Kamm in full flow

12:50pm

This will, admittedly, be of limited interest; but for anyone who relishes the spectacle of Oliver Kamm in full flow, this demolition of a rather stupid academic (possibly the stupidest man alive) called Chris Bertram is a treat.  You have to read the comments to get the full glory.

BTW, I entirely concur with Oliver's assertion:

Is there merit in the mild hypocrisy of not speaking ill of the recently deceased? Not in the case of public figures who influence policy or exercise office.... A toxic figure in life is not less so in posthumous influence.

Dead or alive, toxic figures should be attacked wherever and whenever possible. I was attacked for my piece on Sir Peter Ustinov in the week after he died. Far from regretting it, I only wish that I had been stronger in my attack on a truly odious man who spent his life brown nosing and defending tyrants.

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Bye bye Arabella. Or be quiet.

5:08pm

Here are the long-awaited results of the Arabella Weir poll.

Go on hunger strike  14%  
Throw herself in front of a horse at Ascot  39%  
Chain herself to the railings outside Boris' house  23% 
Leave London  25%

The clear winner is the second option: that she should throw herself under a horse at Ascot. Just to help her, here's tomorrow's Ascot card. There are six races for her to choose from.

Alternatively, she could just keep her trite, ignorant leftie drivel to herself in future.

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Jews and power

3:51pm

Somehow I doubt that Inayat Bunglawala will have the same take on this as Daniel Finkelstein. The Tribe of Judah, as you charmingly put it, control the media, don't we, Inayat?

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Losing less badly

9:20am

In the Guardian, Ken Livingstone offfers his thoughts and recommendations on Labour's future, based on this premise:

We lost in London. But in the context of very bad national results, Labour's results in London were the best for any major area of the country.

Might I point out a small flaw in his reasoning? It's all about those first four words: We lost in London. They sort of make a point, you'd have thought. Labour lost in London. Labour might well have lost even worse elsewhere, but it still lost in London. A strategy based on losing less badly than elswhere isn't exactly a solid basis for victory, Ken.

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Not there on merit

8:33am

In the Guardian, John Harris is set the task of answering this question:

Is meritocracy dead?

Clearly it is at the Gaurdian, given the space it allocates to a writer who spends 3000 words on the issue of private school pupils doing better than state school educated pupils, and then dismisses the inadequacy of state education as an explanation as "stock Tory stuff".

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Not fit to lecture anyone

8:48am

There are few public figures who enrage me more than Cormac Murphy O'Connor, who last night lectured us (as he then repeated on the Today programme just now) about attempts to "eliminate the Christian voice" from the public forum.

There is one Christian voice which ought to have been eliminated from the public forum years ago: that of the Cardinal. I refuse to take moral lessons from the man who considered it appropriate to protect and then re-employ a pederast priest, in full knowledge of his behaviour. As the Cardinal's BBC profile puts it:

It emerged that he had failed to act when a priest, Fr Michael Hill, became known to him as a paedophile. Instead of informing the police of the allegations against Hill, he moved him to the chaplaincy at Gatwick Airport where he believed the priest would no longer be a danger to children. 

Far from being a man fit to act as a spiritual or moral guide, Cardinal Murphy O'Connor ought instead to pilloried at every opportunity for his behaviour. 

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The Bastiat Prize

4:46pm

It's that time of year again...The 2008 Bastiat Prize is now under way. It's a terrific prize, with $15,000 to be awarded. Judges this year include Lord Lawson and Amity Shlaes. Full detailshere. 

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Tell Arabella what to do

3:42pm

A friend has pointed out that I might have been a tad unkind to Arabella Weir. As he puts it:

It is not entirely clear to me that she actually intends to go on hunger strike – the timeline is rather unclear. It appears that she will be attempting to do a number of things simultaneously, a few of which seem to defy the laws of physics.

Indeed. Here's what she said:

I will go on hunger strike and throw myself in front of the next horse at Ascot if he wins. Failing that I was going to say I'll sleep with him, but he'd probably say yes. So instead I'll chain myself to the railings of his house. And then I'll move out of London. 

I think we need to help her make up her mind. She promised to do four things, so I've set up a poll for you to vote on which option she should pursue. Conveniently, there's a meeting at Ascot on Saturday, so I'll make Friday at 6pm the deadline to vote. That way, should the majority of you want her to throw herself under a horse, she'll have plenty of time to get to Ascot the next day. (I like to be helpful.) 

	What should Arabella do?
	Go on hunger strike
	Throw herself in front of a horse at Ascot
	Chain herself to the railings outside Boris' house
	Leave London
magic pharmacy online

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Israel's contribution

3:00pm

As I'm sure you'll know, this month is the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the state of Israel. Oxford Economics has just produced a report on the ties between Israel and the UK, and it makes for fascinating reading. Among the more interesting facts:

Economic ties between the UK and Israel contributed a total of £1.7 billion to UK GDP in 2006, the most recent year for which figures can be calculated. This number takes no account of any indirect effects, such as additional purchases generated further down the supply chain, which would multiply the figure. 

Israel is one of the UK’s top fifty trading partners and ranks 26th on a national per capita basis (ahead of the US, Japanese and South African per capita figures)Israelis own £8.5 billion of assets in the UK, while UK residents own £3.8 billion of assets in Israel.

The latest data show Israeli companies own £734 million of direct investments in the UK (or 4.2% of their total FDI). We estimate this investment employs 14,000 people and created £630 million in gross value added in the UK in 2005.

I urge you to read the whole report, which shows just one strand of what Israel contributes to British prosperity.

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Bye bye Gordon

1:29pm

VOTE NO!

You know it makes sense.

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