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Ayn Rand was stupid …

…….. which really wouldn’t matter, except that we now have a Home Secretary (widely tipped as the next Chancellor of the Exchequer) who is said to read a chapter of one her books, the Fountainhead, at least twice a year for inspiration!

Rand as a prophet

Ayn Rand is often credited with having made predictions that later came true, but all she ever did was follow generations of better and wiser people in deploring corruption. When it came to suggesting realistic measures to counter corruption, she failed completely.

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Rand and the earthquake

During her 77 year lifetime Ayn Rand experienced disaster in many forms. She knew earthquakes happened. Did she have anything to say about them?

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The utility of gold

Is the gold industry getting a wee bit nervous? It seems unlikely, with the world so invested in it, but in the last few months my LinkedIn feed has been in frequent receipt of messages pleading with me to “explore all gold’s potential benefits” and then invest in the stuff

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Essential Services

In the UK, Christmas 2022 is going to be mainly notable for strikes, many of them by ‘essential workers’. Which does rather beg the question – If the services being provided are so essential, how is it that the people who provide them are not decently paid?

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Car No 8 and the right to travel

Among the people whom Ayn Rand consigned to their fate in the Winston Tunnel disaster was ‘the woman in Roomette 6, Car no. 8, …. a lecturer who believed that, as a consumer, she had “a right” to transportation, whether the railroad people wished to provide it or not’. But railway workers in the UK are to be denied the right to withhold their labour, should they not wish to provide it. Would Rand have approved?

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Britannia trussed

Liz Truss wants to be seen as the queen deregulator, and a tool is ready to hand. Unhampered by a written constitution, she wields the power of the King-in-Parliament and also has the Brexit-delivered opportunity of fulfilling her ambitions by the simple act of removing all EU-derived legislation. And she can cut taxes at the same time.

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The worker in Car 7

According to our new prime minister. British workers are inherently lazy. This is well illustrated by her most fervent supporter, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and the teachers at Eton, the school he attended.

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The Man in Car No 6

After the chaos of British politics, it is almost a pleasure to turn to the simple certainties of Ayn Rand, So certain that those who disagreed with her deserved nothing better than to be packed onto a train and sent into a dark tunnel from which they would never emerge.

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Gun Law

It was probably not a good idea on my part to get involved in a purely American tragedy, but I had an excuse. A fellow Brit had posted a comment suggesting that he thought that US-style gun control, or lack of it, would be a good idea in the UK. I thought some opposition to that would be worth while.

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