2005

Mark Kleiman has an interesting post concerning the “competitiveness leagues” some organisations like to publish. The one he’s concerned about is published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, which leads neatly to a first point you can probably guess. Without going into any of the arguments from opinion about this, I think…

Read More Depends What You’re Measuring

A reader writes asking about Afghanistan’s KAM-Air. Well…. Afghanistan was a considerable market for Viktor B during the 1990s, and is now perhaps the most famous thanks to the stories about involvement with the Taliban. In fact, they’d been supplying the Northern Alliance for years, perhaps on behalf of Russia, but they certainly did supply…

Read More Reader Mail

Paul Krugman has an interesting example for Americans concerned about their social security system: Britain. And we’re the “How not to do it” section. It’s good reading – sometimes the best view on your own problems comes from watching other people’s. The UK has basically chosen a sort of negative social partnership, after all: government,…

Read More Krugman on US Social Security

On the one hand, we have the announcement that the FBI has scrapped its huge new computer system because it’s already obsolete (as well as late and overbudget) and doesn’t provide the features they want. This comes, let’s not forget, a day after BA Flight 175 was turned back mid-Atlantic on the basis of one…

Read More Government….Computers….Identity Cards!

Despite statements to the contrary, British Gulf International Airlines are still flying to Iraq. At least, Sharjah Airport seems to think so: Link There seems to be a daily flight to Baghdad at 0200: that isn’t haphazard. The flight number is BGK 1225. The return gets in to SHJ at 1050 (no. BGK1226). There would…

Read More Why is the lying bastard *still* lying to me?

I think it’s time for an update on the Bout story. Information received suggests that British Gulf International Airlines (one of the Boutcos listed in the US Defence Department fuel contract) may have a structure and history radically different to what we thought. Now, BGIA officially began in Sao Tome and Principe in 2000, before…

Read More Viktor Bout: some recent developments

The Guardian has uncorked a big investigation series on Britain’s horrible no-rights employment world. “Over the last year the Guardian has investigated some of the networks of labour agencies operating around Sussex, to throw a spotlight on the gangmaster system. The findings highlight a historic pattern to the allegations of abuse which suggests the problems…

Read More Gangmasters, etc