|
|
FMNews
Email List Archive
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- IN THIS BULLETIN... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GORDON'S GONE: He's done it this time, says our Forecasting Group EVENTS: Lectures, meetings, and events from our forward diary UNSPUN STORIES: Even worse news from the fortnight's headlines STUFF: Blogging, bad language, daft jobs, BUT FIRST... BAD LANGUAGE: Isn't English weird? Consider the following sentence: Rough, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman John Gough rode to Loughborough, fell into a slough on Coughlin Road near the lough (dry due to drought), coughed, hiccoughed, checked his horse's houghs, then washed up in a trough. There are 14 different pronunciations of -ough in that, according to: http://home.planet.nl/~blade068/languagefun/pronunciation.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOW GORDON'S GONE AND DONE IT... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BAD FORECAST: Well, Gordon Brown has sown the seeds of his own destruction. At this rate he'll soon have to put the economy in his wife's name. Our Economic Forecasting Group concludes that the steady economic growth he boasts of is in fuelled mainly by the public-sector expansion -- which cannot last indefinitely. Worse, these public-sector jobs consume resources rather than creating them. That means low growth and big cutbacks -- or higher taxes -- after the 2005 election. Scary. If your nerves can stand it, look out for the full report, which will appear soon on http://www.adamsmith.org ----------------------------------- ------------------------------------- WHO'S HOT? WHO'S NOT? ----------------------------------- ------------------------------------- Polly Pocket: Tiny parcels of fun Polly Toynbee: Endless pages of rot http://www.pollypocket.com http://www.guardian.co.uk/columnists --------------------------------------------------------------------------- EVENTS: full list on http://www.adamsmith.org/policy/news/forward.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lectures ******** COSTING POLITICIANS: Public Accounts Committe chairman Edward Leigh MP gives an Adam Smith Lecture at 6pm on Tuesday November 18, on the subject 'Calling Government to Account'. Contact events@adamsmith.org for information and invitations. Next Generation *************** BOB ABOUT: Professor Robert Worcester, founder of the opinion pollster MORI, is our guest on 7 October. The November meeting will be on 4 November. Under-33s only should email steve at tng@adamsmith.org to plead for admission. Policy breakfast **************** MEDICAL MUNCH: On 10 October we have a Westminster policy breakfast with Sir Derek Wanless of the eponymous report(s) and Sir Graeme Catto of the GMC. Wouldn't call the House of Commons sausage platter healthy eating exactly, but it's the place to be if you want free medical advice (like how to sort out the ruddy NHS). Places are limited, so smarm up to Matthew Young on asiprojects@matthewyoung.co.uk for information. Power Lunches ************* * NEIL COLLINS, City scribe, 8 October * DAVID WILLETTS MP, Two-brained Tory, 16 October * PETER PIKE MP, Regulatory Reformer, 22 October * PROF STEVEN SCHWARTZ, Brunel boss, 28 October * IVOR CAPLIN MP, military minister, 30 October * PROF ANTHONY KING, election expert, 6 November * SIR CHRIS GENT, Vodafone veteran, 11 November * DANIEL HANNAN MEP writer and wrepresentative, 24 November * MALCOLM WICKS MP, Pensions planner,18 November * STEPHEN CARTER, Ofcom organizer, 10 December Ask steve@adamsmith.org for info and invites, and find info on: http://www.adamsmith.org/policy/news/forward.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNSPUN STORIES: gleaned from the news pages of http://www.ePolitix.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you've filtered out the spin, finding good news in the week's headlines is a forlorn hope. Here's some of the residue that's left, anyway. Shocking services ***************** - Tens of thousands of kids are getting lessons from staff who are not trained in the subject say government figures (that should have been published in 2000 but seem to have been shelved before the 2001 election). - The first contracts for the NHS's 2.3-billion-pound IT progamme are being delayed again as bidders 'struggle with tough terms' (yeah -- or more likely, ponder why they're daft enough to deal with NHS bureaucracy at all). - Rail chief Peter Field warns that London trains could reach 'third-world' levels of overcrowding without a rapid rise in investment. - A YouGov poll finds that half the public are dissatisfied with the police and think transport and health services are worse than in 1997. - Delays in approving new eye treatments have condemned 18,000 people to blindness, according to the RNIB. Fat bureaucracies ***************** - Labour ministers have spent over 1 million pounds on art for their office walls, says to the Culture Secretary (except she thinks that's good!). - Central government running costs rose 10 percent in the last 5 months. - Britain spends by far the smallest proportion of what it raises in car taxes on its transport system, a MORI survey finds. - The cost of the new Scottish parliament is up again, by 31.9 million pounds to 400 million, ten times the original estimate. - Incentives work! Speed cameras are such a money-spinner for the fuzz that their number has increased by 1000 over the last year, a 22 per cent rise. - Network Rail is saving 5 billion by cutting down repairs on rural lines. - The Royal navy has spent 100,000 pounds on a new logo. Their red ensign motif no longer flutters and the background changes from neutral to blue. Battered public *************** - The proportion of pensioners living in poverty has risen since 1997. - UK consumers increased their credit-card and overdraft debts by an extra 1.6 billion pounds last month. - Higher fees will still leave universities short of 1.6 billion a year by 2010, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute. - The constituencies of Gordon Brown, John Prescott and Patricia Hewit are among the very worst for combatting unemployment, say the LibDems. - The stockmarket slump has left Gordon Brown with a 1.4 billion hole in capital tax receipts. (So you'll just have to pay it some other way.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUFF (AND NONSENSE) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BLOGGING: We've already logged 200,000 hits on our lively new weblog (or 'blog' as I'm trying to teach myself to say), with folk from all over the world denouncing or supporting our views in their comments. Many other blogs (there, I can do it) have linked in to us, and among others the one-man global content provider Mark Steyn made us his web-page of the week at: http://www.marksteyn.com/ You can visit the blog (I'm getting good at this) and post comments on: http://www.adamsmithblog.org UPGRADE: As I saw Steve bearing down on his computer with a claw-hammer I knew something had to be done (after all, I'd probably be next). So thanks to all those gentle readers who have chipped in to upgrade our vital hardware. As for the rest of you: Oi! we can't do all this stuff running on thin air, you know. So make a donation! Send a cheque, or donate online at: https://adamsmith.safeserver.com/donation.htm DAFT JOBS: As you know, we're collecting daft public-sector job descriptions for our competition. (Actually, the Spectator and who-knows-who are all on to this as well, so we seem to have started something with our report 'Costing Jobs' by Jonathan Woolham, which you can find free to download on: http://www.adamsmith.org/policy/publications/cat-new.htm Anyway, this reader nominates not just a job but a whole department of the Health and Safety Executive. It appears that its Better Working Environment Division contains (among other odd things) an Innovative Engagement Unit. Well, innovative name at least, so into the hat it goes. Talking of hats, the Cat-in-the-Hat author Dr Seuss wrote a poem about how work expands to fit the number of people available. Andrew Lilico, the head of our economic forecasting unit, sent it through to me. It begins 'Oh, the jobs people work at!' and you can find it (among other bits) on: http://spoerlein.iwarp.com/lucky3.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- AS ADAM HAD IT --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gordon Brown boasted of economic prosperity at the Labour conference, but of course it's all built on the sands of debt. Adam Smith had the remedy: ...the sale of the crown lands would produce a very large sum of money.... [As] private property, they would, in the course of a few years, become well-improved and well-cultivated... the revenue which the crown derives...would necessarily increase with the revenue and consumption of the people. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, I Book V Chapter II Part II e -- Dr Eamonn Butler, Director Adam Smith Institute, 23 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BL, UK E-mail butler@adamsmith.org - Visit us online at www.adamsmith.org Tel +44 (0)20 7222 4995 - Fax +44 (0)20 7222 7544 To unsubscribe, visit www.adamsmith.org/lists.htm
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
, founded in 1995, is now a part of ISIL.
 |