Britain’s staggering productivity crisis explains so many of our woes
Matt Ridley
How is it possible that the public sector is no more productive today than it was in 1996, before the internet took off? Britain has a chronic productivity problem. As the American economy marches upwards in output per person, Britain limps behind. As Ben Southwood, Samuel Hughes and Sam Bowman have calculated, if GDP per hour […]
Matt Ridley
Only today the tax-grabbing barons are public sector fat cats.. and you’re the peasant funding their gold-plated pay rises Next week, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, apparently plans to raise the rate of national insurance paid by employers. But the government itself is a large employer, through the NHS for example. It has now occurred to […]
Whoever you vote for, the Blob wins
Matt Ridley
At the age of 66 I feel like a first-time voter. As a member of the House of Lords, I was not allowed to vote in the last three general elections. But I retired from the House in 2021, so democracy here I come. I shall scan the ballot paper with interest: who is standing […]
How Putin spent millions spreading fake news about fracking
Matt Ridley
My article for The Sun: When Lorraine Allanson spoke up in favour of drilling for shale gas in her part of North Yorkshire, activists cut off her internet, called her a “whore” and linked her to a fake crime number. “Shouting, abuse, public defecation, intimidation, hijacking lorries to stop deliveries, blocking the village street, this […]
The UK is sitting on a gas gold mine, while Putin has Europe’s energy market by the throat
Matt Ridley
It’s madness not to frack My article for The Sun: The price of gas is through the roof thanks to Vladimir Putin, who has Europe’s energy market by the throat. Britain is on track to spend a staggering £2BILLION on imported liquefied natural gas from Russia this year as war rages in Ukraine. Household bills […]
How global warming can be good for us
Matt Ridley
My article for Spiked: Global warming is real. It is also – so far – mostly beneficial. This startling fact is kept from the public by a determined effort on the part of alarmists and their media allies who are determined to use the language of crisis and emergency. The goal of Net Zero emissions […]
Testifying Before Parliament on the Origin of Covid (Full Video)
Matt Ridley
Our Testimony for the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons, This morning, Viral co-author Alina Chan and I testified before Parliament—specifically, the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons—on the search for the origin of COVID-19. It’s available to watch (and share) on YouTube, and we have shared clips on […]
Britain’s hubristic green commissars can’t see the wood for the trees
Matt Ridley
Storm Arwen showed the value of gas stoves and diesel, and the folly of our national forestry policy My article for the Telegraph: The one thing that cheered us Northumbrians up as we waited for power to come back on after Storm Arwen (some wit points out that naming these daughters of Boreas only seems […]
The Government is still fighting the wrong war on Covid-19
Matt Ridley
Their hasty over-reaction to the arrival of a new variant reflects just how little we truly understand this virus My article for the Telegraph: Here we go again, fighting the last war. Because governments are perceived to have moved too slowly to ban flights when the delta variant arose in India, we jumped into action […]
