The unspoken flaw in the so-called “fourth industrial revolution” and the various forms of green new deal that are meant to bring it about, is that renewable energy is supposed to simultaneously replace existing energy sources and provide the additional power for an entirely electrified economy.  The problem, for now, …

Among the most grating habits of government ministers is the tendency to answer a slightly different question to the one which was asked.  For example, in response to a question about how the government is going to respond to the recent report that more than 14 million Britons are living …

Having spent the past three years trying – and failing – to rewrite the outcome of the 2016 election, the US Democrat Party have finally woken up to the fact that there will be another election next year; and that the best way of getting rid of Trump is to …

Among the more foolish Tory delusions around Brexit was the belief that securing a trade deal with the EU27 would be simple.  As International trade secretary Liam Fox told BBC’s Today Programme two years ago: “The free trade agreement that we will have to do with the European Union should …

You wait centuries for an apocalyptic horseman to arrive and then two of them appear at once.  I refer, of course, to two of humanity’s oldest foes; famine and pestilence – both of which are in the news this month. Famine comes in the form of the unfolding calamity across …

Roughly as many (c. 65,000) French and British civilians died in World War Two as a result of aerial bombing.  This is not obvious given the way the war unfolded.  France was not subjected to aerial attack during the “phoney war” period between September 1939 and May 1940.  Moreover, the …

Just after midnight on 6 June 1944, Germany’s top spy in Britain – codename: Arabel – began transmitting from the bedroom of a quiet semi-detached house in the suburbs of London.  In the course of the next hour the agent disclosed to his handlers in Berlin the complete battle order …

One of the advantages of being a rocky island in the northeast Atlantic, right underneath the Gulf Stream is that you get to deploy record amounts of offshore wind turbines to delay the day when your economy grinds to a halt.  This is the reality of modern Britain – a …

More people signed that viral petition calling for a second Brexit referendum than voted for pro-remain parties in last week’s unplanned EU election.  Just to remind you what the outcome of the petition was – it resulted in the Tory Leader of the House, Andrea Leadsom responding that when the …

Rising food prices were a major contributor to the recession in 2010-11. Climate variation across Eurasia had resulted in a poor grain harvest that produced shortages around the planet.  As Troy Sternberg noted: “In 2010, the world wheat harvest was affected by changing weather patterns that led to shortages. Production …