Harry’s Place

Dear Subscriber,
Today the Chancellor announced changes that will help those who have been affected by the withdrawal of the 10p starting rate.
The proposal will increase the personal tax allowance by £600 to £6,035 for this financial year, benefiting all basic rate taxpayers under 65.
This will mean that 22 million people on low and middle […]

I’ve always believed there are two types of people: those who find Bernard Manning funny, and those who pretend they don’t.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion about Bernard Manning and most people have one. I never met the guy but those people who knew him well swear he wasn’t a racist. Most who maintain he […]

French thinker Jean Baudrillard died yesterday.
I would be tempted to ask if he really mattered in the great scheme of things if I wasn’t already aware that opinions on the matter at HP are already very polarized (and that some people will welcome a chance to talk about philosophy – if not that of JB […]

It was another economist who coined the phrase ‘In the long run we’re all dead’ but it’s Milton Friedman who can’t argue the toss with his old ideological foe anymore:
Nobel prize-winning US economist Milton Friedman has died at the age of 94.
Mr Friedman, who coined the phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, […]

This month’s Foreign Affairs contains a must-read article by Khalil Shikaki, the Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.
Shikaki’s thesis revisits well trodden ground. Following the second intifada, under attack externally by Israel, and internally, by its own corruption, the Palestinian Authority lost authority and legitimacy in the eyes of […]