When de minimis is no longer minimal
The essential starting point is that tariffs are only one part of the costs of trade. Transport’s another, being able to communicate between buyer and seller another and it’s possible to compile a list as long as a tariff schedule of further such costs.
Apologies, but we have bad news for the Princess Royal
The Princess Royal has said that the UK needs a “long-term vision” and “a coherent national programme” when it comes to building affordable rural housing.
The Guardian’s worried Argentina is going to work
Inflation means rising prices, which is hard to conflate with falling prices. On the other hand, if prices fall and wages don’t then real wages rise and poverty declines - which sounds like a fair enough plan to us.
Why not, umm, lower the cost of legal waste disposal?
Philip Duffy, the agency’s chief executive, said: “Waste crime is toxic. Criminals’ thoughtless actions harm people, places, and the economy, blighting our communities and disrupting legitimate businesses.
Trussell Trust is remarkably confused here
We don’t think much of the way poverty is measured these days - it confuses inequality with poverty - and most of the alternatives suggested are worse.
This is the number saved from homelessness, not the number of homeless
People in temporary accommodation are not the homeless. People in temporary accommodation are the people the welfare state has saved from homelessness.
What’s the policy response to an ageing population?
No, the answer does not have to be importing people.
This has been the aim all along
You know that idea that inequality is the grand terror? That the good society - even The Good Society - is one ruled by economic equality?
Insisting upon bureaucratic efficiency seems fair
That the bureaucracy itself, when presented with all the relevant information, has to make a decision in less than geologic time seems sensible to us. It also doesn’t seem like a huge imposition. Nor even a loosening of necessary protections.
Why industrial policies don’t work
Chlorine-washed chicken is not, in fact, an important issue. Every bag of washed salad in the European Union - and UK - has been washed in chlorinated water.
Getting Dick to go Viking on the system - it’s the only way
As we suggested yesterday about the planning system: Freedom from the system itself will only apply to those bureaucratic micturation schemes.