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Richard Wellings

1 December 2009

8 comments

Faced with ambitious climate change targets, the government has decided that nuclear power will play a leading role in supplying the UK’s future electricity needs. Ten new plants will be built...

Climategate: some comments by Prof. S. Fred Singer

S. Fred Singer

25 November 2009

37 comments

The Climategate disclosures over the past few days, consisting of some thousand of emails between a small group of British and US climate scientists, suggest that global warming may...

Mr Gorbachev, take out this Wall

Kristian Niemietz

13 November 2009

10 comments

The metaphor of ‘tearing down the Berlin Wall’ has come to be used in a quite inflationary way, and this phenomenon usually peaks around the 9th of November. At this time of the year,...

How NGOs hijack policy in Africa

Mike Norton-Griffiths

11 November 2009

2 comments

My research in Kenya provides disturbing evidence of how foreign NGOs (non-governmental organisations) leverage their financial strength and access to the establishment to insert their single issue...

What this year’s Nobel Prize winners can teach the Conservatives

Philip Booth

19 October 2009

2 comments

Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson, the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics, have much to contribute to contemporary economic debate. But their ideas should have particular resonance in...

Should the UK introduce a carbon tax?

Richard Wellings

24 September 2009

comments

Earlier this month, President Sarkozy announced plans to introduce a carbon tax in France. The UK could follow suit. A widely applied new tax, justified on environmental grounds, could prove popular...

Obama’s folly: high-speed rail in America

Richard Wellings

10 September 2009

13 comments

From China to California, the current slump has been marked by enthusiasm for high-speed rail. Projects typically form part of some kind of “Keynesian” stimulus package. Here in Britain...

Fuel duty: the hidden costs

Richard Wellings

3 September 2009

16 comments

Fuel duty rose by 2p this week, the third increase in the last ten months. Governments tend to view petrol taxes as a convenient source of revenue when budget deficits are high. Indeed, the last...

Enemy at the Gates: the lonely struggle of a Welsh Gaul

Kristian Niemietz

13 August 2009

16 comments

Machynlleth, a small town in Wales, is under attack from a vicious superpower. The Guardian’s local correspondent reports first hand from the heart of the combat zone: “it...

Bog off, DEFRA

Len Shackleton

12 August 2009

14 comments

The Times tells us that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is demanding that food retailers agree to tough targets on reducing food waste, or else face legislation...

Fickle as the wind

Bruno Prior

10 August 2009

comments

Aggregation is the ignis fatuus of modern modes of thought. Sums beguile. Averages bamboozle. Reality is found at the margins.

Fickle as the wind

Bruno Prior

10 August 2009

14 comments

Aggregation is the ignis fatuus of modern modes of thought. Sums beguile. Averages bamboozle. Reality is found at the margins. Take the government’s plans for wind-power to supply around 22%...

The dark side of climate change policy

Richard Wellings

29 July 2009

18 comments

The government recently announced a series of measures designed to make Britain a low-carbon economy, including a large expansion of renewable energy (primarily wind), grants for better home...

How Boris can beat the RMT

Richard Wellings

11 June 2009

26 comments

The RMT has once again brought London to a standstill with a 48-hour strike. This is a good example of public choice theory at work, in particular Mancur Olson’s logic of collective action. A...

Why PPPs may offer poor value for money

Richard Wellings

8 June 2009

8 comments

For several decades the British economy has been hampered by the poor quality of its infrastructure. Whether in transport, education or health, investment has typically been low by international...

Airports policy: backing the wrong horse

David Starkie

26 February 2009

4 comments

The Department of Transport received a rude awakening last year when in August the Competition Commission released its Emerging Thinking report as part of its market reference inquiry into BAA. This...

Heathrow expansion vs high-speed rail

Richard Wellings

23 January 2009

20 comments

The Conservative Party has proposed an alternative to the £9 billion expansion of Heathrow. A high-speed rail line would be constructed along the route London-Birmingham-Manchester-Leeds to...

Emma Thompson, Heathrow expansion and revealed preferences

John Meadowcroft

15 January 2009

12 comments

Economists often identify a dichotomy between people’s stated preferences and the preferences that are revealed when people are actually required to choose between scarce uses of their...

Alan Walters’ enduring work on road pricing

Philip Booth

6 January 2009

8 comments

Alan Walters was a great figure in economics. The obituaries today focus mainly on his contributions to macro-economics and as an advisor to Mrs Thatcher. I would like to make a brief comment about...

Challenging the activists on climate change

Colin Robinson

29 December 2008

2 comments

Politicians and ‘opinion leaders’ claim that damaging climate change is in prospect unless drastic centralised action is taken. The prevailing view about climate change action is part of...

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