It's tariffs wot done it

Say what you like about Moonbat, you have to warm to a columnist who can write this with a straight face:

I would like to encourage people to start eating tilapia instead of meat.

Re-reading this article, I see that there is something surreal about it.

Meanwhile, also on planet bonkers...This from Raj Patel at CiF:

For anyone who understands the current food crisis, it is hard to listen to the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, without gagging.

... Before he replaced Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank, Zoellick was the US trade representative, their man at the World Trade Organisation. While there, he won a reputation as a tough and guileful negotiator, savvy with details and pushy with the neoconservative economic agenda: a technocrat with a knuckleduster.

His mission

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Policy not personality

Thanks to Sky News' quiz, I see that when I vote for Boris next month I won't just be voting to keep Ken out. Of the eleven questions, I was with Boris on 7, and only with Ken on two.

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Good riddance

Every cloud has a silver lining:

Caught in the crunch - 4000 estate agents could be forced to close.

We bought our house in July last year. I sold my flat privately, and it was the most painless, most efficient, smoothest sale or purchase with which I have ever been involved. The estate agent through which we bought the house, however, was a nightmare to deal with, lying to us about the vendor's intentions, not returning critical calls, etc. We are still waiting for some of the documents to arrive from him! It was only when the purchase looked like collapsing because the estate agent told...

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Wrong on the BNP

There's been something of a row about the Ham and High's decision to publish an ad by the BNP.

There's not much that Tim Worstall writes with which I disagree, but I think he's missed the deeper point here:

So, a newspaper carries and advertisement for the BNP. The editor’s comment?

In his editorial column, Mr Martin wrote: "To be able to tolerate those we vehemently disagree with is the hallmark of an open, egalitarian and democratic society, where freedom of speech and expression are sacrosanct."

Quite. As DK said in a slightly different context. Why do we not censor or ban fascists?

Because we are not fascists.

Next!  

But there's a big difference between allowing the likes of the BNP to speak - I am, like Oliver Kamm, a near absolutist on free speech - and actively giving them...

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Yes, I know what's not good for me (The Times)

I have a piece in today's Times about Prof Ian Gilmore's claim this weekend that: “There is,” he said, “no doubt at all that many people are drinking significantly more than they realise. People are aware of units, they want to stay within safe limits, but they are being pushed up way over those limits by just not realising what they are drinking.”

Here's an extract:

Are you a porker? Do you get through a bottle of rioja every night?

You poor dear. I feel so sorry for you. You see, it's not your fault. You might be knocking back a dozen glasses of wine and then stuffing a couple of Big Macs down your throat, but you've no say in the matter. You're just a pawn in big business's game. You're a naive little (well, not so little) innocent, all at sea in the world of nasty bars

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