I digress … thoughts on fish & the environment
Aaron ‘Why Nations Fail’. The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty‘. Daron Acemoglu & James A.Robinson Once in a while, I’ll come across a remarkable book that makes my thinking on an issue wonderfully clear. A wonderful mind bend, that takes a few hours to benefit from, and that at the end brings clarity and understanding … Read more
A cold weekend is the perfect time to finish Vaclav Smil’s new book. Smil restores your faith that complex issues can be communicated clearly and with real evidence. People working in public policy and lobbying would be well served by reading Smil and emulating his style. Those who did so would stand out in Brussels … Read more
Trust is the gel that binds effective law and policy-making. It manifests itself in a simple operational rule that “your word is your bond”. If you give an undertaking to take a position or a voting line, you don’t back down from it. The idea of keeping your word is ancient. It is mentioned in … Read more
I gave a talk last month on influencing the new Commission’s agenda. My main message was that the direction of travel (in policy terms) was set and we are now down to the end game of refinement. I’m sure I saw some faces go pale. In the main, a few core documents lay out where … Read more