Comments for Steve Baker

Comment on The Conservative Party | News | Cameron launches our draft manifesto for schools by northernheckler

northernheckler — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:17:12 +0000

I’ve been quite supportive of some of the things David Cameron has said about education in the past – especially, as a Special School Head, about special schools.

However this is really very disappointing – the same reactionary crap that’s been around for years. Can you really defend this ?

I know you get lot’s of purely negative comments on blogs, but seriously this is very very unimaginative. Surely you can see that ?

Comment on Big Players and the Economic Theory of Expectations by Bleeding the Economy « ThinkMarkets

Bleeding the Economy « ThinkMarkets — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:55:27 +0000

[...] the Cobden Centre’s website (and here), Steve Baker discusses recent Fed signals in the context of Big Players theory. The more active [...]

Comment on The economy not Europe is my priority, says David Cameron by Steve

Steve — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:51:34 +0000

As an afterthought, some remarks about the Bank of England under Eddie George:

The Bank became independent on his watch – after Labour came to power in 1997 – allowing it to set interest rates free of government policy. The Governor, who became known as "Steady Eddie" for his deft handling of the Bank, also had to deal with the collapse of Barings in 1995. In 2007 he admitted that he had deliberately stoked the consumer boom and left a difficult legacy to his successor, Mervyn King. "We only had two alternative ways of sustaining demand and keeping the economy moving forward – one was public spending and the other was consumption," Lord George told the Treasury Select Committee when asked about dealing with the slump in the global economy at the beginning of the decade. "We knew we were having to stimulate consumer spending. We knew we had pushed it up to levels which couldn't possibly be sustained into the medium and long term. But for the time being, if we had not done that, the UK economy would have gone into recession just as the United States did. "My legacy, if you like, has been 'sort that out'," he added.

Comment on bella gerens: That’s right, whip the libertarian by Steve

Steve — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:04:37 +0000

The last 30 years of government have failed to give power away but the Tories could be different, argues Jamie Bartlett.

via David Cameron is the leader to decentralise power - Telegraph.

Comment on Moral Markets and Honest Money by Moral Markets and Honest Money » The Cobden Centre

Moral Markets and Honest Money » The Cobden Centre — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:02:27 +0000

[...] Moral Markets and Honest Money By Steven Baker, on 1 September 09 Reconciling our conflicting views of the market through consistent principle and morality. This article originally appeared on stevebaker.info [...]

Comment on Police cannot be trusted with fines, magistrates warn – Telegraph by Steve

Steve — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:21:28 +0000

Thanks for the compliment Chris. Certainly sounds familiar, but knocking on doors wherever I go, I find all people have had enough of the way things are…

Comment on Police cannot be trusted with fines, magistrates warn – Telegraph by csoanes

csoanes — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:07:46 +0000

As ever, your post struck a chord. I was reading a wikipedia article on Dystopian fiction recently, and came across this passage:
“Some dystopian works emphasize the pressure to conform in terms of the requirement to not excel. In these works, the society is ruthlessly egalitarian, in which ability and accomplishment, or even competence, are suppressed or stigmatized as forms of inequality, as in Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron. Similarly, in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the dystopia represses the intellectuals with particular force, because most people are willing to accept it, and the resistance to it consists mostly of intellectuals.”
Does that sound a bit familiar?

Chris

PS I think I’m the one who hammered your logs recently, I came across your blog (while googling for Hobie Cat related information) and sent a link to some like-minded friends.

Comment on Meet the man who has exposed the great climate change con trick | The Spectator by Steve

Steve — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:05:47 +0000

Glad to be of service

In other news, The Independent cheerfully reproduces the UN’s forecast of an early end to civilization:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-planets-future-climate-change-will-cause-civilisation-to-collapse-1742759.html

I have yet to read the report, but the news article suggests it smacks of the presupposition that society needs to be managed if it is to survive, a very old lie discussed before (search the site for Popper).

Comment on Meet the man who has exposed the great climate change con trick | The Spectator by northernheckler

northernheckler — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:28:28 +0000

Nothing to do with this post, but I did buy “Bad Thoughts, a guide to clear thinking” — Jamie Whyte, on your recommendation and am about half way through.

I’ll give you a final verdict when I’ve finished, but am finding it quite entertaining.

Although I can find fault with many of his lines of argument, if all politicians and most voters gave half as much thought to their arguments as he does, we wouldn’t need political parties. I’ll finish it sometime this week

Comment on “Bad Thoughts, a guide to clear thinking” — Jamie Whyte by Steve

Steve — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:02:08 +0000

Wordpress.org produce the content management system which is hosted by wordpress.com. More here:

http://en.wordpress.com/about/

As it happens, this site is hosted by me on my own server, not by wordpress.com.

Now I’m confused!