For three painful years, Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, in retaliation for the Hamas terror attacks on 7 October 2023, has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, wounded thousands more and reduced most of the territory to rubble. It has changed views of Israel across the world, increased support for Palestine and raised questions about US power.

74k of 2.1 million is what, 3.5%? So now genocide is being claimed as less than half a decimation? We asre somewhat devaluing the power of that word “genocide”, aren’t we?

The post Genocide, eh? first appeared on Tim Worstall.

On 10 June 2026, the government of Peru made a decision that it knew would hurt one of the world’s major fishing industries. It stopped all anchoveta fishing boats from going out to sea, suspending the fishing season. At first the order was temporary, but in mid-August, the suspension turned into a total closure. This was no easy call. For one thing, it was a brutal blow to the Peruvian economy.

And, of course, super El Nino, climate change, man’s inhumanity to fish, industrialised capitalism etc etc

Except:

In an average year, Peru produces 20% of the world’s fishmeal. But that word “average” obscures the extraordinary volatility of the anchoveta catch in the decades since the fishery was fully commercialised after the second world war. In 1970, Peru landed more than 12m tonnes of anchoveta. In 1973, the catch fell by 88%. The shock of this stock collapse was so existential for Peru that the military dictatorship introduced the first regulatory regime for the anchoveta fishery. In 1984, the catch plummeted again, to less than 100,000 tonnes, a fraction of what it had been 15 years earlier. The catch recovered in 2000 to about 9.6m tonnes, but has declined since then. Recent annual catches have been in the 2m-4m tonne range.

Overfishing has played a crucial role in this ecological and economic rollercoaster ride. But the crazy seesaw of the anchoveta fishery is not merely a tale of rapacious industrial extraction, but of how overfishing combines with the bouts of accelerated oceanic warming driven by El Niño, which always hit Peruvian coastal waters especially hard.

It’s a normal side effect of El Nino. TRhe very factors that make those Peruvian fishing grounds so rich make them volatile. Ho Hum.

The post It’s not unusual first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Brazil’s congress has approved a constitutional amendment to shorten the working week to a maximum of 40 hours, a move that could affect 30 million workers and that will hand a political victory to the leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ahead of the presidential runoff in under two weeks.

In an attempt to overturn the first-round lead secured by his opponent, far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula has strongly championed the amendment, which will give some workers an extra day off each week.

The property being stolen is, of course, that there’s no reduction in pay here.

The post That auction of stolen property that is an election first appeared on Tim Worstall.

The point should be obvious. AI is, in very many ways, the ultimate neoliberal product.

Because, well, something.

The post Whhoo, Boy first appeared on Tim Worstall.

MI5 chief Ken McCallum said today that Moscow did attempt to interfere in the 2016 Brexit referendum with anti-EU coverage on RT and Sputnik media and via troll social media accounts. But there was a big difference between “what may have been attempted and what actually resulted”, he added.

The head of the Security Service said that he agreed strongly with what the prime minister had said on Sunday and Monday, when he raised the issue of attempted Russian interference a decade ago – though Burnham then backed off when he was challenged by the Conservatives as to whether this meant he regarded the Brexit vote as illegitimate.

McCallum did not put any new evidence into the public domain but cited already known concerns about Russian broadcasters who “came in pretty strongly around the time of the referendum” in favour of Brexit. He also said that “there was a second line of interference attempted through [internet] trolls”.

However, he argued there was no evidence to suggest the result of the Brexit vote had been swayed as a result of the effort, which is generally believed to have been marginal, and said that it would be to Russia’s benefit if the issue was talked about further.

That is, of course Johnny Foreigner’s going to try. It’s whether J Foreigner succeeds or not that matters – and he didn’t.

The post Ms. Cadwalladr c’n still bugger off then first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Black and south Asian music events in London face disproportionate cancellations, restrictions and licensing barriers compared with white events, according to a two-year investigation into racial inequality in the capital’s live music industry.

The Race Equality in Music Event Licensing (REMEL) report, led by Black Lives in Music, estimates that cancellations, displacement and events prevented from taking place cost London £127m to £141m annually, with projected losses exceeding £650m over five years.

The report found that genres including Afrobeats, drill and dancehall are routinely labelled “high risk” despite a lack of credible evidence, while indie, pop and rock events face comparatively little scrutiny.

Owners of venues discriminate based upon the likely audience turning up for a show? How dare they!

You know, like cinemas not wanting to show the flims whre the Teddy Boys will turn up to slash the seats? Gosh.

The post Tell me this ain’t true first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Kimberly Guilfoyle is stepping down as US ambassador to Greece after weeks of reports that she sought payment from a Trump donor in exchange for access to administration officials.

I’d seen the trying to get the credit card paid – noted it on here. But I’d not grasped that it was asked for in return for access.

Assuming that part is true then good riddance. Tho’ she’ll not be the only one.

The post Ah, that last bit first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Economies and companies are not about maximising financial returns by increasing, however marginally, something like automating freezer temperatures might have done. They are about serving, engaging with, and respecting people.

Average wages in an economy are determined – yes, determined – by average labour productivity in that economy. That is, every tiny increase in labour productivity, every marginal gain, increases the labour incomes of everyone in that economny.

Why, oh why, does Smurf want the workers to remain poor?

The post Smurf doesn’t want wages to rise first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Angela Rayner’s department spent public money on Left-wing propaganda seeking to prevent a Reform or Tory government, The Telegraph can reveal.

As deputy prime minister, Ms Rayner announced a £15m “community cohesion” fund to bring people together and prevent further unrest after the Southport riots.

Money from the taxpayer fund was distributed to Left-wing activists for training sessions on preventing the “disaster” of a Reform government and stifling criticism of migration.

Publicly funded material seen by The Telegraph was handed to council staff, offering instructions for steering local voters away from Nigel Farage as well as the “Tory-Right”.

Shameless, eh?

The post Up the propaganda, Comrades! first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Born in 1932, the great-granddaughter of the 3rd Earl of Leicester (a title her father would inherit 17 years later),

The 3rd Earl is a unique title, specific to the one person. Of course, Pops may well have inherited the Earldom, but it wouldn’t have been the third one now, would it?

The post Don’t think so, you know? first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Lam has led opposition in the House of Commons, asking questions of ministers and in December coordinating a letter from 27 MPs and peers to the incoming archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, accusing the church of “legally dubious vanity projects”.

The media blitz has paid off so far, paralysing the church and stalling the fund well beyond its planned launch date of 2024. The church admitted in July it also faces a legal challenge – which could add years more delay.

Yet little attention has been paid to the lobbying campaign against Project Spire – and how it has become a cause célèbre within the broader rightwing ecosystem. The Guardian can reveal how some of Britain’s wealthiest financiers, including Sir Paul Marshall, are linked to the man at the heart of the campaign to kill the church’s fund.

The multimillionaire co-founder of the hedge fund Marshall Wace has given Biggar and his movement a powerful platform via his stable of media outlets, which spans the Spectator magazine, the broadcaster GB News and the comment website UnHerd.

A devout Christian, Marshall also funded several rightwing lobbying groups and organisations linked to Biggar to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

It all appears part of the libertarian financier’s significant efforts to reshape the Church of England – and wider society – in line with his own worldview.

So the left’s march through the institutions on he subject of slavery reparations – an idiot idea if ever there were one – is just fine and ticketty boo. But anyone arguiomng back is an evil lobbyist?

So much for democracy and that necessary poublic discussion of views, eh?

The post Oh, right first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Isn’t Wikipedia too leftwing anyway? Oh God, are you Elon Musk? This is a claim he has repeated for the last couple of years, to the extent of calling it “Wokepedia”.

And what did he do about it? He started his own version – an AI-powered alternative called Grokipedia.

And is it better? A paper published in November 2025 discovered that Grokipedia articles are 13 times more likely to contain a source blacklisted by the English Wikipedia community.

What’s a blacklisted source? The paper pointed out that, at the time of its publication, Grokipedia included 42 citations for the banned neo-Nazi website Stormfront.

Myself IO’d insist that Stormfront is a perfectly respectable source. It’s great as a reference to what is said on Stornfront, for example. Probably a good reference for “Lies about Jews told by pinheads” too. That something is used isn’t the issue at all, it’s what it is used for that matters.

The post How biased is biased? first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Fraternities are the most likely place for unwanted sexual contact. Should they be shut down?

Young birds do not go into fraternities. That would keep them safe, right?

The post So, here’s an idea first appeared on Tim Worstall.

John Healey faces a £35bn shortfall in his maiden Budget, raising the prospect of a significant tax raid, Britain’s top economic think tank has warned.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the Chancellor faces the bill to maintain existing spending policies and to boost defence funding.

Without cuts to benefits, he will be forced to launch a tax raid on Britain’s struggling households and businesses, it warned.

Where would you cut £35 billion to make the sums add up? Note that it’s about 2%, mebbe 3, of current spend so it’s not actually difficult…..

The post So, give us your ideas first appeared on Tim Worstall.

In a series of stories, the Wall Street Journal has reported questionable conduct by Guilfoyle, including an alleged threat to a host country official, accepting improper gifts and services and offering to use her influence inside the administration in return for the payment of a large credit card bill.

Ho well:

Guilfoyle studied at University of California, Davis, and the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she earned a J.D. degree. She became a prosecuting attorney in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. She was an assistant district attorney in San Francisco from 2000 to 2004. From 2001 to 2006, she was married to Democratic politician Gavin Newsom, and was first lady of San Francisco during Newsom’s first two years as mayor of that city. She was the fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. from 2021 until they separated late in 2024.[2]

The post Can’t get the staff these days first appeared on Tim Worstall.

After deluges like the one I experienced, water pours down the surrounding mountains; during the long dry spells between storms, it trickles down ravines from the precious mountain springs. As it flows, the water leeches lithium from the volcanic rock,

“leaches”. Tsk.

The post Tsk first appeared on Tim Worstall.

We have transformed the electoral landscape and, as the first nationwide serious threat to Labour on its left in modern political history, we are here to stay.

Quite, that’s where all the Militant/ Stop the War/ Your Party dregs of London’s Labour sitbedland have all gone.

Second, our party has grown to a size none of us could have anticipated when I became leader. Our party democracy must now evolve to meet that – creating wider engagement for members, giving leaders more responsibility to set the party’s strategic direction, and making our processes as robust and accessible as possible.

Given who’s turned up to join the party of course we’ve got to stop these morons deciding what party policy is.

The post To translate first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Though the Newt boasts that its food is “locally produced”, its farms do not have organic certification.

Horrors, eh?

While the Newt has created spectacular gardens around the hotel, including a historically accurate Roman villa, a “four seasons” garden featuring marble water fountains and a treetop walkway, these are not freely accessible to the public. Only hotel guests and those with an £85 annual pass can enter the grounds.

Private land is private land, is it?

Villagers have also set up a petition against the spraying of pesticides on the Newt’s farmland.

The model and actor Gabriella Wilde, who also lives locally, said: “I was surprised and a little disappointed to learn that they are using such harmful chemicals in their farming operations. That is certainly not the image they project to their guests and local fans. Is it really necessary, especially given how many local farms are making great strides in moving away from old school harmful practices, and towards more nature friendly farming?”

Jus’ terrors.

The post Jeepers first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Happy Birthday Tim Worstall Blog!

19 Years of Blogging, Debate and Discussion

Tim Worstall Blog was founded on this day in 2007!

Nineteen years of blogging, debate, discussion and, no doubt, the occasional argument along the way. Still not old enough to drink in the USA… but certainly old enough to have accumulated a few opinions!

Most importantly, this birthday is a chance to say a huge thank you to all our readers and supporters. Whether you’ve been here since the very beginning or discovered the blog more recently, we’re delighted you’ve been part of the journey.

Every comment, every visit, every shared post and every message of support has helped keep the blog going. A blog is nothing without the people who read it, challenge it, discuss it and come back for more. Your interest and enthusiasm have helped make these nineteen years possible, and we’re genuinely grateful.

Nineteen years is a long time on the internet. Websites come and go, conversations move on, and the world changes around us. Through it all, the blog has continued to provide a place for ideas, commentary and discussion. Here’s to keeping that going for many more birthdays to come!

A Few Birthday Numbers

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  46,470 Posts
  
  

That’s a lot of words, a lot of conversations and a lot of time spent reading and writing. Thank you for being part of it.

Help Us Celebrate 19 Years

If you’ve enjoyed reading the blog over the years and would like to help it continue, please consider making a donation.

Running and maintaining a blog takes time and resources, and every contribution helps. There’s no donation too small: every pound counts, and every bit of support is appreciated.

Whether you’ve been reading for nineteen years or nineteen days, your support helps us keep the blog going for another year and beyond. If the writing has made you think, laugh, disagree or join the conversation, we’d be very grateful for your support.

Donate to The Blog

Thank you once again for reading, commenting, sharing and supporting Tim Worstall Blog. Whether you donate, leave a comment or simply stop by to read, you’re part of what makes the blog worthwhile.

Happy 19th birthday to Tim Worstall Blog — and thank you!

Donate to The Blog

The post Happy Birthday! first appeared on Tim Worstall.

Why should a tiny minority receive the rewards from resources, knowledge and institutions that are ultimately part of our common inheritance?

In this podcast, I talk to Professor Guy Standing, best known for developing the idea of the precariat and for his longstanding advocacy of universal basic income.

Guy argues that neoliberalism has created a growing class of people living without the security, rights and occupational identities that previous generations could often expect. But precarity is about more than insecure employment. It means becoming dependent upon employers, landlords, bureaucrats and others simply to get by.

That insecurity is having profound political consequences.

Our discussion moved from the precariat to Guy’s idea of the commons: the natural resources, knowledge, education, institutions and other forms of common wealth from which private interests increasingly extract rents.

Guy argues that those profiting from the commons should compensate the commoners, of whom we are all one. That revenue could be placed in commons capital funds and used to provide everyone with a social dividend, helping underpin a universal basic income.

Mistake 1: This is Major Douglas’ Social Credit idea dressed up anew. A major problem with this being that it’s impossible to actually calculate the common profit being made which is to then be collected and distributed. No, not just difficult, impossible.

Mistake 2: Of course we all do gain immensely in common anyway. You know, that consumer surplus? Which is some 100% of GDP for traditional items and tens, possibly hundreds, of times greater than that for digital ones.

So, which mistake is being made here? Or given a mate of Spud’s, both?

The post Which of the two mistakes is being made here? first appeared on Tim Worstall.