Bees are dying in record numbers – and now the US government admits that an extremely common class of pesticide, called neonicotinoids (or neonics) are at least partially to blame. Neonics, of which there are five types, are marketed by European chemical giants Bayer, BASF and Sygenta. Millions of acres of farmland are treated with …
One of the sillier historical anomalies is the status of Gibraltar, ceded to Britain at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. At that time Britain actually had a powerful fleet and could hope to dominate the Mediterranean. Gibraltar is still a strategic …
It often seems unfair that referendums are used to decide weighty questions of national policy, says Bruno S. Frey. We Swiss know all about this: we have a long history of big decisions made by tiny margins. Switzerland would be part of the European Economic Area had a proposal to join not been defeated in …
The American election and Brexit have illuminated one important point: “trickle down” economics have finally been exposed for the fraudulent nonsense it always was. The idea was that if you give the rich and the entrepreneurial their heads and allow them free rein to make money, their wealth will trickle down to mere mortals. Well, …
Montaigne “All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate”. (Michel de Montaigne)
