I think on matters of economics I would trust the opinion of a rocket scientist over that of an economist.

I gather our new Chancellor of the Exchequer was once an economist at the Bank of England. What could possibly go wrong?

Sky News Australia on loss of trust in UK police. Thought they over-egged the headline "incident", but the rest of it rang true enough.

I don't understand the whole open immigration thing. How has it become doctrine? Would it all go away if we were to move to a different measure — say GDP/capita — of overall economic wellbeing rather than plain GDP?

There would likely be objections from economists that GDP per capita tells you little about the size of the whole economy. Here's an idea: use GDP when talking about the whole economy, and use the per capita figure when talking about the welfare of the people. Rocket science?

tomo, DaveS,

Sheesh.

It seems we have sorted the old deprecating remark about First World problems: First World is now in a truly pitiable state.

tomo,
Yes, the BBC are holding firm: all evil comes from the "far right". I wonder how exactly the Southport protests have "revealed" the far right's organising tactics. The tactics truly on show are the BBC's. Weren't the protests triggered by a lunatic murdering young children? Who do they think organised that?

I found this travel video around the land of my birth (Zimbabwe) to be entertaining but grim. It shows the natural outcome when you indulge the the politics of envy.

Many of the comments to the video see parallels in the UK.

That Starmer would be hopeless was a more or less inevitable, but the ineptitude he and his cabinet colleagues have shown in less than a calendar month is impressive.

tomo,
Starmer may have set a new highwater mark (or low), but it just marks a natural step in the evolution of politics. For decades, real power has been moving from the politicians into the hands of salaried bureaucrats. Politics in the west is now nearly all about prestige. It's bound to attract nonentities (I suppose Starmer's new mark has eclipsed previous record-holder Cameron's). Politics is no longer for people who crave power; they go where the power is (e.g. Fauci). Lots of power and, for most of them, very little spotlight.

There needs to be pushback. Every time an MP responds with "my hands are tied", they should be pressed: "Ok, who should I contact? Who *is* in authority?" If we insist on naming names at these "independent" authorities, maybe a little spotlight will land on them.

Mailman,
Yes, Starmer didn't do much of a job of soothing the tensions, so he needs to be backed up by a soft media campaign.

In the latest EconTalk Sam Harris is the man of the moment. Last time he was on, it was a weird cosmic consciousness chat. This was more down to earth covering the hatred of Jews. At two hours, it's far longer than most EconTalks, but it paints a clear enough picture. The Jews happen to be #1 on the islamic hit parade. Once they're dealt with it'll be on to #2.