Nick Griffin, the leader of the tiny British National Party, has a very low profile outside the UK. Their best political showing has been to pick up two seats in the European Parliament, when they polled 6% of the UK vote in that election in June 2009.

They are a minority party and are unlikely to ever lead political thought in the UK, let alone Europe.

Griffin has never appeared on public television to either promote or defend his party. The BBC, acknowledging that he now represents a small, but distinct, subset of the British population, invited him onto their long-running political panel discussion show, Question Time.

Outside, angry demonstrators gathered to protest Griffin’s arrival. Hundreds of police battled hundreds of protestors. 25 broke through a barrier and managed to make it inside the BBC buildings before being dragged back outside. By the end of the evening, three policemen had been injured and six protestors arrested.

What gives? Full Story »

“Rodney Deegen was surprised alone in his security booth where he was pleasuring himself while staring at ghost-like images of naked children. He was arrested immediately. Investigators suspect that he may have distributed some 350,000 images of naked people over the past 18 months.”

You remember that story, don’t you? Was all over the press in July 2012? Oh, wait, that hasn’t happened yet. Still to come, so to say. Let me get my thoughts arranged. Full Story »

After a similar attempt resulted in civil war in Madagascar, the South Korean government bought 1,000 sq km of land in Tanzania for use in agriculture.  Mindful of the politics involved, the South Koreans are setting aside half of that land for local development.

To quote from a recent BBC article:

Lee Ki-Churl, a corporation official, said he expected Tanzanians to benefit from the deal. “Some African countries export fruit and import fruit juice, or export olives and import olive oil, simply because their past colonialists did not teach them how to process food,” he told the AFP news agency. “We plan to set up an education centre for Tanzanian farmers in the food-processing zone in order to transfer agricultural know-how and irrigation expertise to them.”

I think it is both patronising and ignorant to assume that Africans don’t farm the way modern western farms operate because they are uneducated.  This almost seems to imply that Africans are too stupid to help themselves. Full Story »

For 20 years, bureaucrats in Brussels have monitored the curvature and shape of more than 40 types of vegetable and fruit. 

Rule-makers claimed that this protected European consumers from poor quality, but it is hard to argue that a lump on the side of a potato alters its flavour or nutritional value in any way.  A welcome respite came on 1 July 2009, when 36 classes of produce were deregulated.

European risk-aversion is built on the complacency that comes with good fortune. Companies have accepted high taxation, used for social entitlements, in exchange for protectionist agreements.

The credit crisis has exposed an interdependency that confounds unemployment targets, raises prices, and leaves state finances mightily exposed to the experiences of a small number of national champions. Full Story »

“I keep telling you guys my aim is to become a legend,” said Usain Bolt, after smashing the world 200 metres record and becoming the first man to hold the 100 and 200 metres sprints in both the Olympics and the Athletics World Championships.

Competition at international sporting events is fierce and the pursuit of an edge, sometimes measured in hundredths of a second, leads some to cheat.  Steroid abuse aims to increase the strength, speed and endurance of what is natural.  But the androgens created by the body are not set to any standard.  Some people do genuinely produce more than others.  Figuring out what is normal and what is not is difficult.

And, sometimes, something else is going on. Full Story »

In 1990, a genial project was announced by James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA and head of the National Centre for Human Genome Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States.  The purpose would be, over a period of 15 years, to extract the complete genome of human beings.

It was a big project and received support and funding from big governments.  As with all such projects, it would be difficult to measure exactly how rapidly such a project could be run and at what cost.  Pitched as being equivalent to landing a man on the moon, 15 years and a budget of $3 billion seemed completely appropriate.

In 1998 a gauntlet was thrown down which had the impact of an earthquake in a glassworks.  Craig Venter, and his firm Celera Genomics, declared that they would produce the genome in a fraction of the time of the public effort, and for only $300 million.

In 2002, the genome was completed, ahead of time and under budget. Full Story »

I start from diminished expectations.

My first experience with the UK was registering my company and opening business bank accounts. In South Africa, as a local, it takes two months to register the company and another three months to then open the bank accounts.

In the UK, it took 24 hours. And I walked away with a personal credit card, despite having no credit history. This, by the way, after the collapse of the credit industry. Not that I’m complaining.

This vote of confidence allowed me to rent a small apartment just outside the centre of Oxford. I was told that, living alone, I could apply for reduced rates. I’m used to dealing with municipalities. So, I fortified myself with a jug of coffee and a book, and phoned. Full Story »

In January of 2009, it snowed in Oxford. Deep drifts covered the meadow outside my study window. I watched as a fox, stark red against the pillow-white, tensed-and-leapt tensed-and-leapt through the fluffy deeps. It landed easily on a tree trunk, recently fallen across the river at the bottom of my tiny garden, and then ran along the informal bridge to my side before disappearing into a hedge.

I have seen snow before, but never lived in a place where snow thrusts itself into your daily life. The familiar landscape of fields, farmlands and wilderness was utterly transformed. I could see just how much wildlife lived around me. Bunnies hopped. Deer loped. Birds scratched.

I took a morning off, just to go see what the massive Port Meadow would look like. I got only a few yards on my bicycle before becoming glued in the snow. So I walked. It was magnificent. Full Story »

These are from the weekend paper.  Actual quotes from South Africa’s minister of foreign affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (Jacob Zuma’s ex-wife, and the ex-ex-minister of health who introduced the idea that AIDS is simply a disease of poverty, easily cured with garlic and African potatoes)…

“A judge is not supposed to do that. It’s not for judges to decide on foreign policy. They don’t run government and they don’t run foreign policy. There is separation of powers. They run the judiciary. I don’t comment on the judiciary.” (This after a judge in SA’s constitutional court sided with the current minister of health that it was unadvised to prevent the Dalai Lama from visiting).

“Tutu does not run government. Remember, he said he was not going to vote. If it were up to him, there would be no elections next month.” (In response to Archbishop Desmond Tutu declaring that he would now boycott the conference.) Full Story »

“Come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry. And then either do one of two things, resign or go commit suicide,” said US congressman Chuck Grassley in an interview on radio station, WMT.

He was discussing AIG, and apologised later for the heat of his language. Many people probably feel that he was too polite.

It must be very cathartic to lay all of the blame for the financial crisis at the doors of bankers and investment brokers. No-one has yet asked how it is that a single industry has managed to attract nothing but liars, lunatics, imbeciles and pathological hucksters while the rest of the world is filled with wide-eyed softies who have been taken for a ride. Full Story »

Those who own a property have the right to continue owning that property, and what they do with their justly owned and acquired property is entirely their own look-out.

If you happen to be the owner of a unique piece of art, say the Mona Lisa, and you decide to set fire to it, then that is a terrible tragedy, but it is your property.  No government should ever have the right to intervene.

Apartheid in South Africa was a crime against humanity.  You can argue the reasons.  Some say that it was racial prejudice translating into attempted genocide.  Others that it was a violation of human rights of equality and justice.
Full Story »

The UK, in 1979, was a mess.

In 1976, the then-Labour government of James Callaghan became the first developed-nation member of the OECD to have to beg the IMF for a bail-out after economic collapse. The top tax bracket was 83%, excluding tax on dividends and interest, while the bottom bracket was 33%. The European Economic Community (precursor to the EU) made an additional $3 billion available on top of the $3.6 billion from the IMF.

The damage of high taxation, high wages and terrible red tape was causing businesses to collapse and, as they fell, government nationalised them.

The Britain that Margaret Thatcher “won” 30 years ago, in 1979, was wracked by daily strikes by millions of unionised workers. Their wage packets, under the Labour government, were being increased by 30% annually but with no concomitant increase in efficiency or production.

The setting for a battle royal was in place. No-one doubted that getting England back to work would require incredible hardship. Few felt it would be possible. Full Story »

“It has no escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.”

The words are those of Francis Crick and James Watson who, in their seminal 1953 Nature paper, correctly identified the structure of DNA and placed it at the centre of genetically inherited characteristics.

In “On the Origin of Species” published almost 100 years before, in 1859, Charles Darwin had first expounded his theories of natural selection. On February 12, it will be 200 years since the birth of possibly one of the greatest scientists of all time.

Darwin was well-aware that his theories would challenge the prevailing views about man’s place in the scheme of things. It took him more than 20 years before he could, eventually, be persuaded to put his work together and publish. Then it unleashed the storm he had been expecting. Full Story »

The image is striking.  A fat, sweaty and uncomfortable-looking white man is squatting on the back of a large black man.  The white man is holding a dry canvas bag over the head of the black man and looking sadly and nervously at the camera.

The Truth Commission was unlike any trial the world had ever seen.  In exchange for complete disclosure about all past crimes, both known and unknown, claimants would be given complete absolution.  In the case of this one sweaty white man, his victim had asked that he demonstrate how he had tortured him.

Waterboarding has become famous.  Place a thick, heavy and wet fabric over your victim’s head, and then hold them stationary.  It causes no lasting physical damage, but gives a very real sense of drowning.  Anyone who has ever had a similar experience knows it is terrifying. Full Story »

A person consists both of their being and of the works that their being produces. Whether those works are physical or as intangible as the time spent on a particular task.

A traditional Westminster approach to politics, with a typical Left / Right political duopoly, has become the gold standard of democratic representation. It is also conflicted and inherently incapable of resolving its core contradiction. Full Story »

The first war of the Industrial Age, the war that should have ended all wars, ended at the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month.  At precisely two minutes to 11h00, Private George Lawrence Price 256265 of the 28th North West Battalion, 6th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division was shot, and killed, by a sniper. Full Story »

Income distribution is a divisive subject. Fairness, more so. The standard way of evaluating income distribution is the GINI Coefficient, an extremely complex equation that produces a number between 0 and 1. With GINI = 1, one person in an economy gets all the money, and everyone else has nothing. At GINI = 0, everyone is absolutely identical.

There are no nations at either end.

The current approach to ensuring some degree of fairness is to use the tax system. And, here presented, are various systems of taxation as well as the impacts of targeted changes to tax systems. It does involve some maths, but it is presented as simple tables. Like this one…

Figure 1: Equal Taxation Full Story »

The prize that President Barack Obama won on 4th November 2008 is an America that has little in common with the one his predecessor, George W Bush, inherited in 2000.

In 2000, the US was at peace with the world. The Cold War was over, market economies were ascendant, a massive budget surplus combined with tremendous national self-confidence. America was both internationally admired and the world’s undisputed superpower.

The America that Obama has earned is different. The US budget deficit is forecast to be over 4%, or $1 trillion this year. This will have to be financed through higher taxes, or through massive bond issues. Either way, the state will be tied up in debt that will require careful management. This at the same time that the US economy is already shrinking, while the whole world faces recession.

Obama also faces a world in which US hard power is discredited, and its soft power is being undermined by the growth of wealth in the world’s emerging markets. The likelihood is that, over the next ten years, the US will slip from being the world’s largest economy, to its third largest. Full Story »

Wealth is created through an economic sleight of hand. All the money in circulation is a promise, not only of the value already in existence, but of the future value that people have promised to create.

When you pay for groceries with a credit card, you are making such a promise. You are declaring that, through the power of your effort, you will create sufficient value during the month ahead to earn an income. You do not earn your salary merely by showing up at a place of work. You earn it by applying your skill and time to performing a task that creates value. The more of the intellect and learning you bring to bear on that task, then (hopefully) the greater that pay-check.

Only once you have earned that money can you pay off the debts — the promissory notes — that you incurred. You, through your behaviour, have brought new value and new cash into the world.

Only with this ability to borrow money that does not yet exist can we overcome the inertia of needing cash to create new value. Without being able to borrow we are limited by what we already have. Debt creates real opportunities for equality. Full Story »

There are over 25 million businesses in the US but companies which make up the Standard & Poor 500 contribute over 26% of the US government’s annual $2.4 trillion tax take. These 500 businesses are 6.5% of the total number of listed businesses .

Across the Atlantic, in the UK, the FTSE 100 index of companies contributes 3.3% of Her Majesty’s tax take. Even if you add in the salaries and other taxes that these companies manage on behalf of Treasury, it is no more than 7%.

The US taxation system is what is known as progressive; it falls more heavily on the wealthy than on the poor. The intention is that it is to be fairer. And so, in the US, the top 10% of taxpayers contribute 70% of taxes, and the top 1% contribute 40% of taxes. Conversely, the bottom 40% of registered taxpayers actually received more money back through tax grants than they contributed through their incomes.

Depending on how you feel about rich people, you could be cheered or charged about such information. However, you shouldn’t be surprised at the consequences. Full Story »