James

There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.

― Thomas Sowell

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

After 8 billion doses (yes 8 BILLION, not a typo) Covid vaccines are at this point one of the most tested medical interventions in history and one of the safest ever

[James @JMacDaid]

@bphillipsonMP No such thing as a free lunch....or in this case, a breakfast.

Everytime any Government says "free" substitute for "taxpayer paid for".

[James @JMacDaid]

@WarMonitor3 Stop doing the "Wow".... ending on whatever you think is significant / important.

Just makes me think of this & think whatever you write is just as cerebral and noteworthy.

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

The irony of Burnham's bollocks about Right to Buy and council housing is that the secret of Manchester's housing success was literally the exact opposite - prioritising maximum private building over number of subsidised units. Here's (Labour) council leader Richard Leese.

[James @JMacDaid]

@fuckyouiquit Let's see after 4 years. Time, the great leveller of expectations.

[Owen Winter @OwenWntr]

The local elections in one chart. Labour has been squeezed between the Greens in young wards and Reform in older working-class wards

[James @JMacDaid]

@Victoria_Spratt @jrf_uk @Autonomy_Inst "In many cases, rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing".

Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck.

https://t.co/X6s2otTYjW

[James @JMacDaid]

@JohnRentoul Think Miliband will stand if Streeting announces as he just despises him and fears all his work with energy and Net Zero will just be dumped if he becomes PM.

[James @JMacDaid]

@jeremycorbyn @medialens

[James @JMacDaid]

@DanNeidle If you believe you are the Righteous, there can be no compromise on one's morality. All those that criticise you are evil doers and deserve no quarter.

[Shehab Khan @ShehabKhan]

There’s ALWAYS a relevant The Thick Of It scene

[James @JMacDaid]

@rcolvile The promise of houses to be built, especially Council Housing, is like telling us how many unicorns are in the wild.

Fantastical good will thinking with no accountability concerning reality.

[James @JMacDaid]

@CollinRugg What would he have got, if found guilty on a non-guilty plea? 300 years?

[James @JMacDaid]

@ajcdeane On the assumption Hackney Council will follow up on this. My faith is not great, as it's something new and someone has to do the work.

[James @JMacDaid]

These posts. Aged like fine milk 🥛 🔥

[Krishnan Guru-Murthy @krishgm]

The challenge for political broadcasting is enormous, and rather satisfying to watch. After years of personality-driven and chaotic, shallow politics coverage across much of the media, which was largely about instability, gossip and leadership crises we now have a govt with massive majority, widespread internal agreement and no likelihood of massive instability anytime soon. A great environment for a programme like #c4news full of policy nerds and people who prefer to argue about what ideas work than who should be the front person.

[James @JMacDaid]

💯%, nations should be studying how the #Japanese do things.

However, as it's so culturally & historically specific, with a very strong & robustly defended monoculture, trying to replicate & implement would have people outraged at the implications. Still, one can dream #japan

[Steph Smith @stephsmithio]

Everyone should go to Japan at least once (preferably early in life) just to understand what a highly functioning society can look like

[James @JMacDaid]

@uprising_1 The BBC article posted upholds the OP post. Ms Webb is referring to one update error by CPS as detailed in article & her own fantastical beliefs.

She blocked me. I'm stunned, stunned and shocked. Well, not that stunned or shocked.

[James @JMacDaid]

@ClaudiaWebbe @uprising_1 I'd go with the BBC than the Morning Star 🤣.

https://t.co/f21is5f0gq

[James @JMacDaid]

"You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing"

- Thomas Sowell

[Handre @Handre]

Soviet chandelier factories received production quotas measured in tons, not quality or function. Factory managers responded rationally to the incentive structure: they packed chandeliers with extra metal, concrete, and lead weights to hit their tonnage targets. The heavier the chandelier, the better their performance metrics looked to central planners in Moscow.

Apartment dwellers across the USSR paid the price. Chandeliers weighing hundreds of pounds crashed through ceilings, destroying furniture and injuring families below. Reports from the 1970s and 1980s document dozens of ceiling collapses in Kiev, Leningrad, and Moscow as these industrial monstrosities proved too heavy for residential construction. Factory managers got their bonuses while citizens dodged falling light fixtures.

The system worked exactly as designed. When you divorce production decisions from market prices and consumer preferences, you get perverse outcomes. Central planners measured success through crude metrics they could track from their desks, not through the satisfaction of end users. Factory managers optimized for the measurement system, not for making chandeliers that actually functioned as lighting.

You see identical dynamics today wherever bureaucrats substitute their judgment for market mechanisms. Public school systems optimize for standardized test scores rather than education. Hospitals game Medicare reimbursement codes rather than focus on patient outcomes. Police departments chase arrest quotas rather than reducing crime. The Soviet chandelier problem lives on in every corner of the administrative state.

The market solves the chandelier problem instantly through profit and loss. Customers refuse to buy chandeliers that destroy their homes, driving bad producers out of business and rewarding those who build functional products.

[James @JMacDaid]

The End by the Doors playing on a loop until #PMQs