Tony Blair is holding a summit to find solutions to Britain’s gun problem, after three boys were shot in their homes.

I know the solution, and it is really very easy and straightforward. Drum roll please. Are you ready?

Legalise drugs.

No-one ever got shot over cigarettes, alcohol, or anything you can buy for £2.99 from Boots.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Civil Liberties, News at 1:44 PM EST

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Homeschooling is apparently illegal in Germany. And the state will kidnap your children if you try it.

Via a comment on a Samizdata article.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Civil Liberties at 1:38 PM EST

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Remember that UNICEF report that came out a while ago? The one that told us how terrible it is to grow up in the UK? Well, Mr. Prior at PickingLosers has found some serious problems with it.

The big issue for me is the way certain prejudices have made their way into the numbers. For instance, is it *obviously* better that students are forced to stay in education until they’re 19, whether they like it or not? The report’s authors think it is.

Read the whole thing. He concludes:

…in short, some things that matter could not be measured, some things were inadequately measured, some things were subjective and liable to competing and often contrasting interpretation, some things were fudged, whilst in other cases standards were applied rigidly where a little flexibility would have yielded a broader comparison. That is the nature of trying to compare one country with another. It does not invalidate the report, but it does mean (as doubtless the authors intended) that the results should be treated with extreme caution, rather than the hysteria and appropriation to every cause that has greeted them in the UK.

When the report is weighed with that necessary caution, the unavoidable conclusion is that it measures not well-being, but compliance with a particularly European, egalitarian, social-democratic economic and social model. Which makes it rather less surprising that those countries whose models most closely comply with the authors’ preferences are near the top of the league, and those countries whose models contrast most strongly with those preferences are near the bottom. The authors have successfully proved that A is A.

Posted by Rob Fisher as News at 1:56 PM EST

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Some hospitals have introduced minimum waiting times to save money. Meanwhile, NHS trusts are funding quack medicine like crystal healing.

That’s what happens when governments run things.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Authorised Theft at 7:14 PM EST

1 Comment »

There’s a petition on the 10 Downing Street website.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy.

The idea of tracking every vehicle at all times is sinister and wrong. Road pricing is already here with the high level of taxation on fuel. The more you travel - the more tax you pay.

It will be an unfair tax on those who live apart from families and poorer people who will not be able to afford the high monthly costs.

Please Mr Blair - forget about road pricing and concentrate on improving our roads to reduce congestion.

Sign it.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Authorised Theft at 1:03 PM EST

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Surprise, surprise, the latest IPCC report says things are even worse than everyone thought. The world’s going to heat up by 3.75C +/- 2.65. We’re all going to die.

Not everyone agrees (not that the BBC aknowlege this).

Just the facts, then:

• The IPCC report may have had over 2500 scientists working on it, but what is being reported on is not the report itself, but the “Summary for Policymakers”.
• The “Summary for Policymakers” was written primarily by “political appointees”.
• The full text of the report will not be available for another three months.
• The report (written by scientists) may be changed to make sure it agrees with the summary (written primarily by political appointees) — appendix A says “Changes (other than
  grammatical or minor editorial changes) made after acceptance by the Working Group or the Panel shall be those
  necessary to ensure consistency with the Summary for Policymakers or the Overview Chapter.”
• Christopher Landsea, who did research into hurricanes that showed that hurricane activity hadn’t increased significantly in the last 12 years, resigned from his participation in the IPCC report because he was concerned that the IPCC were mis-representing his research to the media.

Still no reason to fully embrace Climate-changism, then. Let’s see what the report looks like when it comes out in three months’ time.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Enviro-Mentalism at 1:32 PM EST

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