Richard D North.

Here is a bit more on the conundrum of regulating financial risk when you know you shouldn't, really. My message is that regulators should aim to encourage market-driven self-regulation. Read more...

Buy Mr Cameron's Makeover Politics: Why old Tory stories matter to us all now at Amazon. My new book argues that  the Cameroons are being a bit timid in ignoring the great Tory back stories which have done the party - and the country - proud in the past. Read more...

The late Dominick Dunne, novelist and chronicler of celebrity trials, was by parts Taki, Jennifer's Diary, The Sunday Times Insight team, Edith Wharton, Thackeray, and J J Hunsecker (of The Sweet Smell of Success). Read more...

The less we regulate banks and financial firms, the safer we will be. Those of us that want safety, that is. (That would be me: I am morbidly timid.)  Here's 10 bullet points saying why. Read more...

The BBC won't survive the next five years without massive changes. It'll get (or keep) a lot less licence fee. It is much weaker than it ever has been. It is likely to be privatised. Read more...

Previously, I listed Karen Blixen's house outside Copenhagenand Kettle's Yard, Cambridge as my favourite interiors. Casting around for third, I wondered about including Charleston, the rustic Bloomsbury hangout. Now I have a better candidate: Matisse's chapel at Saint Paul de Vence. Read more...

The latest climate change row concerns a book by the "denier", Ian Plimer (an Australian geologist) and its most public critic, climate "alarmist", George Monbiot (of the Guardian). George seems to be winning hands-down at the moment. It happens that another Australian, Garth Paltridge, has also produced a climate change book, and it is sceptical rather than refusenik. I hope my review of the books, below, shows how they are both bad. Read more...