It's Time to Remove the Prohibition on Nuclear

 It's time to remove the prohibition on nuclear energy [CC0]

If we're serious about net zero, we need to lift nuclear prohibition

The push for renewables is taking longer and costing more than planned. The federal government must remove the prohibition on nuclear if we are to achieve net zero. Nuclear must be part of the mix.

In my latest article in the Canberra Times, I argue that it's time to lift the prohibition on nuclear:https://t.co/p0KHL7if5n

— Le Flâneur Politique (@FlaneurPolitiq) February 20, 2024

The Institutional Origins of Canada’s Telecommunications Mosaic

Bell payphones at the Montreal Bus Station, 6th July 2007

Context: This is a work in progress article that stems from my PhD research over a decade ago. The paper suffers from numerous conceptual issues that remain unresolved and I am keen for feedback from the PPN group to progress my ideas. Alyssa Attioli, current graduand of the University of Canberra, has been working as a co-author on the paper.

With Alyssa Attioli at PPN2024

Abstract: The paper argues that the political circumstances leading up to Canadian Confederation resulted in a significant and lasting impact upon the institutional origins of Canada’s telecommunications market that persisted into the 21st century. It does so by first outlining the ideas and institutional dynamism that flowed from political rivalries in the lead-up to Confederation and coincided with the deployment of the telegraph. Second, the article discusses how commercial disputes created separate telegraph and telephone industries that embedded Canada’s unique telecommunications mosaic. The article concludes with a discussion of the importance of considering the local and regional imperative, and the legacies created by the original rationale, in developing national telecommunications policy. Canada’s approach sits somewhere between the private ownership model adopted by the United States and the public ownership model adopted in Australia. The major lesson from Canada is that, where diverse circumstances exist, addressing local and regional political imperatives can provide opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked by attempts to provide a standardised national solution in the delivery of telecommunications services to citizens.

The slides from our presentation are available below:

 

Conservatives have no solutions, or so the story goes

 

Adam Smith, the Father of Capitalism and a key proponent of classical liberalism (1723-1790) [CC0]

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Conservatives have no solutions, or so the story goes.

Alexandra Marshall in Unfiltered:

Leading Flat White, Michael de Percy addresses the criticism that ‘conservatives only have complaints, not solutions’ where he rightly points out that socialists keep inventing ‘solutions’ to problems that don’t exist which triggers some of these complaints. In this case, the best solution is to simply stop doing stupid things. If only the left would listen.

Terry Barnes in Morning Double-Shot:

But in the very next piece, Michael de Percy castigates conservatives and classical liberals for not having any solutions at all, and hence always playing catch-up to the Left. De Percy insists he’s a classical liberal and not a conservative, but we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: until the Centre-Right agrees on what unites us and defines who we are and what we stand for, the ideological wilderness is ours for years to come. Labels like ‘conservative’ and ‘classical liberal’ simply are barriers to ever finding that unity.

Conservatives have no solutions, or so the story goes
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Governments of socialist persuasions have, as part of their long march through the institutions of liberal democracies, managed to usurp the very principles of liberal democracy.

Fundamental to usurping liberal… pic.twitter.com/y2XwU7Vebl

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) February 11, 2024