Why Taxes are good for you #3: look what happened to China

One of the great disadvantages of low taxes is that you end up getting conquered. As China learned at terrible cost. In the eighteenth century Qing China had been one of the greatest states in the world:, rich and populous, with booming trade, advanced techniques in agriculture, and envied craftsmanship Taxes were low, less than 5% of GDP it is estimated. So was military spending. And there was the problem. For nations in the west, like Britain for example, ran at much higher tax burdens, perhaps 15-20% GDP. With the result that they could pay for vast armies and fleets which captured all the world’s sea lanes and trade routes. It’s true that the most advanced western thinkers were classic Liberals like Ricardo and John Stuart Mill, who loudly proclaimed the virtues of low taxes and a minimal state. It was just that no one serious paid any attention to them. The result that these fleets and armies were eventually flung against China. The resulting Opium Wars were not only one of the most terrible crimes in History, they disgraced and destabilised China until 1949.[1] [2]

It was a lesson the British themselves had to relearn after the rise of Hitler forced them into frantic re-armament after 1937. After nearly two decades of orthodox economics like the Gold Standard and low taxes, suddenly the latter began to rise. Fast. All those Spitfires and cruisers and radar had to come from somewhere. So in 1938 the standard rate of income tax was raised to 27.5% (5s 6d in the pound) to help fund rearmament. A 41% surtax applied to very high incomes (over £50,000 annually), targeting the wealthiest. Other hated impositions like death duties and PAYE *were imposed. And -despite what it says in the Daily Mail-it worked. Not only was just enough done to survive the perilous summer of 1940, by 1944 Britain was the most fully mobilised of all the wartime economies. Pride indeed.

Yet there is a little irony at work here . It is our lived experience that those who most loudly proclaim the greatest patriotism are also those who would avoid paying taxes wherever and when ever possible. It is their right to say such things. But ours also to at least doubt the sincerity of a patriotism which will not pay to uphold that which it professes to adore.

_{*Pay as You Earn}

[1] Thomas Piketty Capital and Ideology

[2] David Ricardo Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

#taxation #economics #liberalism #free markets #imperialism #opium wars #china #britain

PERT: Next step in gene editing offers real hope for hereditary diseases

Almost a quarter of hereditary diseases can be put down to mutations which break an established pattern of DNA, so it can no longer be read. No wonder they are called nonsense mutations. Often these mutations are expressed as STOP codons: just a short three letter sequence that stops protein synthesis dead, like a bad piece of coding in a computer programme. Now a new technique called PERT (Prime Editing RNA Therapy)allows the cellular process to override glitch in the DNA and resume synthesis. The new technique equips cells with engineered tRNAs that override these stop signals, letting the ribosome continue translation and produce the full protein. Here once again is Nature Briefing with one of their excellent short explanations Versatile gene-editing tool fixes nonsense, plus hyperlinks if you wish to delve deeper.

A multipurpose gene-editing tool can correct several genetic conditions in mice by restoring proteins that have been cut short by disease-causing mutations. The method, called PERT, uses engineered RNA molecules that allow protein synthesis to continue even when a DNA mutation tells it to stop prematurely. These ‘nonsense mutations’ comprise nearly one-quarter of known disease-causing DNA variants. As such, if PERT proves effective in humans, it could overcome the need to design bespoke treatments for individual diseases.Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Nature paper

There’s a lot to like here. Firstly the prime editing is straight out of the same stable as the CRISPR and Base Pair Editing techniques which we have heralded here for years (LSS passim) Secondly, unlike most gene therapies, which must be tailored to each mutation, PERT could treat many different diseases with a single editing agent. This is a huge shift in scalability. And if the suppressor tRNA is permanently installed in the patients genome, it is possible that only one treatment may be needed. Once again we are reporting at the early stages (that’s our brief) so all parties are careful to emphasise we are nowhere near clinical applications yet. However, just as we learned during the COVID 19 pandemic , the ability to intervene at the RNA level, precisely between gene and protein, appears to be one of the most fertile areas in medical knowledge for years to come.

#hereditary disease #RNA #DNA #molecular biology #health #medicine

Why taxes are good for you #2: The story of Dave

When we set out to write today’s blog ,the list of things that taxes pay for was so very long that we could have filled a paragraph. Armed forces, justice, law and order, roads, clean air, schools…and on and on……. But then we thought-“it’s just a worthy catechism, most of which is so evidently true they know it already!” Or, we could have wasted another paragraph hammering home the differences between high tax countries where the middle class live better than the rich in low tax ones. If only because there’s so much law and order about , you don’t have to worry if your neighbour is going to shank you. But we kind of did that in the opening to this series, so that was a non runner too.

Instead we thought we’d tell the story of an entrepreneur, let’s call him Dave, who lived in a country where the taxes were so low the Government couldn’t afford to collect them anyway. Which allowed Dave use the money he had not paid to buy a gleaming new limousine, which he took out at once on the road to show the neighbours how Rich and Successful and Powerful and Important he had become. At first things went well, as Dave glided past the rather hungry looking locals. Just fast enough so they didn’t have time to stop him, and just slowly enough so the rugged broken surface of the road didn’t give him an impossibly bumpy ride and that all those lumps and potholes didn’t wreck the suspension on his new car. It worked, for a bit, until he hit a particularly sharp spine of steel which the rubbish men had not collected because they didn’t exist, which punctured one of the expensive tyres on Dave’s brand new car and brought his jaunt to a sudden halt.

And that was where his troubles really began. As he climbed out he observed some people watching him. With great interest. Would they help him? Had he ever helped them? They certainly looked eager, judging by the way they looked at his car and his gold Rolex watch. Perhaps if he paid them to help with some of the huge wadge of twenties he always carried:? But that might tempt them to take all of the notes, and offer no help at all. Judging by their clothes, and the buildings around there, they looked as if they might need money quite quickly. As they began to close the distance on poor stranded Dave, he sensed he would find out the answer to those questions quite soon.

That, in short, is a summary of what taxes buy you. We never knew how his story ended and if they left him with enough money to pay for the private ambulance he needed. Nor indeed if he needed one anyway after they had finished. But we would observe that what is true of individuals is true of nations. You can be as rich as you like, but if you have no physical security, it’s not worth much at all. In the next instalment we will learn what happened to China when they forgot that lesson, and to other nations who had to learn it the hard way.

Stiglitz, J The Price of Inequality WW Norton and Company 2012

Piketty T Capital and Ideology Harvard University Press 2020

#economics #tax #government #china #inequality #health #defence

Making an end to Cervical Cancer, making a start on an end to Alzheimers- two stories of real hope

At a time when ignorance and anger are gleefully presenting themselves as the new norms, it’s heartening to see that some people are still active on our side. And achieving real, substantial progress. That’s why we’re proud to bring you two stories which show what educated minds, still employing the twin discipline of fact and reason, have achieved lately.

Repurposing old medicines. Regular readers will will recall our enthusiasm for lateral thinking, using old things which were there all along to do unexpected new ones. So Sharon Wooller of the Mail has a triple whammy for us this week.[1] After screening 80 commonly used drugs or vaccines , ingenious scientists at the University of Exeter selected three that might have a bearing on the terrible scourge of Alzheimers disease. They are: Viagra, which stops those pesky tau plaques from building up. Riluzole which may actually bring them down. And the shingles vaccine Zostavax which may also affect the immune system. Now we know the brain barrier frontier is pretty much down (LSS passim) this has to be a powerful runner, gentle readers. But best of of all is why these scientists set out to do this. To quote Sharon. in a nutshell:

Making drugs from scratch can take ten to 15 years and cost billions of pounds, with no guarantee they will work.

If you cant afford new ones, why not try a few old ones? Quod erat demonstrandum

Cervical success People can co-operate, even across national lines, when there is “cause sufficient”. One of these was cervical cancer, which not only blighted and destroyed lives, but effectively deprived the world of much of the better half of its workforce. Two releases today from GAVI and the WHO evince the remarkable strides in the vaccination programmes which have done do much to eliminate this disease. Hats off not just to the scientists, but also to the intrepid field workers who have combed the wildest, remotest corners of the earth, employing the most recondite means, to save lives and afford a brighter future to millions [2] [3]

When we read stories like these we know we are not alone. Our side is still out there. And unless they crush all universities and research institutes everywhere, we shall be back one day. For keeps.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-15298699/Viagra-Alzheimers-drugs-hope.html

[2] https://www.gavi.org/news/media-room/cervical-cancer-vaccines-save-over-1-million-lives-lower-income-countries

[3]https://www.who.int/news/item/17-11-2025-world-marks-cervical-cancer-elimination-day-as-countries-accelerate-action

#vaccine #drug #medicine #alzheimers #cervical cancer #women #health

The Teacher’s mistake-and why it could doom us all

Most errors stem from unconscious habits of the mind—ways of thinking picked up in work, education, family and public bar. Teachers and lecturers are not exempt. Their lives largely consist in imparting information to the ignorant, then correcting its assimilation through marking essays and test papers. As their students readily comply, driven by ambition, cupidity or fear of ambitious parents, the teacher concludes that learning has occurred, and approves his own methods accordingly.

But the world outside the groves of academé is a very different place. Violent, short term and full of festering resentments such as class, race and the bitter memories of forced attendance at the knees of some pedagogue for whom they entertained neither liking nor respect. Here decisions are based on quick instinct, not measured reflection. Judgements depend upon on habit, emotion, and identity, not fact and logic. So when the educated set out blithely to explain complex issues such as climate change, interethnic tensions, or pandemics they expect the same compliance, the same reverence, as they received in school. Forgetting that most minds have long since been locked against reason, and barred to the entry of all but the smallest facts. Why else is it so hard to convince people to give up smoking, gambling, or drinking? A second’s reason revealed the harm: and the educated repeated the admonitions for decades, until partial success was achieved. Now we begin to understand the terrible fate of Cassandra, doomed to be forever right, and forever unheard.

Unless the educated-among whom we include the followers of this humble blog, gentle readers- can learn to adjust this fatal psychic flaw, the world will continue to slide towards climate catastrophe, pandemic disaster, and war. Oh, we almost forgot-your former pupils now have nuclear weapons

#climate change #global warming #pandemic #antibiotic resistance #tribalism

Eight New Carbon Capture sites for UK? Here’s hope indeed

We’ve had our differences with the Daily Mail down the years, but on climate change: well, they’re having a good war. Despite the prejudices of a section of their readers, they find ways to drill the message home. This is a crisis. And here are some ways it might be coped with. In this spirit the well-informed Jonathan Chadwick covers a new UK initiative to capture CO₂ and store it underground as carbonates in old volcanic rocks, with which these islands are well-endowed. James’ story is breezily written, and packed with good facts: so we will urge you to click on the link [1] to enjoy it for yourself.

But can we, dare we, steal a little credit for ourselves from James’ article? Because one of the names he checks in his piece is Climeworks, that marvellous pioneering out fit of carbon capturers we mentioned ourselves(LSS 4 6 20; 9 3 23) Now, we can all debate the ways of dealing with climate change, and what changes we need to make in our lifestyles or in our technologies. But all of us are basically in agreement. Rational thought and an ability to accept facts suggest there really is a problem That puts many of us on the same side.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15298571/climate-crisis-eight-sites-CO2-stone.html

#climate change #global warming #carbon capture

Why taxes are good for you: part #1 of a new series

Next to the arrival of immigrant persons, nothing so exercises the anger of our old friend Dave Watford and his mates at the Dog and Duck as the imposition of taxes. All taxes. Any taxes. Death duties, sales taxes, income taxes……the mere mention of the “t ” word is enough to unleash paroxysms of indignant wrath. As we have heard it so many times we think we can give a fair summary of their case, which goes like this

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with this country, mate —taxes. I work hard, and they just take it. For what? So some bloke in a suit can sit in an office pushing paper? I don’t see any of it. Roads are still full of ‘oles, the(expletive deleted) NHS is on life suppawt, and don’t get me started on foreign aid. They say it pays for schools an ‘ospitals—well I haven’t been in school for 40 years and I haven’t seen a(expletive deleted) doctor since ’98. Why should I pay for stuff I don’t use? And all these entrepreneurs, they’re the ones wots creating jobs. Government just gets in the way. If they cut taxes, we’d all be better off. More money in our pockets, less wasted on(expletive deleted) bureaucracy.

Dave, despite the obvious logical fallacies in your arguments. we respect you! We know you and your kind work hard and on the whole put in more than you take out. We know how your lives are centred on family and community, and that the world can seem a harsh, bewildering place. But can we, dare we, just take a short time to offer the counter-intuitive case? Just because every argument by its nature always carries a counter point.

For we believe that taxes and their imposition do more than pay for armies, police and courts (which they do). We believe they do more than generate economic growth (and we will show that they do indeed) That they create more stable societies-and we have strong evidence for that. But what we really believe is that the idea of taxes lies at the very beginnings of Civilisation, and are what made it possible to rise above the level of stone age farmers and grangers. It’s that profound. In the next few weeks we shall be running a series of blogs which explore these themes. If only for the sake of balance. In the meantime compare Finland (top tax rate 57.65%, rigidly enforced) with Chad (top tax rate 30%, barely enforced), and answer these questions:

1 Which has GDP per capita of a $53 189 and b which $1420?

2 which of the two boasts a universal healthcare, free education, strong infrastructure, low corruption. and which b Fragile institutions, limited public services, poor infrastructure, high corruption.?

3 Which of the two do you think has Higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, combined with top global rankings in happiness and education?

ANSWERS TO QUIZ

1 a Finland b Chad

2 a Finland b Chad

3 Finland

#economics #tax #infrastructure #growth #GDP wealth creation

Friday Night: More in praise of Gin and Tonic

If there’s one common theme to this blog, it’s probably Gin, often accompanied by its old sparring partner , tonic water. That seems to be the case judging by a recent trawl through the archives, in desperate hope of reheating some old ideas for new posts. (LSS 4 9 20;13 2 24 et al ) Which is why we were pleasantly surprised to come across this article by Luke Chafer of the Mail, hymning the praises of the old tincture according to a new tune. If you’ve got to drink alcohol, declares Luke, this tipple is a lot less bad for you than many others.[1] That is, if you do it responsibly, as we always have, and not getting drunk. So here’s a few G and T questions and answers, based on Luke’s amiable article. Just think-it might be you gentle reader, and a pal or two, in a cocktail bar in one of the better hotels off of Park Lane as dausk falls over the London skyline

So-who invented the G and T anyway?

Back in the 19th Century, Britain’s Royal Navy was looking to get the drug quinine into its sailors, as the stuff was meant to have anti-malarial properties. It was too bitter to drink on its own (“tonic water”) so Her Majesty’s Admiralty had the brainwave of mixing it up with sugar .lime and gin-and hey presto, a new jewel sparkled in the crown of human achievement

So is it safe to drink?

No. No alcohol is safe. But, quoting his experts like a good journalist Luke adduces

It is about making sensible choices. If you are swapping five pints of beer for G&T’s then that is a good decision, because it has fewer calories and will not cause bloating,’ says Ms Lohia, [a leading nutritionist whom Luke consulted

Where can I find out more about variations and recipes?

We would strongly recommend searching the back catalogue of this blog, Learning Science and Society, and go from there

Does quinine really cure Malaria?

Weeeeelllll……………according to Luke you need rather a lot of it :

……theoretically, to protect against malaria, someone would need to drink 14 standard gin and tonics every eight hours, which is the equivalent of a week’s consumption of alcohol according to the NHS.

I see. Not a good idea. But surely those juniper berries they make the stuff from are pretty good for anti oxidants or something like that?

See above, Once again Luke has done his homework He finds:

However experts say that there is not enough juniper in a modern bottle—or shot—of gin to give any health benefits.

Our advice? Drink it moderately Drink it for fun, with your mates.. Stop quickly. In which case it will be one of the best moderate alcohol drinks you can get.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-15288483/Make-double-science-gin-tonic-one-healthiest-alcoholic-drinks.html

#gin #tonic #cocktails #pub #bar #quinine

Depressing Diptych for November #2:Falling vaccine rates

As the sun sets on the Americas, politically and economically, a new and insidious trend is only going to add to their problems. Read this from the ineffable Nature Briefing: Canada loses measles elimination status

Canada no longer holds measles elimination status after experiencing a cross-country outbreak that has persisted for more than 12 months. By default, this means that the entire Americas region has also lost its status. Infections took hold in undervaccinated Mennonite communities where the COVID-19 pandemic eroded already-shaky trust in the healthcare system — a shared source of recent measles outbreaks in the United States. The number of new cases is going down, but the loss is “a giant wake-up call that we have gaps in our public health infrastructure”, says physician-scientist Isaac Bogoch.CBC | 6 min read

If only it were just them! But it’s now a world-wide trend. According to a recent report by the WHO,[1] Measles cases rose to 10.3 million in 2023, a 20% increase from 2022, with outbreaks intensifying into 2024 and 2025. No less than 138 countries reported measles cases in the past year, with 61 facing large or disruptive outbreaks—the highest since 2019. Meningitis and diphtheria (horrid afflictions) are also re-emerging, particularly in regions with strained health systems and declining immunization coverage. And the causes? Funding cuts and humanitarian crises for one thing Access barriers, especially in marginalized communities, for another But the prime one, and most baffling to us, is our old bugbear: Misinformation and vaccine hesitancy, A fact well illustrated by a similar study from Europe which showed that vaccine hesitancy among adolescents and parents ranges from 12% to over 30%. We invite you to research more, gentle readers.

And so combining with the previous part of our Dreary Depressing Diptych of dispatches (that’s enough D’s-ed) we get a truly dismal picture of this species which has the barefaced cheek to call itself “sapiens.” If an tiger came to you an announced it was was giving up its stripes, you would counsel “don’t do it-if you throw away your principle evolutionary advantage, you will get no dinner!” Similarly if a spider monkey were to forego the use of its tail, or a real spider its web. But humanity seems determined to forego the use of its principal evolutionary advantage, its brain. Palaeontology will record what comes next.

[1]https://www.who.int/news/item/24-04-2025-increases-in-vaccine-preventable-disease-outbreaks-threaten-years-of-progress–warn-who–unicef–gavi

#vaccine #measles #diptheria #medicine #health #childhood disease

Antibiotic Resistance Rising: Part one of our Depressing Diptych for November

Five years of writing this blog, ten years of campaigning. But antibiotic resistance is still on the rise as this article by the indefatigable Hannah Devlin of the Guardian makes all too clear.[1] According to the UK Health Security Agency deaths due to antibiotic resistance went up by 17% in England in 2024 alone.[2] And England is not an outlier: investigations by our Fact Checking Department , Research Unit and and Data Team all showed comparable metrics for other G7 counties(sorry, no time to look wider!)

As might be expected from a fine journalist who has covered this topic so extensively, Hannah’s article is a cornucopia of useful statistics, data points and links. As for the England’s particular glitch, she offers this intriguing possible cause: an increase in private prescriptions following cuts to antibiotic prescriptions within the NHS. Time will tell on that one.

But all too depressingly believable in any case. In pubs, in shops in cafes, we hear the same dreary old reprise: “I’ve got flu and that (unprintable) (unprintable) of a Doctor wouldn’t give me an antibiotic!” An utter misunderstanding of causes, effects and consequence which leads to an ever-rising demand for antibiotics and consequently, an ever-rising rate of resistance mutations in the target organisms. Combine that with the disgraceful misuse of antibiotics in the farming industry, in order to produce megatons of unnecessary meat, and you can imagine a world in ten or twenty years’ time where there are no antibiotics as such at all. It’s not the antibiotics themselves, it’s not the bacteria, its the fact that so many people think they can ignore the findings of science -until it’s too late. It’s a theme we’ll return to in the next part of our Depressing Diptych for this November. Stay on line, it’s coming up.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/13/deaths-linked-to-antibiotic-resistant-superbugs-rose-17-in-england-in-2024

[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency

#microbial antibiotic resistance #health #medicine #prescriptions #NHS #farming