Random Thoughts 10: economics, quality writing and Miss USA on evolution

This is the tenth of my “Random Thoughts” posts. Since I started doing these back in March they have been less regular and more, well, ‘random’ than I had intended. But I do think they have added something to the blog. The main purpose of recording things that I find interesting but haven’t the time or the inclination to write a full blog post about is being fulfilled. So I think they will continue.

This edition has links to various bits of quality writing by people I vaguely know and an opportunity to indulge in a quality pleasure.

First we turn to the economy. Nick Thornsby has a very insightful post on ‘Why the cuts are necessary, and the chart that explains (nearly) all‘. He gives one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen of the facts and historical background that underlie the government’s economic policy and shows how facile much of political debate is about this issue.

Part of  why this post is so good is that Nick clearly understands the difference between debt and deficit. This enables him to make this strong point:

“the suggestion, made by some, that the current deficit is not high by historical standards is clearly nonsense. The deficit in 2009-10 was much higher than at any other time since the second world war, and almost double the usual level in previous recessions.

While it is true that the national debt is currently not particularly high by historic standards, that would soon be untrue were we to continue borrowing at the current rate.”

Cllr Richard Kemp says goodbye as he stands down from the post of the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Local Government.

Food for thought from Daniel Ratchford on ten trends that are transforming local government.

In line with my recent theme of considering the future of the Electoral Reform Society, James Graham has delved into ERS’s past to come up with this challenging, but convincing, recommendation for changing the Society’s objectives.

Sarfraz Manzoor’s favourite album is by Bruce Springsteen. I didn’t see that one coming. 🙂

Finally, that guilty pleasure. I admit to being a little uncomfortable with the ethics of laughing at beauty queens, but still I did find what follows very amusing.

A tweet from @lordbonkers led me to the excellent Open Culture website, which in turn led me to an article which I thought I would share. It has two videos, one of which is a spoof of the original, and they are very funny – but at the same time – the whole thing is more than a little frightening. I won’t say any more but do go and find out what the responses were when the Miss USA 2011 contestants were asked the question “Should evolution be taught in schools?“.

This content was originally posted on my old Strange Thoughts blog.