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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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One of my pet themes is that (a) Britain is the oldest developed country in the world thanks to the Industrial Revolution, therefore (b) has the oldest institutions in the world and therefore (c) the most incompetent institutions in the world. ['Best' also fits but here I'm going to deal with incompetent.]
Britain has the oldest 'modern' civil service in the world, having formalised entry by competitive exam in the mid-nineteenth century. And therefore the most incompetent civil service in the (developed) world. This is an example of how bad.
In the early 2000's HMG introduced a tax incentive to encourage R & D--as many other countries had done. Any person or company could get a tax credit for anything they shelled out on researching and/or developing new products. It was pretty simple and minorly useful.
Except in the UK where shysters scurried around pointing out to all and sundry they could claim pretty much anything as R & D--say, installing a new cold store when the old one had worn out--and they would either (a) pay no tax or (b) pay it later if HMRC objected.
| Since HMRC had a policy of only examining one percent of such claims, approximately ten billion pounds in lost tax revenue to HMG. |
Unless HMRC suddenly swooped on some trusting soul who had been doing what his accountant had been telling him to do for years and was promptly driven into bankruptcy by back tax demands.
Until, properly chagrined, HMRC started refusing all R & D claims and R & D shuddered to a halt.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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OK so what you are saying is that Accrington Toymakers are going to submit a new idea for a AI super doll ("Dollai") that Tabitha Tomkins, (degree in classics) currently employed at HMRC (as couldn't get into FO), is going to be asked to approve, and you want Tabitha to rigorously judge whether this will be later successful in Accrington Toys bringing this to the marketplace so as to ensure good tax payer value for money?
"Yes, we can back this one, in 4 years' time Dollai will have a 13.2 % market share of the Chinese market, providing we are not in a trade war."
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Grant
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The incompetence of our institutions certainly needs some explanation.
What about the most recent? A terrorist, in prison for life for assisting the Manchester bombers, attacks some prison officers using boiling oil he had access to for cooking his own food.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Wiley wrote: | | OK so what you are saying is that Accrington Toymakers are going to submit a new idea for a AI super doll ("Dollai") that Tabitha Tomkins, (degree in classics) currently employed at HMRC (as couldn't get into FO), is going to be asked to approve, and you want Tabitha to rigorously judge whether this will be later successful in Accrington Toys bringing this to the marketplace so as to ensure good tax payer value for money? |
No quite. Tabitha is only required to judge that Accrington Toymakers have spent/will spend money on a new product that requires R & D. This is well within the purview of a Classics graduate.
| "Yes, we can back this one, in 4 years' time Dollai will have a 13.2 % market share of the Chinese market, providing we are not in a trade war." |
Funnily enough you have pinpointed the very factor that differentiates the two methods of state-supported R & D
1. The government can hand out grants to companies who have made proposals for projects requiring R & D. This suffers from the government not being the best judge of what project will work or not.
2. The government can give tax-breaks for R & D. This suffers from a variety of ailments but not whether it was worth doing.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The incompetence of our institutions certainly needs some explanation.
What about the most recent? A terrorist, in prison for life for assisting the Manchester bombers, attacks some prison officers using boiling oil he had access to for cooking his own food. |
A nice (if nasty) example of the liberal mind at work. Not something you associate with prisons. Perhaps we should adopt the Costa Rica model.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I'm not sure how much money the British government spends on British universities, not many billions now they are pretty much student-funded, I reckon. But the American government spends two billion on just one university, Harvard. If I mention Skull & Bones and how many US presidents have been members of it, you'll probably say, "That's Yale, Mick."
To which I would reply, "Who gave you my name?"
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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16 April 2025 The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the legal definition of a woman should be based on biological sex. The judges ruled that when the term "woman" is used in the Equality Act it means a biological woman, and "sex" means biological sex.
It also makes it clear that if a space or service is designated as women-only, a person who was born male but identifies as a woman does not have a right to use that space or service. The Supreme Court justices argued this was the only consistent, coherent interpretation. BBC |
I have no idea why the trans movement should break into paroxysms of joy over this so I may have missed one or other nuance. Hasn't this been the position since Aethelbert's Code of Laws?
One thing I do know though is that it is incredibly unimportant. It will affect hardly anyone doing hardly anything. But when did that ever matter? It's whether the toilet seat is left up or down that matters.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Hasn't this been the position since Aethelbert's Code of Laws?
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Well sort of, but then the Scottish government decided that there was no distinction in law between a woman and anyone with a Gender Recognition Certificate, (Self IDing and self buying a certificate) even if they had not transitioned.
One thing I do know though is that it is incredibly unimportant. It will affect hardly anyone doing hardly anything. But when did that ever matter? It's whether the toilet seat is left up or down that matters. |
There are a lot of female sportswomen, quite a few women prisoners and, err, quite a few but still not enough women's toilets.
Least that is what I am told.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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It is not often Justice Cocklecarrot strays from his brief but the Harvard Case has got him all transAtlantic. The university is the richest in the world (50 billion in its endowment fund) but that won't last long if it loses the tax-exempt charity status enjoyed by its competitors.
Fortunately Harvard has been a charity for all its near-three hundred year existence
Unfortunately the IRS has just said it will not be unless it bows to President Trump's diktats about all things wokey-wokey. Too political by half.
So where does Justice C come in? Well, he was telling me, Harvard was being strictly a-political by following woke values, the default position of universities everywhere. It is now being asked to embrace the politically-inspired policies of the Republican Party. 'So what is your judgement, Cockles?' I asked anxiously.
| 'Damned if they do, damned if they don't, damned if I know,' my old friend said. | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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For more years than I care to remember (etc etc) I have been arguing there is no danger from--and possibly some merit in--embracing within the body politic these far right populist parties of which we are currently assaulted from all sides. They can, I claimed, be safely allowed to have a bash at government without The Third Reich assaulting us from all sides.
One of the leading examples was Giorgia Meloni and her Mussolini-esque Brothers of Italy party. Who were so embraced, with the utmost reluctance, by the Italians and now govern that famously hard-to-govern country. Seen yesterday companionably arguing the EU case with President Trump in the Oval Office before returning to her companionably accepting country.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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One Way Of Looking At It
| 'The first ever pope from Chicago.' Anderson Cooper CNN | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Al-Jazeera Interviewer: What in your opinion is the underlying reason for the current African debt crisis?
African apologist: It is the high interest rates and short payback times being demanded by western lenders.
Al-Jazeera Interviewer: What in your opinion is the underlying reason for this?
African apologist: The constant African debt crises.
(I had to make up that last Q & A.)
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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| Mick Harper wrote: | Al-Jazeera Interviewer: What in your opinion is the underlying reason for the current African debt crisis?
African apologist: It is the high interest rates and short payback times being demanded by western lenders.
Al-Jazeera Interviewer: What in your opinion is the underlying reason for this?
African apologist: The constant African debt crises.
(I had to make up that last Q & A.) |
| What in your opinion is the underlying reason for the current African debt crisis? |
African countries have run up debts after their previous debts were cancelled in full by the G7.
| What in your opinion is the underlying reason for this? |
It is because western private lenders assess on the basis of risk, so charge higher interest rates to poorer countries that have a poor history of debt repayment.
| So why don't these nations borrow from the Chinese |
(I made that up). The answer is they do and the Chinese banks offer a much better deal, because they assess on the basis of risk and longer term political and economic advantage. They are logically constructing a vast connected network of infrastructure projects, including roads, railways, ports, and pipelines, with the goal of boosting trade, stimulating economic growth and, most importantly, strengthening China's international influence.
| So that is why Africa is increasingly turning towards the Chinese |
Yes, that and the fact that some of the poorest nations are now also facing US tariffs which will vastly accelerate this process.
Exactly.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| So why don't these nations borrow from the Chinese (I made that up). The answer is they do and the Chinese banks offer a much better deal |
There is considerable doubt about this. Insofar as they are banks, the furthest I would venture is 'different deals'. Insofar as it is the Chinese state, they are not precisely loans.
| because they assess on the basis of risk and longer term political and economic advantage. |
That's a bogus list. If it's on the basis of risk, they are like any other bank. If it's on the basis of longer term political advantage, it is the Chinese state not the banks talking. If it's on the basis of longer term economic advantage, it could be the banks or the state.
| They are logically constructing a vast connected network of infrastructure projects, including roads, railways, ports, and pipelines, with the goal of boosting trade, stimulating economic growth and, most importantly, strengthening China's international influence. |
So they are.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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African apologist 1: It's not a difficult problem to deal with but it is expensive.
I know. It's always the small print, isn't it?
African apologist 2: It's interesting story how Africa has got into the situation it has.
It's a familiar story. It's an old-as-the-hills story. I'll grant that.
African apologist 3: Anything that will reduce that debt burden is useful.
And so say all of us. Except the lenders and I think they're rather more important than all of us.
African apologist 3: Africa is young. My eighteen-year-old son has no money.
So are you going to lend him some?
African apologist 1: The trouble is the multilateral system is so difficult to change.
It's called multilateral because it consists of all the devices dreamt up so far to deal with African indebtedness.
African apologist 3: The Chinese are reluctant to grant debt relief because it means everyone in China will say, 'If you can forgo Ethiopians' debts, why not ours?'
Tell Wiley.
African apologist 1, 2, 3: The villains of the piece are x, y, z... n.
You missed out the one beginning with A.
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