Posts in Government
Wish I'd said that - December 12, 2019

"Montesquieu seems, in fact, to have looked on the nature of man as entirely plastic, as passively reproducing the impressions, and submitting implicitly to the impulses, which it receives from without. And here no doubt lies the error which vitiates his system as a system. He greatly underrates the stability of human nature.... those qualities which each generation receives from its predecessors, and transmits but slightly altered to the generation which follows it."

Henry Sumner Maine Ancient Law (re L’Esprit des Lois)

Why you should be pulling for Boris even if you'd rather not

In my latest National Post column I say Britain needs a Tory victory because (a) Corbyn is a loathsome anti-Semite (b) democracy requires you to respect referendum results and (c) self-government requires a functioning parliament, which the UK hasn’t had since 2016.

Carbon taxes don't work

In BOE Report I argue that even a would-be economically sensible defence of carbon taxes from the Ecofiscal Commission totally misses the key economic point that, because there are no good substitutes for gas, if you raise the price then give the money back in rebates people will use it to afford more expensive gas, and if you don’t give it back they’ll economize on other things to afford more expensive gas.