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Was an English Enlightenment delayed by the Hanoverian succession? I have a piece in the latest Spectator on the tercentenary of King George I:   The centenary of the start of the first world war is getting much more attention than the tricentenary of the accession of George I, which also falls this week. As […]

Choosing what to put in place of the Millennium Development Goals My recent essay in the Wall Street Journal discusses how to prioritise development aid:   In September next year, the United Nations plans to choose a list of development goals for the world to meet by the year 2030. What aspirations should it set […]

Too much cost, not enough output or too little emissions reduction My Times Column explores why renewable energy has been so disappointing. On Saturday my train was diverted by engineering works near Doncaster. We trundled past some shiny new freight wagons decorated with a slogan: “Drax — powering tomorrow: carrying sustainable biomass for cost-effective renewable […]

Segregating schoolchildren by faith is a bad idea My Times column is on religion in schools: We now know from Peter Clarke’s report, published today but leaked last week, that there was indeed “co-ordinated, deliberate and sustained action to introduce an intolerant and aggressive Islamist ethos into some schools” in Birmingham. Whistleblowers first approached the […]

Arguments against reproductive technologies appeal to a false analogy My Times column tackles the misleading metaphor of the slippery slope:   Who first thought up the metaphor of the slippery slope? It’s a persistent meme, invoked in many a debate about ethics, not least over the assisted dying bill for which I expect to vote […]

The broadcaster bowing to pressure from green activists My Times column on the BBC’s unbalanced environmental coverage: The BBC’s behaviour grows ever more bizarre. Committed by charter to balanced reporting, it has now decided formally that it was wrong to allow balance in a debate between rival guesses about the future. In rebuking itself for […]

Fighting pests with genes is better than fighting them with sprays My Times column on GM crops: The news that Britain could soon grow genetically modified crops commercially is a victory for common sense over irrational opportunism, and also for the environment over pollution. Under pressure from the European Union’s health and consumer commissioner, Tonio […]

The flimsy evidence behind low-fat diets My Times column on low-fat diets and the evdience behind them: The diet police are on the prowl: if you hear a knock on the door, hide the sugar bowl, the butter dish and the salt. A draft report from the scientific advisory committee on nutrition said last week […]

The only way to get dangerous global warming is to assume stagnation Here’s a version of the article I published in the Financial Post this week with added links:   The debate over climate change is horribly polarized. From the way it is conducted, you would think that only two positions are possible: that the […]

Too few property rights at sea, too many underground My Times column was on when property rights are too strong; though in other cases they are too weak.   The government is consulting on whether to amend the law so that you cannot stop a gas or geothermal company from drilling a horizontal well a […]