Utopia, you are standing in it!

As I sit and watch the turmoil at Westminster on the morning (afternoon in London) that Liz Truss announced her resignation; the morning that the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers scramble to find a leader in a week’s time; a seemingly firm date of October 31 for a budget statement from a recently appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer; and cries for an election, there seems to be no way forward that does not continue the chaos.  But there just may be a way to calm the waters somewhat.  A proper and timely use of prorogation.

Prorogation, where one session of Parliament ends and a new session is prepared for, has received much negative press and commentary in the last few years, in the UK and in Canada.It has been seen as a way for a Prime Minister and a government to avoid facing Parliament when there was an imminent need for a…

Here it is. This is the result of many months and years of work, and a lot of editing, and it should not be viewed as my work but rather as joint work of mine with Eric Goldwyn, Elif Ensari, and Marco Chitti. People should read the report, which talks about how to build in-house capacity and institutional support that does not involve American-style micromanagement and politiciziation.

We’re going to present on this in person at NYU in a day and a half, on Wednesday 10/26, at 11 am (moderated by Aaron Gordon) and again at 8 pm for people who can’t make it during work hours; this is at Marron’s office at 370 Jay Street on the 12th floor, room 1201. (I’m also separately on this panel about through-running, online, 10/25 at 6 pm New York time.)

We’ve managed to decompose much of the cost premium of…

Earlier this week, I explained the formalities that a person must undergo before they can become Prime Minister. Today, I will do the same thing for the other members of Her Majesty’s Government. This is a surprisingly complex subject since ministers take office in many different ways.

The Cabinet

Most Cabinet ministers formally take office at a meeting of the Privy Council. There are three oaths/affirmations involved: the Privy Counsellor’s Oath, the Oath of Allegiance, and the Oath of Office (however, if someone has already taken the Privy Council Oath and the Oath of Allegiance, they will not need to take them again). The oaths are taken while kneeling on little footstools, and afterward ministers kiss Her Majesty’s hand. Sometimes the gymnastics involved have proven too much for ministers. Richard Crossman records an incident where four Privy Counsellors found themselves on the wrong side of the room and ended up crawling toward the Queen on…

Boris Johnson married his partner Carrie Symonds at Westminster Cathedral over the weekend. According to a statement from the cathedral, he is now, in fact, a Roman Catholic. This simple statement raises awkward constitutional questions.

The Sovereign is formally responsible for making a number of appointments within the Church of England, and since the 18^th century those powers have usually been exercised on the Prime Minister’s advice. While the 20^th century saw the Church gain greater control over ecclesiastical appointments, Downing Street still remains part of the process.[1]

In the case of bishops, the Prime Minister’s role is limited. The Crown Nominations Commission gives Downing Street a single name and the Prime Minister invariably recommends that person to the Queen. However, that arrangement is not enshrined in law. In theory, there is nothing stopping Johnson or any other Prime Minister from rejecting the CNC’s nominee or asking…

After talking themselves up a couple of months ago the Democrats have had reality start catching up to them in the form of polling that now screens for likely voters rather than just registered voters, and is showing them in a lot of trouble.

A recent analysis of several polls by the US Lefty Luvvie fave, the NYT, showed that none of the issues that the Democrats care about are ones that the public cares about. This horrified the authors of the article, who expressed shock and surprise at this result, which is yet another unintended example of how useless they are as news media when living in such a bubble.

As usual the great American cartoonist, Michael Ramirez, captures it in one look.

The desperation induced by this mis-match of issues is also resulting in some behaviour that’s borderline illegal, as captured in Arizona.

After they spent money…

Every country in Europe that hitched its hopes to sunshine and breezes is now in a mad scramble to secure reliable power supplies, before winter starts to bite and demand soars.

Watching the debacle playing out across Europe, is a little like the old party game of musical chairs. Every time the music stops at least one player is bound to miss out, much to the amusement of the lucky contestants. Although, this time it’s when the wind stops and/or the sun sets that the unlucky player (or rather thousands of players) misses out.

Kathy Gyngell provides a rundown on a study by Alexander Stahel, a Swiss-based commodities expert, who reckons that situation Europeans have made for themselves is beyond critical and a catastrophe is looming and, when it hits, no one will be left laughing at the result.

The dark continent: How ‘green’ power insanity will black out Europe

Fred Laza writes at Financial Post Climate fantasies hit brick wall of U.S. politics.  Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images.

The reality of the energy transition could be ugly for politicians

The Biden administration’s attempt to lower gasoline prices before the November mid-terms has been both amusing and disappointing. First the president attributed the run-up in oil and gas prices to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Then his government drained about a million barrels a day from the strategic oil reserve. After six months of that and with gasoline prices creeping up again, Mr. Biden went to Saudi Arabia to ask Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his help in keeping oil prices from rising at least through to the mid-term elections.

The prince said no, which was totally predictable. It appears none of the foreign policy experts advising the president understands basic human relations, let…