaiming that their 'red lines' will spare us from its worst excesses. But the House of Commons Scrutiny Committee has shown that those red [...]
Research published this week has shown that 'hazardous' drinking habits are mostly concentrated in England’s more affluent areas, contrary to the 'binge drinking yoof' stereotype that plagues the debate about alcohol-related health. 
Matthew d'Ancona, editor of The Spectator, was our guest at a Power Lunch yesterday, where the topic was 'Politics and the New Media'. D'Ancona is of course a fan of the web-based new media, presiding over his magazine's 'Coffee House' discussion [...]
No one was particularly surprised by the resignation of Lib Dem leader Sir Ming Campbell – a string of polls suggesting the Lib Dems would be wiped out in an election made it inevitable – but it's suddenness caught Westminster unawares. In fact, Sir Ming has not [...]
Last week, former US Vice President Al Gore and the IPCC were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work on global climate change. The International Herald Tribune ran the line: "Nobel committee expands definition of peace." Increasingly, the prize has been awarded not to [...]
Nigel Stapleford (pictured left), Chair of the Postal Regulator Postcomm, braved an Adam Smith Institute Power Lunch yesterday, despite the fact that many of us round the table would like to see him out of a job. 
Around here we pretty consistently argue for the legalization of all drugs. Partly for moral reasons (it's your body, use and abuse it as you wish) and partly for more practical reasons. Legal substances would be, for example, subject to greater quality control and thus more regular [...]
The cost of installing energy-saving [...]
It seems that the Conservatives' proposals to raise the inheritance tax threshold were very popular with the public, and may have been one of the main reasons for the sudden turn around in the polls. This has led many people to argue that tax cuts are back [...]
A double whammy from our online bookstore this week. My first choice is Cameron: The Rise of the New Conservative by the ex- New Statesman's Francis Elliott and the Evening Standard's James Hanning. It's the first major biography of the boy wonder, which is worth reading, given [...]
The former US Vice-President has already taken over from Michael Moore as the most sanctimonious lardbutt Yank on the planet. Can you imagine what he'll be like now that the Norwegian Nobel committee has given him the prize?
– Damian Thompson, in [...]
So according to a review published yesterday by the Cambridge-based Primary Review, children at primary school in England are suffering "stress" from having to grow up too soon. They face intolerable pressure at school and from the wider world. The culprits are school testing, family [...]