[-empyre-] Matt Ridley and northern rock

[sdv at krokodile.co.uk]

I was highly amused to read this critique of Matt Ridley from George 
Monbiot this morning.

Given Judith's discussion of Matt Ridley's work in the text, it's 
extremely useful  of George to remind us of the libertarian addiction to 
  neo-liberal economics of Matt Ridley.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2197247,00.html

I especially enjoyed the following:

Ridley, who has a DPhil in zoology, is no stranger to good science, and 
his explorations of our evolutionary history, which are often 
fascinating and provoking, are based on papers published in 
peer-reviewed journals. But whenever a conflict arose between his 
scientific training and the interests of business, he would discard the 
science. Ignoring hundreds of scientific papers that came to the 
opposite conclusion, and drawing instead on material presented by a 
business lobby group called the Institute of Economic Affairs, he argued 
that global temperatures have scarcely increased, so we should stop 
worrying about climate change. He suggested that elephants should be 
hunted for their ivory, planning laws should be scrapped, recycling 
should be stopped, bosses should be free to choose whether or not their 
workers get repetitive strain injury and companies, rather than 
governments, should be allowed to decide whether or not the food they 
sell is safe. He raged against taxes, subsidies, bailouts and government 
regulation. Bureaucracy, he argued, is "a self-seeking flea on the backs 
of the more productive people of this world ... governments do not run 
countries, they parasitise them".

Given that his bank is the first the collapse since 1866...

enjoy

steve