There have been some high profile (if not high level) Blairite defections to the Tories. While there are some similarities between the Blair legacy and our coalition partners, the defectees seem to have overlooked or discarded one idea – joining the Liberal Democrats. As Jonathan Powell says in his book, The New Machiavelli, and as

More bloodshed in Syria, protests in Egypt, and a ramping up of tensions between Israel and Iran. It would be hard to think of a more dangerous period in this the most contentious region on the planet, which given its location at the epicentre of the ongoing struggle over control of the planet’s natural resources

To summarise the current UK position, ‘demand management’ is out (no money left and anyway it didn’t work), so growth must come from supply-side measures (excluding subsidies or protectionism), and from ‘natural’ private sector growth (born of financial stability and debt reduction). With the peculiar separation in the UK which has evolved between ...

Britain has an excellent track record in science and research, with many great figures in natural sciences, humanities, computing, computing, engineering and mathematics over the years. We continue to outperform other countries in our achievements in these fields, in terms of outputs per person and per pound. We publish 13.8% of the world’s most cited

US president prepares to unveil measures including tax break for gas-fuelled trucks as part of effort to promote ‘American-made energy’

Russian natural gas producer Gazprom has yielded to requests from several European companies for easier gas supply terms as it seeks to keep its market share in face of weakening fuel demand due to economic difficulties in the region. More »

If you are depressed about the economic state of the world, one way to cheer yourself up is to google things like "fracking" or "natural gas". Another is to try "3D printing". That was how I found my way to this piece, about a company which has started selling 3D printers to … people. From what I can make out, each printer now costs something like two thousand dollars, more or less...

Now and again, when the subject of environmental alarmism comes up, someone - such as the likes of me - might wonder when, or whether, a mainstream, high-profile politician in an important country will get up and stick it to the Green lobby. For perhaps obvious economic reasons, given its vast natural resources, Canada seems to be the country where this is starting to seriously happen. Consider th...

The world is "dangerously unprepared" for natural disasters because governments are not funding a key crisis fund, Andrew Mitchell has warned.

US gas prices are already well below Europe's. Some predict a further drop in 2012. Indeed Adam Sieminski, Chief Energy Economist, Global Markets, at Deutsche Bank, questioned whether advances in shale and tight oil drilling, which are building on technology developed for natural gas shales, might open up so many new oil resources that they would upend everyone's expectations in a couple...