Leaving the European Union would be a leap into the light
Matt Ridley
Harmonisation, EU style, is bad for innovation My Times column on why the EU is bad for innovation: For me, in the end, it’s all about innovation. The European Union is bad at doing it, good at discouraging it, repeatedly sides with those who have vested interests in resisting it, and holds Britain back from […]
Matt Ridley
Giving people the lesser of two evils — for drugs, HIV and smoking My Times column on harm reduction The UN General Assembly is holding a special meeting on drug policy in April, its first since 1998. The mood of member states, as well as many international agencies, is now much less focused on law […]
Low oil prices are a good thing
Matt Ridley
The shale revolution has changed the world My Times column on the causes and consequences of low oil prices: The continuing plunge in the price of oil from $115 a barrel in mid-2014 to $30 today is really, really good news. I know just about every economic commentator says otherwise, predicting bankruptcies, stock market crashes, […]
Staying in the European Union could be the riskier option for Britain
Matt Ridley
The renegotiation of Britain’s membership has achieved little My column in The Times on Britain’s EU membership referendum: Public opinion about the European Union is divided, like Gaul, into three parts: one third are already firmly in the “leave” camp, one third would remain in whatever happens, and the tussle is over who gets the […]
The ecological restoration of South Georgia
Matt Ridley
The success of a bold bid to rid a subantarctic island of rats and deer My column in The Times on how South Georgia’s environment has been repaired: In claiming the Falklands, the Argentinian government also claims South Georgia, even though it is 700 miles further away from its coast, was unambiguously claimed by Captain Cook when […]
Britain’s flooding is a land management issue
Matt Ridley
It’s about slowing water in the uplands and speeding it in the lowlands My Times column on the winter floods in Britain: My invitation to serve on the government’s flood defence review seems to have got stuck in the Christmas post. So here’s a memo, based on Northumberland gossip as well as published papers, for how […]
How Capability Brown recreated the African savanna
Matt Ridley
Our favourite landscapes echo our past habitat My Times column on the Capability Brown tercentenary: Next year marks the 300th birthday of Lancelot Brown at Kirkharle, in Northumberland, the man who saw “capability” in every landscape and indefatigably transformed England. In his 280 commissions, Capability Brown stamped his mark on some 120,000 acres, tearing out […]
Badgers are driving hedgehogs extinct
Matt Ridley
A classic case of meso-predator release hurting another species My Times column on the hedgehog decline, and the effect of badgers: Hedgehogs, subjects of the Times Christmas Appeal, are to get their own summit, the Environment Secretary Liz Truss said last week. Hedgehogs really are in trouble. Their numbers have plunged, their range has shrunk […]
Matt Ridley
Why multilateral negotiation is so difficult My Times column on the underwhelming results of the climate conference and Britain’s renegotiation with the European Union: There’s an uncanny similarity between the climate negotiations that climaxed in Paris at the weekend and David Cameron’s European Union reform negotiations, which continue in Brussels this week. The original […]
Matt Ridley
Mark Zuckerberg’s generosity is welcome My Times column on the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative: Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan marked the birth of their daughter Max by promising to donate 99 per cent of their Facebook shares during their lifetimes to support good causes. For this they were pilloried by some. The economist Thomas Piketty […]
