Had It in Holland Park

An envy tax is a good idea. Why not just means-test everything: a progressive sales tax so that everything costs the rich more than it costs the poor? I get a pint or a Big Mac for 50p, you pay £1.50, he pays £8.75.

We could get progressive in other things too: for example, we could charge people for road tax, train tickets and airfares by the kilo.

Absolutely, Joan! A wife is a useless thing and being a mom is not of much value either. You tell 'em.

Nice idea, but you need to get voters out of their comfort zone of voting for whoever they think will win. Next you need to find competent people who are willing to be pilloried by the main parties and have their private lives (and those of their friends and family) exposed in the press for the purpose of titillation.

Would it not be easier simply to take the voting rolls in each constituency and select the parliamentarian by random lot. They would be more representative of the population and they could not do much worse than the current shower.

In common with most people who use this phrase as a new buss-word, Mr Gove never says what the "purpose" is supposed to be.

Denounce them! But take their money first.

Yeah! Let's yell at the banks. It will make us feel so much better about all the food we throw away.

Well, maybe litigation tourism is a good thing - it could replace all that money we're going to lose as all those foreign students look elsewhere for their educational tourism.

Brilliant own goal! This university (and universities in general) are not doing a good job of doing the UK Boarder Agency's job, so what should we do? I know! Let's see if we can't destroy the university sector's ability to attract students to their institutions here and damage their reputation so badly that their overseas branches will also lose customers.

What? Not a good idea when we are trying to INCREASE exports and RETAIN jobs. Ooops. Sorry. 

Anyway, this story has been all over the world, and don't they say there is no such thing as bad publicity?    What? No, I hardly think that mad-cow is comparable.

Maybe we can gain some kudos by stepping in to ensure that all of these students find new places. Government to the rescue!        Whaddaya mean "Good luck with that."?

"Although I don't like using that word"  

The problem with changing words is that the negative connotations always follow to the new word: from crippled, to handicapped to disabled (or countries from backward, to poor, to under-developed, to developing - or people from negro, to coloured, to black.) 

Trying to avoid this means the words have to change once every generation. Ah well, small price to pay, I suppose. And it lets us point at those accustomed to the previous generation's word and say: "see, they are the problem, not I."

Interesting study, concluding that the results are "suggestive" of a causative effect.. After their controls were applied, the statistically significant 8-point drop reported in the press had Ns of 24 high-use subject being compared to 12 low-use subjects. (The differences in larger Ns (14 vs 60) were not statistically significant significant.) Clearly worth further research to see if the conclusions hold up with larger populations.

Now tell me about the effect of alcohol on the adolescent brain. Then compare the relative damage of the two.     Oh, sorry, that's asking for science, isn't it. I remember now, they fired the guy who demonstrated that horse riding was more dangerous than ecstasy.

it is simple: if you want more health care and/or more expensive drugs, you have to raise your co-pay or raise your taxes to pay for it. And that is, raise the price for EVERYONE - not just the rich, not just the poor: everyone. Get the same care and drugs you are getting now or pay more, full stop.

As light drinkers may have other life-style differences compared to non-drinkers, please write 100 times:   Correlation is not causation.Correlation is NOT causation.

"Holy See attacks grain speculators for profiting from the most poor and needy on the planet" Oh, you mean the way all those cathedrals got built?

Oh No! A Young Brit who likes women? What is this world coming to?

I think you mean the academic version of Michael Moore - but, either way, I agree,

If they want to be involved in the decision do they also want to be involved in it's costs?