Utopia, you are standing in it!

Italy votes in general elections today. The Brothers of Italy is expected to be the largest party, in a pre-electoral alliance with the League and Forza Italia that may end up with a substantial majority of seats in both houses.

The electoral system is similar to that used in 2018 in that it is mixed-member majoritarian despite having just over 60% of seats elected in the party-list proportional component of the system. In an important sense, however, this year’s version is even more majoritarian–the size of both chambers has been reduced substantially. Other things equal–as they are–a smaller assembly is less proportional (or “permissive” to small parties). And when you combine a relatively majoritarian system with a smaller assembly, you get a more majoritarian system overall. The new Chamber of Deputies, at 400 seats, is closer to the cube root law expectation for a country the size of…

During the recently concluded Conservative leadership contest, the government appeared to be in a holding pattern, taking little or no action of substance until the election of Boris Johnson’s successor. But did the government, which had a substantial parliamentary majority and an electoral mandate, need to act as if it was merely a ‘caretaker’? Robert Hazell explains that the rules around a ‘lame duck’ PM remain fuzzy, and argues that steps must be taken to clarify the position as soon as possible.

Something very strange happened at Westminster over the summer: a government which enjoyed a comfortable working majority of 71 seats was declared to be a caretaker which could not take any major decisions. It was variously accused of being a ‘zombie government’ ‘asleep at the wheel’, and incapable of taking urgent decisions required by the energy crisis. In its defence the government might…

Britain’s power consumers (or what’s left of them) are brewing for a full-scale revolt.

12 months ago, the average annual energy bill was £1,400 ($2,400). Energy industry analyst Cornwall Insight forecasts that the British price cap will skyrocket and the average annual bill will reach £3,582 ($6,177) next month. By January, it predicts it will be £5,000 (almost $10,000) a year. No wonder Brits are furious.

And a fair degree of that fury rests on the fact that they have been lied to for the best part of 20 years.

You know, the usual rubbish about our ‘inevitable’ transition to an all wind and sun powered future bringing cheap and abundant electricity to all. An apparently easy sell, driven by the meme about the wind being ‘free’ and that the ‘sun’ is cheaper still. And yet, for some strange reason, every single country that has attempted to run on sunshine…

I strongly supportedBrexit in part because I wanted the United Kingdom to have both the leeway and the incentive to adopt pro-market policies.

Imagine my disappointment, then, when subsequent Conservative Prime Ministers did nothing (Theresa May) or expanded the burden of government (Boris Johnson).

Where was the reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher? Didn’t the Tory Party understand the need to restrain big government?

Perhaps my prayers have finally been answered. After jettisoning Boris Johnson (albeit for scandal rather than bad policy), the Tories elected Liz Truss to lead the nation.

And she appointed Kwasi Kwarteng to be Chancellor of the Exchequer (akin to U.S. Treasury Secretary). The two of them have just unveiled some major changes in U.K. fiscal policy.

Allister Heath’s editorial for the Telegraph has a celebratory tone.

…the best Budget I have ever heard a British Chancellor deliver, by a massive margin. The…

Power-starved Brits and Germans will soon tell you how important having power on demand truly is. And they’ll also tell you what it’s like to receive a power bill that you’ve absolutely no hope of paying.

After years of telling us how cheap and easy our inevitable transition to an all-wind and sun-powered future would be, with examples like Germany and Britain, the story is beginning to fall flat.

Rather than some brightly lit Nirvana, our wind and solar-powered future is looking more miserable by the day.

As they say in politics, the mob soon works you out.

Well, the number who have identified the scale and scope of the great renewable energy fraud is growing, and they’re growing angrier by the day. Something has to give.

Michael Shellenberger isn’t alone in his view that the days of the West’s obsession with wind and solar are numbered.

End Of Renewables…

Stardate: 4523.3 (2268)
Original Air Date: December 29, 1967
Writer: David Gerrold
Director: Joseph Pevney

“Where they’ll be no tribble at all…”

At last we arrive at this classic fan-favorite, a campy light-hearted romp featuring everyone’s favorite tiny furry alien creatures. The Enterprise is approaching Deep Space Station K-7 (perhaps foreshadowing for DS9) which is located in a disputed quadrant near a planet known as “Sherman’s Planet” which has been claimed by both the Federation and the Klingons since the Battle of Donatu V which took place about 23 solar years ago. Spock notes the Enterprise is within one parsec of the nearest Klingon outpost so this will be a tricky mission. However the quadrant which includes Deep Space Station K-7 and the nearby Sherman’s Planet is actually protected by writ of neutrality under the Organian Peace Treaty (the treaty was established in the…

It may well take some time for the dust to settle on Kwasi Kwarteng’s first Budget (yes, ‘Budget’: if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s fair to call it a duck).

The initial reaction from most economic commentators and in the financial markets has been a loud boo! There are some things I would have done differently. But the overall strategy is sound and sentiment should recover as the economic benefits become clearer.

There are two aspects I particularly liked. One is the emphasis on breaking the ‘doom loop’ of weak economic growth and rising taxes, both with tax cuts and – at least as importantly – structural reforms on the supply-side.

The second is the willingness to take decisions that are unpopular but still right for the economy, such as scrapping the cap on bankers bonuses and abolishing the…