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Principles versus rules in free trade
Matt Ridley
Britain has a chance to revitalise global free trade to the benefit of all A Times column on free trade: Why does the European Union raise a tariff on coffee? It has no coffee industry to protect so the sole effect is to make coffee more expensive for all Europeans. Even where there is an […]
Why I am more sure than ever that Brexit was the right thing to do
Matt Ridley
A robust economy and the behaviour of the European Commission My recent Times column on the arguments for Brexit: More than a year after Britain voted to leave the European Union, I realise we who ended up on the Leave side have probably made a mistake. No, not that we should have voted the […]
Britain’s opportunity to champion gene editing
Matt Ridley
The UK is well placed to exploit this beneficial technology My recent Times column on gene editing: Britain has an opportunity to seize on the latest breakthroughs in gene editing and pioneer new approaches in agriculture, research and medicine. We are well placed to be bold but responsible gene editors. Bolder than continental countries, looking […]
In its energy policy, Britain keeps picking losers
Matt Ridley
Assuming oil and gas would only get more expensive was a big mistake My Times column on Britain’s nuclear power fiasco: Shortly before parliament broke up this month, there was a debate on a Lords select committee report on electricity policy that was remarkable for its hard-hitting conclusions. The speakers, and signatories of the […]
A state broadcaster is an anachronism
Matt Ridley
The justifications for the BBC licence fee have gone away My Times column on the BBC: The revelation that disc jockeys and football presenters are paid millions for topping and tailing segments of rehashed music or rebroadcast football, especially if they are male, will almost certainly lead to more pay inflation at the BBC — […]
Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy
Matt Ridley
Review of a book by Tim Harford A review of Tim Harford’s book, Fifty things that made the modern economy. In 2006 the historian David Edgerton wrote a book called The Shock of the Old in which he argued that the 20th century was not really all about space travel and atom bombs, but […]
How the electric car revolution could backfire
Matt Ridley
The state risks locking in the wrong technology too early My recent column for The Times on the arithmetic behind electric cars: The British government is under pressure to follow France and Volvo in promising to set a date by which to ban diesel and petrol engines in cars and replace them with electric […]
The deep divergence in African genomes
Matt Ridley
Modern human beings took a third of a million years to emerge My column in the Times on recent sensational discoveries relating to human evolution in Africa: News is dominated by sudden things — bombs, fires, election results — and so gradual news sometimes get left out. The past month has seen three discoveries in […]
The Sixth Genesis: a man-made, mass-speciation event
Matt Ridley
A book on how human beings are also increasing biodiversity My review of Chris Thomas’s fine book, Inheritors of the Earth: If human beings were to vanish from the Earth, what would their effect on wildlife have been? A rash of extinctions, a lot of mixing up so that wallabies and parakeets live in […]
Bootleggers and baptists in conservation
Matt Ridley
Bad green policies waste money My Times column on conservation and the British countryside: Even Michael Gove’s enemies concede he is good at tackling vested interests. Even his friends concede he has a knack for making enemies in the process. In his new job as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, […]
