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Medicine, agriculture and conservation all stand to benefit   My recent Times column on gene editing’s possibilities: Scientists at the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, said last week that they had edited the genomes of pigs, rendering them immune to a dangerous virus. The announcement is extraordinary precisely because it sounds almost routine these days. Gene […]

The dash for diesel was the result of lobbying by greens and companies My Times column on Britain’s self-inflicted diesel scandal: Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, is right to try to switch the capital away from diesel engines as fast as possible, even if this is tough on those duped into buying diesel cars […]

Why is feminism making common cause with religion against freedom?   A longer version of my Times column on free speech: “In a free state, tongues too should be free,” wrote Erasmus 501 years ago. In truth, although Britain was often more tolerant than many countries, people have never been entirely free to speak their […]

A whistleblower exposes political bias in data recording My Times column on the revelations of problems with the global surface temperature record at NOAA: Back in December, some American scientists began copying government climate data onto independent servers in what press reports described as an attempt to safeguard it from political interference by the Trump […]

Outside the EU, UK can devise a policy based on results, not intentions My Times column on British environmental policy:   Andrea Leadsom, the agriculture and environment secretary, is to set out her plans for the British countryside in two green papers: one on the environment this week and one on farming later. She should […]

Too much state intervention was a mistake in the past My Times column on the Industrial Strategy: Theresa May’s “modern industrial strategy”, launched today, must avoid the ignominious fate of its predecessors. One by one they failed. Diagnosis of Britain’s problems is not difficult; treatment is harder. How can a government close the productivity gap, improve […]

The big difference is that Britain seeks more, not less, free trade My Times column on Brexit, Trump and free trade:   In the week that Theresa May reveals the trajectory of Brexit and Donald Trump enters the White House, these two “revolutions” are once again linked by coincidence of timing. For much of the […]

Heavy-handed regulation will deter innovation My Times column on UK university policy: The government’s higher education bill will run a gauntlet of opposition starting today in the House of Lords, where many members are chancellors, fellows or other panjandrums of the grander universities. Some criticisms will be self-serving and wrong: the bill has good features. […]

Starting in 1917 communism did more harm than good whenever tried My Times column on the year that marks the centenary of the Russian revolution:   Human beings can be remarkably dense. The practice of bloodletting, as a medical treatment, persisted despite centuries of abundant evidence that it did more harm than good. The practice […]

Evolution, the double helix, IVF, DNA fingerprinting and more… My Times column on Britain’s strong track record in the life sciences:   Mitochondrial replacement therapy (misleadingly termed three-parent babies) is to be permitted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. I’m glad. The scientists who have developed the technique, Sir Doug Turnbull, Mary Herbert and […]