It seems that everything I've written about alternative medicine (in other words medicine that doesn't work) is true:
Captured Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic was practising alternative medicine and living in Serbia's capital, Belgrade.
Everything you need to know about alternative medicine is captured in that one sentence.
UPDATE: Oh dear. It's a joke. Clearly not a very good one, judging from the reaction of the first commenter.Guido writes, quite rightly, about the renaissance in free market think tanks.
One of the liveliest and most infuential is, of course, Policy Exchange, and it's something of a coup for Boris Johnson to have lured its director, Anthony Browne, to be his policy director.
It's also very good news for London to have so able a man directing policy.
What a change from the Socialist Action cell which took charge under Livingstone.
Michael Gove's advocacy of the Swedish model of "free schools" may owe a little to another recent ASI report Open Access for UK Schools: What Britain can learn from Swedish Education Reform.
If Denmark has a long history of choice, the situation in Sweden could not have been more different. High tax rates meant that school fees were unaffordable to all but a tiny number of parents; so as recently as 1990 less than one per cent of pupils attended independent schools — the lowest proportion in the Western world.
But far from Swedish schools providing a model education, standards were low and the schools paid no attention to parental concerns. They didn’t need to – their funding would remain intact however bad their results.
By 1991, popular dissatisfaction had grown to such an extent that the new right-of-centre government had made education reform one of its key pledges. The 1991 legislation devolved power from the central government to parents, municipalities and independent schools. Crucially, the reforms also introduced an element of parental choice in education. For the first time, parents were free to send their children to any government school within their municipality — or to an independent school, with public funding following the child to the school chosen. Independent schools approved by the new National Agency for Education would receive 85 percent of the cost of educating a student in the municipal school system. Within a year, the number of independent schools doubled.
Swedish governments have changed the voucher amount twice since 1991, first reducing it from 85 to 75 percent and, then, in 1997 raising it to (in theory) 100 percent of municipal schools' funding per student. The National Agency for Education now receives hundreds of applications each year from parents and educators hoping to start their own schools. In 1999 it received 195 applications and in 2000 the number increased to 269, due largely to the increased demand for independent secondary schools.
Though they began as a tiny minority of the education supply, independent education is a growing and diversifying sector whose influence for good on Swedish education is out of all proportion to the current proportion of the student population — 3.6 percent in 1999 — that it serves. The number of independent schools is growing by between 0.5-1% and educating approximately 3500 more students every year, at a time when the school-age population in Sweden is declining.
The fastest-growing schools are those started by teachers, parents and educators who were dissatisfied with the education provided by their local government schools. Each new school offers students an educational alternative in response to a local demand and is paid for by the public voucher.
Sweden's voucher system has been an enormous step toward decentralization, but all schools are still heavily regulated by central government. Both independent and municipal schools must follow curricula imposed by the government, which stipulates the exact number of hours each mandatory subject must be taught, and all students must sit local government tests four times in their academic careers.
A recent report by the OECD recommended that Sweden should continue to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its education system by pursuing further the decentralization process started in 1991. It recommended more explicit independence for school administrators and greater parental influence on schools. In return for increased local control, the Ministry could demand greater accountability and quality controls from the municipalities, as New Zealand has done.
If ever proof was needed that I am a North London boy, it's this:
According to Sarah Vine:
The General Trading Company is - or was - to nice middle-class girls like me what the Liverpool branch of Selfridges is to WAGs: the centre of the shopping universe. All those marvellous (and completely useless) leather pigs, splendid ethnic lamps, exotic rugs, stylish retro toys and interesting vases.The thing is, until I opened my Times this morning and read the above, I had never heard of the General Trading Company.
This place, on the other hand...
There's an excellent David Aaronovitch piece today about anti-Americanism. I'm particularly happy at his remarks about Andrew O'Hagan:
O'Hagan is, in my view, simply BNP-lite. Two years ago he wrote, in regard to Mel Gibson's antisemitic rage:This week you could hear the author Andrew O'Hagan on Radio 4, reading from his collection of self-conscious essays, The Atlantic Ocean, in which - despite his own claims - every impact of American life on Britain is somehow configured negatively. He writes of an exported popular culture “born in the suburbs of America” and defined as “Spite as entertainment. Shouting as argument. Dysfunction as normality. Desires as rights. Shopping as democracy.” This in the country that has sent Big Brother, Pop Idol, Wife Swap and Location, Location, Location over the Atlantic in the other direction, while taking delivery of Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Wire.
I should admit that I am irked by O'Hagan's dismissal of the “idiots who supported that bad and stupid war (ie, Iraq)” and am willing to match my idiocy against his intelligence in any debating forum that he cares to name. More interesting, though, is the desire to blame America. For all that O'Hagan claims that the US has lost its purchase on the world's affections, it remains the chosen destination for the most ambitious of the planet's migrants. For all that he claims that this change in sentiment is recent, I can't help recalling those - the most honest - who commented, in journals he writes for and on the very day after September 11, that the Americans had had it coming.
Dangerously worded as it was, Gibson's drunken comment was, it could reasonably be argued, a statement against the arrogance of the Israeli military: "They started all the wars in the world." Isn't it that which is making America call for his head?Of course it isn't even remotely true that Jews are behind most wars, but it is true that they are behind most movies, and pundits are saying that Gibson may never work again in Hollywood. But their response is overbearing and slightly hysterical: if black or Hispanic or Asian people sought action every time a ludicrous remark was made against them by a drunkard, the world would fall to pieces.
I somehow don't believe that Mr O'Hagan thinks that if a well established actor was to start ranting about how ni**ers weren't fit to vote and the KKK had the right idea, there wouldn't then be a fuss, and that said actor wouldn't see his career collapse - all quite rightly.
Given the message of rest of his piece - we should all be able to have a bash at the Jews - it seemed that he might have something else in common with Mel Gibson. And I don't mean acting ability.
But that's almost the least of it. O'Hagan is incapable of writing a column - or, it seems, a book - without it dripping with his ill-directed bile.
There are some columnists with whom I disagree profoundly but nonetheless read, not least because they provide good blog fodder. But I no longer read O'Hagan. HL Mencken said that reading a newspaper was like eating poison for breakfast, and that is how I feel about O'Hagan.I gather that he is the partner of India Knight, which gives me the excuse to reproduce this correspondence, taken from Media Guardian:
On October 15 [2006], India Knight wrote in her column in the Sunday Times headline "Muslims are the new Jews" where she attacked the negative views of Jack Straw and feminists towards the Muslim veil. This email exchange followed shortly after:
To: letters@sunday-times.co.uk
From: Julie BurchillDear India Knight,
I dare you to walk into any mosque - after covering your filthy female head in the Islamist fashion, of course - and spread your glad tidings that "Muslims are the new Jews."
You'll be lucky if you get out alive.
Yours sincerely,
JB
PS: I see that your new book is a compilation of 'dirty bits' from novels. I'd love to know how this fits in with your new found love of feminine modesty and discretion.To: Julie Burchill
From: India KnightOh, for fuck's sake. I don't have a "newfound love of modesty and discretion" - I just don't despise people on the basis of what they wear.
Regards,
IKTo: India Knight
From: Julie BurchillWhat, not even the working class slags in crop tops you're forever slagging off, you hypocritical snob?
To: Julie Burchill
From: India KnightI do NOT slag off working class people in crop tops, you fucking loon. Where? When? Why would I slag them off? I am many things but I am not a snob. God, you're driving me mad. Go away.
To: India Knight
From: Julie BurchillI wrote to the letters page, not YOU, you stalking cretin. Why dont you fuck off and turn yet another of your husbands gay?
What have Barack Obama and the Pope got in common?
They've both shafted Gordon Brown.
Sky reports that the visit to Israel of our woeful excuse for a PM has barely been noticed, as Israel waits excitedly for Barack Obama. And the same thing happened in April when Mr B's visit to the US was overshadowed by that of the Pope.
Today has been a good day for cheats having to suffer the consequences of their actions.
First , Dwain Chambers has failed in his bid to make cheating pay. Athletics is struggling to be seen any longer as a fair sport rather than a freak show, and a High Court imposition of Chambers on the British Olympics team would have made things a lot worse.
Secondly, the Charity Commission's report into the Smith Institute is pretty damning, finding against it on most of the charges. Since Gordon Brown is happy to lie to the House of Commons, it should come as little surprise that what is, in effect, his own private think tank should be so cavalier about complying with the law.
As something of a think tank veteran (and having recently been involved in setting up a new one), I know that the laws concerning think tanks which operate as charities are onerous and ought always to be at the front of any director's mind. Onerous, yes; but also pretty clear. It's easy to know where the line should be drawn. And I simply refuse to believe that those involved in the Smith Institute did not know full well that they were crossing it.
There's a very good piece in the Telegraph today by Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador.
He's not been here long, but has already proved himself to be a first class ambassador for his country. If only the same could be said for the woeful American ambassador, who is as invisible and unpersuasive as his predecessor.
Most ambassadorial pieces on the eve of an official visit are bland and dull - this one has real meat.
Today, Iran threatens not only Israel, but also the values of the democratic world and the security of the Middle East. Iran threatens to annihilate Israel while at the same time holding the world to ransom. In the 1980s, Tehran used missiles to try to choke off Kuwaiti oil exports. The next time Iran acts the regional bully, it will do so as a state that has nuclear weapons.
Israel is the target of Iran's rhetoric - but the whole world will pay the price of Iran's ambitions. This global menace warrants a global response. Israel looks to Britain to take a leading role. In Iran, violent extremists hold power over a sophisticated civilisation. A population with the gifts to enrich the world has been impoverished; the talents of scientists and engineers have been diverted from peaceful potential to genocidal purposes.
...It is true, however, that there were darker episodes in our relations. Britain obstructed Jewish emigration to Palestine during the Second World War, at a time when it could have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of European Jews. After the war, Britain continued to restrict emigration when it was the only hope of a new life for survivors.
Yet our two countries have built an enduring partnership. Three Israeli presidents served under the British flag. Our first president, Chaim Weizmann, performed crucial work as a chemist for the Admiralty during the First World War. In the Second World War, Chaim Herzog fought with distinction in the British Army, liberating Nazi concentration camps and earning the rank of Major. Ezer Weizman, Chaim 's nephew, served in the RAF.
Today, Britain and Israel once again face the difficult decisions that must be taken when defending democratic freedoms. We have both been the targets of terrorist violence; we both know what it is to mourn the loss of innocent life.
As Iran's nuclear programme races ahead, the international response has been sluggish, meandering and unco-ordinated. Britain has led the way in urging greater effort, but, to echo Churchill, the international community has so far "decided only to be undecided". Churchill used to tell the parable of the appeaser who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last: the world must send the message to Tehran that feeding time is over.
I have a piece in today's Mail on the crime stats. Here's an extract:
Well that's OK then. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said yesterday that she is 'extremely pleased' that the Government has exceeded its target for reducing crime. What a surprise! Home Secretaries always claim that crime is falling. The Left-liberal consensus, typified by the BBC, pushes the same line and dismisses any claims that Britain is suffering from an epidemic of crime.For example, when people call phone-in programmes and point out that in their childhood they could play safely in the streets, or leave their front door open when they left the house, they are chastised for talking nonsense. The mantra is repeated: Look at the figures! Crime is down!
Yet the truth is that most people have an instinctive understanding that crime is a lot worse than it used to be. Although it is difficult to sort the reliable evidence from the massaged statistics, the evidence is clear. Things are worse than the official statistics suggest.
It was claimed that the figures published yesterday showed that there were five million recorded crimes in England and Wales - a fall of 9 per cent in the 12 months to March.
The phrase 'lies, damned lies and statistics' is never more apposite than when dealing with crime figures. Indeed, there were two sets of 'official' figures: first, the number of crimes recorded by the police and, second, crimes counted by the British Crime Survey. The police figures say there were five million crimes last year while the British Crime Survey figures say there were 10.1 million.
And if you think that's confusing, it gets worse: both sets of figures are wrong.
The figures for crime recorded by the police are very misleading because they only take into account, as is clear from their name, those crimes which are actually reported to the police.
On the other hand, the British Crime Survey is based on 47,000 people who are asked about their experience of crime. So, in theory, it's a better guide to the true level of crime than the police's figures. But it, too, is still deeply flawed.
For one thing, the British Crime Survey is hamstrung because its researchers only interview people who are prepared to discuss the problem - and they are hard to find in high-crime, inner-city areas.
Worse, the survey doesn't count more than five repeat violent crimes against a victim. So, if someone is repeatedly mugged, not only might the crimes never be recorded because the victim was never included in the survey, but even if he was, the number of crimes would be under-counted.Thus one university criminologist has calculated that the total number of violent crimes committed against adults is likely to be 80 per cent higher than the figure recorded by the British Crime Survey.
Ridiculously, the BCS figures also fail to include any crimes involving a victim aged less than 16. Whereas other independent research shows that one in four children between 12 and 16 has been a victim of crime.
Nor does it include crimes related to illegal drug use, sexual offences, crimes against commercial victims (such as vandalism and van thefts), murder or shoplifting.
...The think-tank Civitas has calculated, using these and other statistics which don't feature in the British Crime Survey, that there are around 11million extra crimes every year. If these are added to the British Crime Survey's estimate of 12.6million for 2003, this means a total of almost 24million crimes. (And, of course, this much higher figure doesn't include sex or drug-related crimes.)
...Even on the official figures, it is also clear that crime is much worse than it used to be. For more than a century, recorded crime remained more or less the same - sometimes dipping (to 79,000 incidents in 1886) or rising to a peak (105,000 in 1908).
By 1931, the figure had started to rise, to 159,000. But it was only in the 1960s that there was a dramatic take-off: By 1971, the number had risen to 1,166,000.
...Just using the woefully inadequate British Crime Survey figures, the breakdown for specific crimes shows increase over the past 30 years. For example, in 1979 there was a one in 11 chance of being a victim of car crime; today, three quarters of drivers are victims. Equally, in 1979, there was a one in 32 chance of suffering a burglary; today it is one in 11.
In 1957, 340 per 100,000 of the population were convicted of a criminal offence; by 1991 the figure had risen to 1,400, and this at a time when detection rates fell. So, even though clear-up rates were falling, ever greater numbers of the population were convicted of crime.
This pattern is also borne out by recorded police figures, which dramatically underplay the scale of crime. For example, in 2001 there were 6,500 robberies in one London borough (Lambeth) whereas, in 1972, there were 8,900 robberies recorded in the whole of England and Wales.
During the month of December 2002, police recorded 282 robberies in Lambeth - a larger figure than for the entire number of robberies recorded for all of England and Wales in every year bar two between 1918 and 1939. In fact, the national annual figure for robbery did not exceed 400 until 1941.
Nevertheless, the BBC reported yesterday's figures with its usual slavish adherence to the fiction that crime is a mirage. Indeed, one report was headlined 'Facts not fears', as if the public's fear of crime is irrational.
Next time you hear a politician or someone from the liberal-Left try to dismiss fear of crime as a media panic, remember this: statistics can be used to support almost any argument. But the truth will always out.
James has an interesting post about the Labour leaderhip. He ends with this line about James Purnell:
I still think it is too much of a stretch to think of him as Prime Minister.
In that regard, my money has - literally - long been on two people: James Purnell and Alan Johnson. Jack Straw is more of the same. As the old saw has it: what is the question to which Jack Straw is the answer? Ed Balls is struggling even as Education Secretary and is surely not a serious candidate. As for the supposed favourite, David Miliband; I just don't see it. He comes across as the ultimate geek, and I've yet to see any evidence that the political (let alone intellectual) meat is really there.
Purnell has most of the necessary qualities, so long as age and inexperience isn't a bar (and it is actually an asset, as it was for Blair and Cameron). He also seems - according to Jophn Rentoul - to be very shrewdly holding "a regular surgery for MPs at the Commons to discuss welfare issues from their constituencies".
And Johnson is the only member of the Cabinet who comes across as vaguely normal, and would presumably go down well with his formber brothers in the unions.
Still, this is all academic. The PLP are a bunch of spineles wimps who seem unable to stop themselves plunging to defeat with Gordon B rather than offer ingthemselves any hope. Cheerio!
UPDATE: As some commenters have pointed out, there were some people who thought of Major as a possible PM. I should have written 'few people'.
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