Cheap trains save energy

Who knew? But at least we now have evidence. Apparently German Railways have stated: 52 million of the tickets have been sold, with one in ten buyers ditching at least one of their daily auto [ie car] trips. Additionally: Germany’s three-month experiment with super-cheap public transport reduced carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to powering about 350,000… Read more

The failed state that is now Britain

Nothing that is government controlled or supervised now works properly or even at all. As Michael Gove puts it “Government is simply not functioning.” I learnt at school (all credit I think, to a fairly well-working history teacher) that the minimum requirements for a functioning state are defence and justice. We have since now learnt… Read more

The Failure of the ‘Charity Model’

Rees Mogg famously said that he found foodbanks ‘uplifting’. I suppose it is when you think Samuel Smiles comprises the most up to date of reading and you admire the doctrine of self help and despise government help, even when you are part of that government, that you find the impoverishment of others ‘uplifting’… It… Read more

Public Health – another problem of capitalism

All health is actually public by definition – unless you believe there are simply no communicable diseases. Which idea surely at the very minimum, the Covid pandemic has scuppered. So individualism cannot be any real solution. A couple of weeks or so ago (I’m nothing if not up to date) there was an interesting FT… Read more