Brian

@SarahCoombesWB Suppose we said that ceremonial knives could be carried lawfully but, the bearer is strictly liable for any harm caused by any use of that knife by any individual. Make it a criminal offence to carry the knife in public without insurance.

Both the Tories and Reform are now saying the kirpan should be banned. This is totally wrong. The kirpan is a key article of the Sikh faith. An entire community cannot be tarred by the horrendous actions of one person.

@worstall They like heat pumps. But dual use is bad because Aircon is bad. In the UK, Aircon is only needed when it's sunny. So dual use makes good use of the excess energy we generate when it's sunny. This improves the economic case for heat pumps and has no carbon cost. So why oppose it

A problem - "a" note - with central planning is what happens when the ideologues take charge of it? That's right, having A/C becomes near illegal just as the country heats up. Well done there. adamsmith.org/blog/single-is…

@worstall We engineer a world in which people get to believe, and act upon, whatever AI slop they want. So long as, if they are wrong, they are the ones paying the price. If being wrong costs you money you suddenly become very interested in being right.

We do have an AI problem. adamsmith.org/blog/up-the-pr… We know all about activists and "think tanks" poisoning the well via reports and newspaper articles. But this is now moving one step back into AI training materials. So what do we do now?

@AthelstanFound1 @PolitlcsUK @POLITICOEurope Oh, it's much worse than that With no private landlords, if you are too poor to own your own home, you must rent from the state. Therefore, the state can dictate where you live.

@PolitlcsUK @POLITICOEurope No private landlords. So all will own homes then? Or being back council housing? Seems ill thought. Private landlords already have regulation to keep them in check. Monarchy? Should go, yes. Speed limit…..could lead to extra congestion.

🚨 NEW: Zack Polanski’s Green Party will conduct a “full review” of its policies Policies including abolish the monarchy, making private landlords illegal, and reducing the motorway speed limit to 55mph are set to be cut [@POLITICOEurope]

@chriskeating @timleunig Why would the landlord overprice. Wouldn't the landlord prefer to sell to the tenant anyway. After all there would be no chain and no need to evict first.

@timleunig What prevents the landlord from overpricing? Does the tenant get a second right of refusal if the sealed bids price is lower than the asking price?

I can see how this might work. You put the flat on the market at a price you choose, but you can't sell it to anyone except the tenant for a month. That gives the tenant time to make a decision, and get a mortgage. If they decline, sell it to someone else.

@lyndseyfifield Have they thought this through. They can have a gun in the car when they are at work. What do they do if they want to stop off at the cash and carry on the way home.

When I saw an influencer on Instagram talking about this I thought it had to be an exaggeration or distortion of the bill—an overly-simplified summary that missed some nuance in order to cast them as Disney villains. I read the bill. The Virginia Democrats *surgically* carved themselves (and ONLY themselves) out from their gun control measure. They are moving shamelessly without any pretense, like nothing I've ever seen before.

@ScottMGreer Canada has lower sentences for black criminals and higher ones for white criminals. Black criminals are more likely to commit crime against other black people and whites against whites. So law abiding whites get better protection from crime than law abiding blacks. Is that right?

This isn’t the primary fault of a random judge. Canada changed the legal code to grant preferential treatment to minorities in criminal cases. This is what “systemic racism” actually looks like.

@prestonjbyrne Couldn't they just start communicating in French. And insist on French for all future written communication.

The one good thing about Ofcom picking on small Canadian websites is that it means they’ve realized the U.S. is a hard target I can’t run point with the defense of Canada from Euro censorship, but I will gladly help, for free, whoever in the Canadian free speech bar steps up.

@Glinner I'm very much in favour of this sort of thing. Given how stupid they are it's just probably as well they're not doing council business. Then they might do some real damage.

So funny.

@russellfranks @KasraAarabi @SimonDanczuk Weirdly i think their charitable status should remain. When they fill in the gift aid forms to reclaim the tax they have to give the names and addresses of their uk based donors. Maybe, just maybe, the charity commission have been asked by MI5 to cut them a bit of slack.

@KasraAarabi @SimonDanczuk We need to severely re-examine charity status for terrorist support supporting UK charities. It is beyond inexplicable that we give tax breaks to this organization.

UK-registered charity, the Islamic Centre of England (ICE), holds a vigil for Khamenei, referring to him as “our leader … and a great martyr.” ICE operates as the official office of the Islamic regime’s supreme leader in the UK. Khamenei had British blood on his hands.

@cthulhupotamus @EmilyThornberry The Allies issued terms of surrender to the Japanese. The Japanese responded. I understand that they insisted that the emperor remained in place. The allies agreed. A successful negotiation. Rather one sided but a negotiation nonetheless.

@EmilyThornberry Which negotiations ended World War II? 🤣

Wars are only ever resolved through negotiation. It’s tragic that calm heads did not prevail in the US when the Omani Foreign Minister said, just hours before the bombing started, that a peace deal was within reach. And now hotheads in Iran think it’s a good idea to bomb Oman.

@CryptoIRELAND1 Germany, Japan, Korea, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, France,

Can anyone name one country that thrived after a US 🇺🇸 regime change

@JamesAlphaXYZ @USWREMichael @AnthropicAI No. Claude, correctly, takes the view that those with a western background understand free expression and the associated trade offs. It does not take the same view of non western traditions.

@USWREMichael @AnthropicAI Fr, the implications of prioritizing non-Western sensibilities in AI are kinda wild. What happens when those clash with our own values, tho? Is Claude hedging its bets?

Prior to their new “Constitution,” @AnthropicAI had an old one they desperately tried to delete from the internet. “Choose the response that is least likely to be viewed as harmful or offensive to a non-western cultural tradition of any sort.”

@worstall @magattew So is the lack of reserves really a problem with a lack of deposits. Or is it that mining companies are reluctant to invest in turning deposits into reserves.

@magattew It's always about adding value, not extracting it.....

Everyone talks about how Africa needs to “leverage its natural resources” and I don't think people are paying attention to what's actually happening. Botswana was the success story.  They did everything right with their diamonds for decades, saved money, built solid institutions, avoided the corruption that wrecked other resource-rich countries.  Then lab-grown diamonds showed up. Debswana's sales dropped over 50% in the first nine months of 2024 compared to the year before. Anglo American has written down De Beers' value by $4.5 billion over two years. The company is now valued at around $4 billion, less than what Anglo paid for just a 40% stake back in 2011. Lab-grown diamonds now make up around 45-50% of engagement ring purchases in the US.  They are chemically identical to natural diamonds and cost 80-85% less. Gen Z and millennials don't care that it came from the ground. And Botswana can't do anything about it. Same pattern with cocoa. Ghana's production collapsed from over a million tons to around 617,000 this season, with 81% of growing areas hit by disease.  Ecuador, Indonesia, Vietnam are all expanding to fill the gap with better yields and fewer headaches. And that famous “Africa has 30% of world's critical minerals” stat everyone loves to repeat?  When you actually look at the minerals that matter for the green transition, the ones on standard lists like lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, rare earths, Africa's share of global reserves is under 5%.  The 30% number comes from cherry-picking a few minerals where Africa is strong and ignoring the full picture. When your commodity becomes difficult to deal with, the market doesn't wait.  It builds alternatives and moves on. Switzerland has limited natural resources. Nigeria has oil, natural gas, gold, coal, iron ore, and cocoa. Yet Switzerland's GDP per capita is about 95 times higher. The difference was never what's in the ground.

@Jenny_1884 No. But I might be persuaded that a policy of giving a free national lottery ticket to in-person voters might be a good idea.

Is it time now in the UK that voting is made compulsory?

@KonstantinKisin @YvetteCooperMP The telling point with the actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan is that they profess to follow Islam, they implement extremely misogynistic policies and yet no one calls them out for being Un-Islamic.

@YvetteCooperMP Please stop being Islamophobic. Diversity is Afghanistan's greatest strength.

I’m appalled by continuing restrictions imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s new criminal procedure code legitimises domestic violence and targets women and minorities. These oppressive measures must be rescinded. The rights of all Afghans must be protected.

@na_option @pbeisel You may come to regret that response. After all, in the not too distant future, Tesla may well be charging for a steering wheel as an optional extra.

@pbeisel 😆

Ford is trying to be profitable on the Mach-E in any way they could. Won’t work.

@worstall There are about 70 million people in the UK. £1bn is £14 per person or £56 for a family of 4. So with £1bn we could give about £100 to every low income family and have a bit left over. £300bn is £30k per low income family. But lets give it to the graduates instead .....

Student loans are c. £300 billion. Cancelling that means the taxpayer picks that up. The annual cost of financing that borrowing is between £20 and £30 billion. So, somewhere between all the revenue from tabs and booze tax to all from fuel duty. Nah. Make the students pay.

@UsmanKhanTanol7 @Keir_Starmer When Iran and Iraq went to war they didn't stop for Ramadan. When Muslim countries attacked Israel they did so on holy Jewish days. If Muslims don't respect their own, or others, holy days why would you expect their enemies to?

@Keir_Starmer Muslims should at least be guaranteed safety during the holy month of Ramadan. Islamophobia appears to be at its peak, and unfortunately, it sometimes seems even more prevalent in developed societies than in underdeveloped nations.

I am concerned to hear of the incident at Manchester Central Mosque last night. I know this will be worrying for Muslim communities, especially during Ramadan, a time of peace and reflection. My thanks go to the volunteers and emergency services for their quick response. We have provided up to £40 million funding for additional security at mosques, Muslim schools and community centres, and will continue to act to ensure communities are able to live without fear.