Occasional Cortex

 

Angela Rayner would ruin our nightlife

Mani Basharzad has an entertaining and topical CAPX piece on how ludicrous government intervention can be. In this case it's Angela Rayner being typically ludicrous, but the wider problem has become ever more absurd over recent decades.


Angela Rayner would ruin our nightlife once and for all

• Appointing a 'night-time economy minister' will do nothing to stimulate Britain's nightclubs
• The night-time economy was built by entrepreneurs who saw opportunity, not by bureaucrats
• British nightlife is not declining because there's too little government; it's declining because there's too much

A couple of years ago, the Free Market Road Show was touring European capitals, with prominent classical liberal economists making the case for free enterprise. Deirdre McCloskey was one of them. In Vienna, after a speech on the role of the entrepreneur, an enthusiastic journalist told her: ‘I loved your talks, and love the idea of entrepreneurs having the liberty to have a go. But… in Austria you have to understand that we have a problem. There is no government program for training entrepreneurs.’ As McCloskey notes about herself and the other economists on stage, ‘we merely sank back into our seats in despair’. I suspect she would react much the same way to Angela Rayner’s latest proposal to revive Britain’s nightlife.

The whole piece is well worth reading, as it describes a core problem with dimwit political ideas applied to an already failing government machine. Unfortunately, the dimwit vote is not shrinking.  


This way of thinking is not limited to nightlife. It reflects a broader habit in British politics: when faced with a problem, create a new ministry, a new minister, or a new quango, often to manage difficulties generated by the state in the first place. Why not a Ministry of Capital Flight, a Minister for Declining Growth or a Department for Graduate Underemployment? The answer is obvious: the existing machinery of government already has the ability and the tools to address such issues. The creation of new bodies is less about administrative necessity and more about political theatre: the image of an activist government that is constantly intervening. But you do not solve problems created by an overextended state by extending it further.

But where is the intelligence?

EU Parliament bans AI use on government work devices

• Internal email reveals EU Parliament has banned AI tools due to cloud processing
• "Some of these features use cloud services to carry out tasks that could be handled locally"
• Workers also asked to exercise caution when using personal devices and AI for work tasks

The European Parliament has turned off built-in AI features on the devices it issues employees due to cybersecurity and data protection concerns.


“And every day, every hour, today, tomorrow and for all time the bureaucratic machine works smoothly, without hitch or pause, as though not made of men, but as though it were made of wheels and springs. But where is the intelligence animating and moving this edifice of papers?” thought Alexander: “in the books, in the papers themselves or in the heads of these men?”

Ivan Goncharov – The Same Old Story (1847)

Fake Flagship Footage

Liars: German national TV caught using AI images of fake ICE arrest

Germany’s ZDF public broadcaster has come under fire over an episode of its flagship heute journal news programme after it emerged it broadcast an AI-generated video clip to illustrate alleged brutality by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

The footage, clearly bearing the watermark of OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video tool, was used without proper labelling as synthetic content, prompting accusations of journalistic malpractice and fuelling wider debate over the use of generative AI in news reporting...

Viewers quickly noticed the prominent Sora watermark superimposed on the footage, a telltale sign that the material had been created by OpenAI’s generative video platform rather than captured in reality.


Surely public broadcasters don't strengthen their political messages by resorting to faked footage? 

Whatever next?

Good morning

Current polls suggest that about 49% of voters would vote -

 

‘Your Excellency does not read Schiller, I suppose. You are probably not acquainted with his celebrated line: mit der Dummheit kämpfen die Götter selbst vergebens.’

‘What does it mean?’

‘Roughly: Against stupidity the gods themselves battle in vain.’ ‘Good morning.’

W. Somerset Maugham – The Door of Opportunity (1951)

A Desperate Man

 

Miliband parades UK clean energy deal with Trump's worst enemy Gavin Newsom

Ed Miliband has ricked [sic] triggering the wrath of Donald Trump by signing a clean energy deal with his arch American enemy.

The desperation of a weak man is, of all desperations, the most unscrupulous and the most unmanageable—when it is once roused.

Wilkie Collins – Poor Miss Finch (1872)

Miliband plots solar farms in space in quest to hit net zero

Solar farms could be deployed in space to help Britain hit net zero targets, according to a new report published by the Energy Department.

Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.

Charles Mackay - Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841)

This could be how Starmer functions

Not exactly of course, he is more likely to be operated remotely via something such as Bluetooth.