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In any reasonable top-10 list of things the Parliament’s health experts should be working on, the pandemic takes every slot. So why is the Health Select Committee right now working on regulate vaping? Read more

One wonders what French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire would have made of the Free Speech Union (FSU). Set up by British journalist Toby Young, the FSU presents itself as a “non-partisan, mass-membership organisation that stands up for the speech rights of its members.” An organisation to promote free speech – what nobler cause could there be? Read more

It took a little while after the Christchurch earthquakes to wrap our heads around that a lot of the city would never be as it was. We had to adjust to the new normal. Read more

In a prior academic life, I taught public choice – the economic analysis of political decision-making. During the week of lessons on the economics of bureaucracy, the students went through the consequences of the bureaus holding an information advantage over their ministerial masters. Read more

Journalism and opinion are supposed to be clearly separated, but that difference is shrinking – and perhaps disappearing. Objective reporting is like utopia, it cannot really exist. Read more

Depending on your own experience with dating apps, you might be surprised to learn that success in the online dating market is not distributed equally. So, this Valentine’s Day, spare a thought for those struggling to find love among the insidious and “unjust” inequality on apps like Tinder or Bumble. Read more