Posts in History
And that's an argument against it?

The Daily Telegraph reports a warning from Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loefven that if Britain cuts corporate taxes it will make its discussions with the European Union over a Brexit "more difficult." He insists that his own country will keep taxing heavily and spending (no, sorry, "investing") because "Tax cuts are not the future." Dude, the whole point of the Brexit is that Britain won't have to keep implementing bad policy because European politicians condescendingly tell them to. It's even odd that Loefven believes the EU has leverage to dictate policy to a member whose citizens have voted to leave, let alone that threatening to will make them less determined to get away from such things.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject, the Telegraph also notes (you have to read down a bit in the story) that, as if deliberately seeking further to persuade Britons that the Brexit vote was a good idea, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker wants all EU members to open their borders entirely in a gesture of solidarity with the refugees now causing EU members to tighten border controls. Juncker went so far as to say "Borders are the worst invention ever made by politicians" which is a mind-boggling fatuity given the horrors governments have inflicted on people from tax rates over 100% to concentration camps. I know, I know, you're not meant to end every discussion by invoking Hitler. But in this case Juncker's claim invites the retort from Bertrand de Jouvenel that, as Milton Friedman recounts it, "said he had always been an ardent advocate of world government until the day he crossed the border into Switzerland ahead of the pursuing Nazis."

Borders exist to protect people from the excesses of big government, from the petty to the ghastly. And Britain is correct to assert within its own the right to have tax policy that favours private initiative over a smothering state.

Hence the Brexit. Obviously.

 

 

The hardest day

My latest for The Rebel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsVyMvTdPgU

The audio-only version is available here: [podcast title="Rebel audio, August 18"]http://www.thejohnrobson.com/podcast/John2016/August/160818Rebel.mp3[/podcast]

History, PodcastJohn Robson
Death of a conflicted character

My latest for The Rebel: August 4 of 1265 marks the death in battle of Simon de Montfort, hero and… um… anti-Semite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x22RzATpu_A

The audio-only version is available here: [podcast title="Rebel, August 4, 2016"]http://www.thejohnrobson.com/podcast/John2016/August/160804Rebel.mp3[/podcast]

 

History, PodcastJohn Robson
Henry beheads Thomas Cromwell

My latest for The Rebel: On July 28 of 1540, Henry VIII beheaded yet another former close associate, Thomas Cromwell, his right-hand man in his break with Rome including beheading Thomas More, and later in beheading Anne Boleyn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BrIcTxcqkg

The audio-only version is available here: [podcast title="July 28 Rebel"]http://www.thejohnrobson.com/podcast/John2016/July/160728Rebel.mp3[/podcast]

History, PodcastJohn Robson
Hitler bans political parties

My latest for The Rebel: On July 14 1933 Adolph Hitler banned all political parties in Nazi Germany except his own. Which was obviously in retrospect part of a plan to impose totalitarianism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVo6ergLQKc

The audio-only version is available here: [podcast title="Rebel audio, July 14"]http://www.thejohnrobson.com/podcast/John2016/July/160714Rebel.mp3[/podcast]

History, PodcastJohn Robson