Category Archives: statistics

A Windfall Tax on Owner-Occupied Houses

Why are we taxing working people more than billionaires? Tax wealth, not work.  Gary Stephenson author of The Trading Game (2024) Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is paid on houses that are usually called buy-to-let.1 When sold, they are subject to … Continue reading

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Bourgeois Vengeance: The Sycamore Tree Two

Background Karl Marx would call Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham ‘lumpen proletariat’ or,less elegantly, ‘losers.’ They achieved 15 minutes of fame by destroying an iconic tree. It was owned by the National Trust. The Trust has millions of middle-class influencers … Continue reading

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Rational Truancy: A Consumer Choice?

Rational decision-making can be described as a process of selecting the best option or course of action based on a careful and logical evaluation of the costs, benefits, and risks associated with each potential choice.1 Rational truants don’t break the law … Continue reading

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Four Outstanding Schools and Disadvantaged Students

In the 2022 to 2023 school year….25.2% of disadvantaged pupils and 52.4% of all other pupils got a grade 5 or above.1 The attainment gap disadvantaged children suffer is a chasm. Those schools which reduce the gap are adding value … Continue reading

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War Studies: Bombing Japan, 1945

In March 1945 the USA bombed Tokyo. They used incendiary bombs on a wooden city purposefully creating an inferno. The Japanese didn’t surrender. In August ‘A’ bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Pacific War ended shortly afterwards. “Bombs … Continue reading

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Lies, Damned Lies and Accountancy

Accountancy Scandal Carillion: Record fine for KPMG over ‘exceptional’ failure – BBC News

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Disadvantaged Students and Educational Innovation

“…in 2014, only 36.5 per cent of disadvantaged pupils achieved 5 A*-C including English and maths GCSEs, compared with 64.0 per cent of other pupils.”1 Bright Futures Educational Trust2 controls South Shore Academy, Blackpool. Achieving 5 Grade ‘A*-Cs’ is remote … Continue reading

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American Mass Shootings: Entertainment for Psychopaths?

“Mass Shooting Tracker: four or more persons shot in one incident, at one location, at roughly the same time.”1 The invasion of Ukraine began on February 24th 2022. In the USA, on that day, there were two mass shootings with … Continue reading

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Jeff Bezos and Charity

Jeff Bezos is a multi-billionaire1 and gives large amounts of money to various charities. The most recent of which is $123 million for fighting homelessness.2 This is an eye-catching amount. Some might regard it as stupendous. But is it? Bezos … Continue reading

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Criminal Bankers and Their Keep-Out-Of-Jail Card

“….more than 17,600 other record[s]… allegedly show how senior banking officials allowed fraudsters to move money [£1.5 trillion] between accounts in the knowledge that the funds were being generated or used criminally. Five global banks were named in the investigation: … Continue reading

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