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Alien invasives are the biggest conservation problem, not habitat for bats My recent column in The Times is on wildlife conservation: On the day last week that the House of Commons was debating a private member’s bill dealing with bats in churches, conservationists were starting to eliminate rats from the island of South Georgia by dropping […]

My contribution to edge.org’s annual question Edge.org has an annual question to which 190 people are invited to respond. This year it is “What do you think of machines that think?” and the answer I gave is below:   What I think about machines that think is that we are all missing the point still. […]

The polarisation of the climate debate has gone too far This article appeared in the Times on January 19, 2015: I am a climate lukewarmer. That means I think recent global warming is real, mostly man-made and will continue but I no longer think it is likely to be dangerous and I think its slow […]

Genetic modification raises yields and cuts pesticide use My Times column on genetic modification of crops: The European Parliament votes tomorrow on whether to let countries decide their own policies on growing genetically modified crops. The vote would allow countries such as Britain to press ahead because of hard evidence that such crops are good […]

Tumours are the wages of age, not the wages of sin My Times column on cancer, luck and good deaths:   If we could prevent or cure all cancer, what would we die of? The new year has begun with a war of words over whether cancer is mostly bad luck, as suggested by a […]

Welcome signs of an end to public sector IT over-runs and failures In December, I omitted to post my Times column on government IT and digital policy:   The travel chaos last Friday was a reminder of just how much life depends on Big Software doing its job. The air-traffic control centre at Swanwick was […]

800 years after Magna Carta and 200 after Waterloo, the UK’s in good shape My Times column is on the UK’s high standard of living and social freedoms: Years ending in 15 (or 65) have often been good ones to be British. In January, we celebrate 750 years since Simon de Montfort first summoned Parliament […]

Imposing monogamous marriage helped pacify the west My column in The Times: When the Kurdish peshmerga forces broke the siege of Mount Sinjar last week, there was no trace of the 5,000 Yazidi women and children abducted from the area in August. It is thought that they have been mostly sold as concubines to jihadist fighters […]

Statement about coal mining interests in Northumberland I have had enquiries about my interest in coal mining, and am happy to make the following statement: The following has been on my website since its inception: “I have a financial interest in coal mining on my family’s land. The details are commercially confidential, but I have […]

Science is being corrupted by political bias My column in the Times, with post-scripts:   As somebody who has championed science all his career, carrying a lot of water for the profession against its critics on many issues, I am losing faith. Recent examples of bias and corruption in science are bad enough. What’s worse […]