Matt Ridley
The various ways our statistical reasoning lets us down My Times column on the frequent statistical reasoning mistakes that lead to bad policies: Budget week might be a good time to remind ourselves of the fallacies on which bad policies feed. Last year the University of Michigan’s Professor Richard Nisbett wrote a short book called […]
The possibilities opened up by gene editing
Matt Ridley
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 […]
How Europe deliberately made air pollution worse
Matt Ridley
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 […]
The sinister assault on free speech
Matt Ridley
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 […]
Thumb on the scale of temperature trends?
Matt Ridley
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 […]
British environmental policy after Brexit
Matt Ridley
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 […]
Matt Ridley
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 […]
How Brexit is different from Trumpit
Matt Ridley
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 […]
Nationalising British higher education is a mistake
Matt Ridley
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. […]
Matt Ridley
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 […]
