I didn’t watch all of Question Time this week but one thing that Eric Pickles said flew out at me (in what was otherwise an incoherent mess once Dimblebum had punctured his well rehearsed soundbite): before tax, the UK has the lowest priced diesel in Europe. It sounds like a startling, killer fact, but it… Continue reading Economics and oil
Tag: tax
Boris Johnson’s crime maps, data protection and land values
Unaccustomed as I am to defending Boris Johnson, I’m not convinced that publishing crime maps would necessarily result in a breach of data protection. Didn’t we solve this problem with census data decades ago? A more intriguing objection is the complaint by RICS that “publicising high crime areas in such detail could literally wipe thousands… Continue reading Boris Johnson’s crime maps, data protection and land values
Triangulation and the Treasury
Credit where it’s due, at least Alastair Darling’s statement today has the virtue of being a simple change, rather than the convoluted nonsense he was talking about a couple of weeks ago. I find the psychology of Labour ministers throughout this debacle fascinating. At each and every turn their response has been to sell off… Continue reading Triangulation and the Treasury