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Censorious students, online witch-hunts, religious dogma vs freedom My Times column on threats to the enlightenment itself: Mel Brooks said last week that comedy is becoming impossible in this censorious age and he never could have made his 1974 film Blazing Saddles today. A recent poll found that 38 per cent of Britons and 70 per cent […]

The harvesting of a hands-free hectare at Harper Adams is a harbinger My recent column in the Times on robots in agriculture:   If you will forgive the outburst of alliteration, the harvesting of a “hands-free hectare” at Harper Adams University has made headlines all around the world, in the technology press as well as […]

Protection against cyclones is necessary whether climate changes or not My recent Times column on Hurricanes Harvey and Irma:   As Hurricane Irma batters Florida, with Anguilla, Barbuda and Cuba clearing up and Houston drying out after Harvey, it is reasonable to ask whether such tropical cyclones are getting more frequent or fiercer. The answer […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 — […]

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 […]

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 […]