Marie Kondo is the Japanese ‘organising consultant’ who became famous by teaching us how to tidy-up.

Unfortunately, things have got messy with the launch of her online shop, whose pricey housewares have sparked guffaws in the media.

For instance, you can have a small cheese knife for a mere $156; or, if you feel like splashing out, a large one for $180. Other highlights include a tuning fork, but not just any tuning fork. This one has a frequency of 4,096 hertz which “is said to amplify the healing properties of crystals.” It’s a steal at $50 (crystal not included).

For $22 you can get an Erode Mini Soap. Admittedly, this would be quite a lot to ask even for a maxi soap, so what makes it so special? Helpfully, the website provides some technical details: “When grasped by a wet hand, the soap’s scents and botanical ingredients are revealed in layers as its unique form evolves.” Where’s the soap? Yes it does, doesn’t it… ...  Continue reading

According to a YouGov/Sky/Times poll last week, the Conservatives had twice as much support as Labour among C2DEs. Shocking stuff — or at least it would be if more people knew what a C2DE actually is.

The terminology is derived from the National Readership Survey (NRS), which was established in 1956 to provide market research for the advertising industry. The NRS social grade system is a way of grouping the population by socio-economic class. There are six grades:

The A category refers to senior professionals and managers and B to not-so-senior professionals and managers. Then there are two C categories — the white collar C1s (i.e. junior managers, supervisory and admin stuff) and the blue collar C2s (skilled workers). D refers to semi-skilled and unskilled workers and finally there’s E, which is mostly non-workers and people dependent on state benefits. ...  Continue reading

A significant revelation from Liam Halligan in The Telegraph (and his new book, Home Truths).

When the current Chancellor, Sajid Javid, was responsible for housing policy he proposed a “tax” on the huge uplift in value that occurs when land gets planning permission:

In some places, especially the South East, go-ahead from the planners can mean that the land suddenly becomes hundreds of times more valuable. This a massive windfall for some lucky farmer or wily speculator. Javid’s plan was to split the uplift 50:50 between the landowner and the state.

It never happened, apparently because Theresa May blocked it. But is it a good idea? ...  Continue reading

The main thing about the rise of populism in Europe is not that populist governments are being elected. For the most part (I’m excluding the former communist countries) they’re not… yet.

However, conventional politics is being disrupted. In country-after-country we see electoral outcomes that impede the formation of stable governments. Examples include Spain which has just had its fourth election in four years. Then there’s Sweden which took four months to form a government after the 2018 general election. The Austrians went to the polls in September, but still don’t have a government. Belgium, too, is in limbo (as per usual). ...  Continue reading

I’m surprised this hasn’t got more attention, but there’s an interview with David Cameron this week on sifted — which bills itself as the “new media site for Europe’s innovators and entrepreneurs.”

They asked the former Prime minister about the regulation of social media: ” …you describe how the Leveson inquiry in 2012 led to the establishment of a new, robust regulatory body for the UK’s press and media, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). You comment how surprised you were at the lack of attention given to online and social media. Do you think that it’s time for a full review of these new forms of media?” ...  Continue reading

Last week’s long read from the New York Times about “oligarchs and populists” in Central and Eastern Europe milking EU farm subsidies for millions is still making waves.

It’s a convoluted story, but here’s how the authors sum it up:

If I read the report correctly, it’s not alleging that any particular subsidy claim has been made fraudulently, but rather that access to farmland, and therefore, payments under the Common Agricultural Policy, enables a system of “patronage”. ...  Continue reading

When I was a kid, trick-or-treating was something that mostly happened in America. And it was from the US that we heard chilling tales of poisoned candy and ‘treats’ containing razor blades. For the most part, these have proved to be urban myths.

But there is one deadly threat that does stand up to scrutiny — the elevated risk of death on the roads. Curbed.com (which is part of Vox media) reports on research that indicates a substantially increased danger on Halloween:

Recorded fatalities are much lower in years when the festivity falls on a Saturday or Sunday, suggesting that evening commuter traffic is the biggest source of danger. ...  Continue reading

Writing in The Guardian, George Reynolds asks: why do people hate vegans?

It’s a good question and I don’t think any of his answers are wrong. However, some forms of veganophobia require more explanation than others.

There are always exceptions, but veganism falls pretty much one side of the ‘snowflake’ versus ‘gammon’ culture war — and thus gets the kind of abuse directed at the snowflakes generally. Thus when a story like the Greggs vegan sausage roll comes up, it’s going to disgust people like Piers Morgan as a matter of course.

Despite their supposed tendency towards proselytisation and self-advertisement, what makes vegans different is precisely that they are not just virtue-signallers. Their particular cause involves personal sacrifice. ...  Continue reading