There was always something Marie Antoinetteish about the UK government’s decision to appoint a tech millionaire as its “cost-of-living Tsar,” but then critics have renamed SW1 “Versailles on Thames” for good reason.  Anyway, no sooner had Mr Buttress got his feet under his new desk than he has sparked controversy.  …

One of the greatest skills of our political leaders is the ability to tell a blatant lie while keeping a straight face.  Like the one about how inflation – officially running at 9.1% last month – is being fuelled by workers’ pay increases.  That one has gathered pace this week …

History ended in 1991.  That, at least, was the myth put about by a certain triumphalist brand of neoliberal.  The West had won the cold war.  The communist beast had been slayed.  And the looming twenty-first century would be an American one.  From that point on, there would be just …

In 1998, the Brent crude price of a barrel of oil fell to 12.8 dollars – its lowest price since 1976.  By 2000, it had risen to its highest price – $28.4 – since 1984, beginning the period of oil price volatility which has persisted to this day.  After briefly …

Unravelling begins Cast your mind back to the Spring of 2020, and the odds are you will have discovered that, like me, you are not an “essential worker.”  Some 60 percent or so of us, it turned out, could sit around binge-watching Netflix all day without the wider world seemingly …

For as long as climate change was off in the distant future, governments have been able to trade warm words for concrete action.  In a similar vein, a certain kind of green politician has been able to trade on the pretence that ending fossil fuel use would come at no …

The lamps are going out… This morning I am reminded of the words of the British foreign secretary Edward Grey on the eve of the First World War: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”  Not, in this instance …

Let’s talk about “value.”  Value, at its simplest, is merely the consequences of acting upon the world in a manner which “improves” (some might say despoils) some part of it.  If, for example, someone takes a pile of timber, a saw and some glue and nails, and then turns it …

There is a story, attributed to Richard Buckminster Fuller, which uses the development of bridges as an example of technological progress.  The story begins with two groups of humans separated by a large ravine.  They can shout across to each other, and they soon come to understand each other’s language.  …

Windfall hot air Even now, the political class is treating rising energy prices as temporary – just like they thought inflation was temporary this time last year.  They would like you to believe that Russia – which has continued to supply oil and gas (which were expressly excluded from sanctions) …