Nick and the facts (part MCCCVI)
Nothing much for me to write about Nick's latest, since I don't know enough about the facts. Not that ignorance ever stopped Nick, whose willingness to recycle Daily Mail factoids rather puts in doubt the other stuff he writes about. Nick writes
Britain is a country where councils can bug the phones of fly-tippers and put spy cameras in litter bins, but tax inspectors cannot bug the offices of fraudsters or send spies into Jersey.
Er no Nick, councils can't bug the phones of fly-tippers, as quickly became clear when this one was doing the rounds a few weeks ago. The real position is set out here.
Britain is a country where councils can bug the phones of fly-tippers and put spy cameras in litter bins, but tax inspectors cannot bug the offices of fraudsters or send spies into Jersey.
Er no Nick, councils can't bug the phones of fly-tippers, as quickly became clear when this one was doing the rounds a few weeks ago. The real position is set out here.
posted by Captain Cabernet at 2/24/2008 10:00:00 AM
12 Comments:
I wonder what the hedge-fund-operating-left-winger Oliver Kamm thinks about this latest piece by nick...
Jersey's in Britain? Why wasn't I informed of this sooner?
Chris Williams
Note ref to Obama
= Nick feels a bit of a cock, a bit lonely, for trying to push the McCain is cool line, but due to influence of C Hitchens , hates Hilary,
therefore wants Obama
expect soon Nick pieces showing Obama is on the side of decency in the greatiest struggle of our time
There could be a split in the Decent vote if it's an Obama-McCain contest, as Kamm has already come out against Obama, and will presumably support McCain (in keeping with his record of AFAIK supporting the right-wing party in every overseas election since he started blogging)
I thought this was a 'Nick Cohen recapturing his youth' piece. It's easy to imagine it appearing in Cruel Britannia or one of his columns from round then.
Credit where credit's due and all that.
Nick, in claiming that the UK government isn't interested in following up the Lichtenstein tax evasion data got it wrong anyway. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7261830.stm
"In keeping with his record of AFAIK supporting the right-wing party in every overseas election since he started blogging"
But not true in domestic elections, where he voted for the Conservatives but supported the Labour party nationally.
I must say I am with 'credit where it's due' on this one. Parts of it did seem like NC had had an accident and woken up as himself circa 1998. The International Monetary Fund recently attempted an operational of offshore financial centres, which ended up including the UK along with Lichenstein and the rest:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=20583.0
There is no shortage of evidence for his proposition that the wealthy has managed to shift the tax burden away from them despite increased inequality. NC didn't, and quite possibly wouldn't, but this could readily be cited against Goodhart in yesterday's Obs - a somewhat greater threat to maintaing the welfare state than immigration (incidentally, if you want to widen your targets, I would suggest much of what appears in Prospect is enimently worthy of attack. As with Goodhart, it's annoying tendency to promote conventional centre right ideas as daring iconclasm is teeth-grindingly awful)
Well that's the thing Matthew. I can say I support Obama - by which I mean that _if_ I could vote in the US, I would vote for him. How does voting for one party and supporting another work? (That question was to OK, not you.)
Actually, I can't see Oliver Kamm coming out for Clinton or McCain, so I think he'll be neutral, maybe even telling everyone that they'll miss Bush in a few months.
"as Kamm has already come out against Obama, and will presumably support McCain (in keeping with his record of AFAIK supporting the right-wing party in every overseas election since he started blogging)"
Actually, I've just remembered he voted Tory in 2005, so replace that with "his record of supporting the right-wing party in every election since he started blogging", at least in those elections he has written about.
That's true Simon, but it's important to remember that Oliver has said he will be voting for Labour in the next election - an historic occasion.
Sorry Matthew, I completely missed your above comment.
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