Matt Ridley
Encyclopedia
Matthew White Ridley, FRSL
, FMedSci
(born 7 February 1958, in Northumberland
) is an English
journalist, writer, biologist, and businessman.
from 1970–1975 and then went on to Magdalen College
of the University of Oxford
and completed a Bachelor of Arts with first class honours in zoology
and then a Doctor of Philosophy
in zoology
in 1983.
Ridley worked as the science editor of The Economist
from 1984 to 1987 and was then its Washington
correspondent from 1987 to 1989 and American editor from 1990 to 1992.
Ridley was non-executive chairman of the UK bank Northern Rock
from 2004 to 2007, in the period leading up to the bank's near-collapse.
He was the first chairman of the International Centre for Life
, a science park
devoted to life sciences in Newcastle, and he served in this position for seven years. He formerly had been a governor of the Ditchley Foundation
, which organises conferences at its stately home in Oxfordshire. He is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association
.
Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist (4th Estate) was shortlisted for the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson prize.
:
In Lewis Carroll
’s Through the Looking-Glass
, Alice meets the Red Queen who runs everywhere but stays in the same place. This book champions a Red Queen
theory for the evolution of sexual reproduction
: that it was invented to keep changing the genetic locks so as to remain one step ahead of constantly mutating parasites. The Red Queen also addresses dozens of other riddles of human nature
and culture – including why men propose marriage, the method behind our maddening notions of beauty, and why the human brain may be like the peacock’s tail – a seduction device.
In The Origins of Virtue, Ridley argues that the human mind has evolved a special instinct for social exchange that enables us to reap the benefits of co-operation, ostracise those who break the social contract and avoid the trap of being 'rational fools'. It traces the evolution of society first among genes, then among cells, then in ants, vampire bats, apes and dolphins, and finally among human beings. Along the way, it plays games with computers, traces the psychological roots of football riots, finds trade to be ten times as old as economists believe, compares dead mammoths to lighthouses, explains the evolution of human emotion
s and shows how to save the rain forest. In an interview with Foreign Policy
magazine, former US President Bill Clinton
named this book as one which had influenced his thinking.
The human genome
, the complete set of genes in 23 pairs of chromosome
s, is an 'autobiography' of our species. Spelled out in a billion three-letter words using the four-letter alphabet of DNA
, the genome
has been edited, abridged, altered and added to as it has been handed down, generation to generation, over more than three billion years. This generation is the first to read this book, and to gain hitherto unimaginable insights into what it means to be alive, to be human, to be conscious or to be ill. By picking one newly discovered gene from each of the 23 human chromosomes, and telling its story, Matt Ridley recounts the history of our species and its ancestors from the dawn of life to the brink of future medicine. James Watson
, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, described the book as "lucid and exhilarating".
This book chronicles a new revolution in our understanding of gene
s, recounting the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. The emerging truth is far more interesting than a stale antithesis between heredity
and environment. Nurture depends on genes, and genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain
; through the pattern of their turning on and off they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.
Ridley's biography of Francis Crick
won the Davis Prize for the history of science from the US History of Science Society.
Ridley also edited The Best American Science Writing 2002, one of a series of annual science writing anthologies edited by Jesse Cohen, and contributed a chapter to Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think
, a collection of essays in honour of his friend Richard Dawkins
(edited by his near-namesake Mark Ridley
).
Ridley creates a wide-ranging history of human society from early Hunter-gatherer
groups into the early 21st century. He argues that human beings have an often underestimated capacity for change and social progress. From early on in human evolution
, Ridley writes, trade
and other kinds of exchanges between groups "gave the Species an external, collective intelligence" (Ridley 350). He continues with histories of socio-economic progress under free market
capitalism
and democratic
civil institutions
. He then dismisses what he sees as overly pessimistic views of global climate change
and Western
birthrate decline. The book contains numerous graphs depicting social changes, such as how world GDP per person grew from about $1,000 in 1900 to $6,000 in 2000.
, whose family estate is Blagdon Hall
, near Cramlington
, Northumberland
. Ridley is married to the neuroscientist
Anya Hurlbert and lives in northern England; he has a son and a daughter. He is a great grandson of Sir Edwin Lutyens
.
from 2004 to 2007, earning £300,000 a year, having joined the board in 1994. His father had been chairman from 1987 to 1992 and sat on the board for 30 years.
In September 2007 Northern Rock
became the first British bank since 1878 to suffer a run on its finances at the start of the credit crunch. It was forced to apply to the Bank of England for emergency liquidity funding, following problems caused by the US subprime mortgage crisis
. Matt Ridley resigned as chairman in October 2007, having been blamed in parliamentary committee hearings for not recognizing the risks of the bank's financial strategy and thereby "harming the reputation of the British banking industry."
published by the Edge foundation
, Ridley wrote a response to the question "What's your dangerous idea?" which was entitled "Government is the problem not the solution", in which he describes his attitude to government regulation:
In 2007 the environmentalist George Monbiot
wrote an article in 'The Guardian' connecting Ridley's libertarian economic philosophy and the £27 billion failure of Northern Rock. In the same newspaper Terence Kealey defended libertarianism
, arguing that the performance of the government's regulatory agencies confirmed scepticism about state intervention, because the government had crowded out the market's own regulatory mechanisms.
On 1 June 2010 Monbiot followed up his previous article in the context of Matt Ridley's book 'The Rational Optimist', which had just been published. Monbiot took the view that Ridley had failed to learn from the collapse of Northern Rock.
Ridley has responded to Monbiot on his website, stating "George Monbiot’s recent attack on me in the Guardian is misleading. I do not hate the state. In fact, my views are much more balanced than Monbiot's selective quotations imply." On 19 June 2010 Monbiot countered with another article on the Guardian website, further questioning Ridley's claims and his response.
In November 2010, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy exchange between Ridley
and Microsoft
founder Bill Gates
on topics discussed in Ridley's book The Rational Optimist.
Gates wrote: Those two ideas, said Gates, are that "the key to rising prosperity over the course of human history has been the exchange of goods" and "rational optimism...there have been constant predictions of a bleak future throughout human history, but they haven't come true."
Gates went on to conclude
Ridley replied:
Ridley then summarized his own views in response to Gates:
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
, FMedSci
Academy of Medical Sciences
The Academy of Medical Sciences is the United Kingdom's national academy of medical sciences. It was established in 1998 on the recommendation of a group that was chaired by Michael Atiyah. Its president is John Irving Bell....
(born 7 February 1958, in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
) is an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
journalist, writer, biologist, and businessman.
Career
Ridley was educated at Eton CollegeEton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
from 1970–1975 and then went on to Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
of the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and completed a Bachelor of Arts with first class honours in zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
and then a Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
in 1983.
Ridley worked as the science editor of The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
from 1984 to 1987 and was then its Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
correspondent from 1987 to 1989 and American editor from 1990 to 1992.
Ridley was non-executive chairman of the UK bank Northern Rock
Northern Rock
Northern Rock plc is a British bank, best known for becoming the first bank in 150 years to suffer a bank run after having had to approach the Bank of England for a loan facility, to replace money market funding, during the credit crisis in 2007. Having failed to find a commercial buyer for...
from 2004 to 2007, in the period leading up to the bank's near-collapse.
He was the first chairman of the International Centre for Life
Centre for Life
The Centre for Life is a science centre located in the city centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is an educational charity which aims to promote greater interest and engagement in science as well as supporting scientific research...
, a science park
Science park
A research park, science park, or science and technology park is an area with a collection of buildings dedicated to scientific research on a business footing. There are many approximate synonyms for "science park", including research park, technology park, technopolis and biomedical park...
devoted to life sciences in Newcastle, and he served in this position for seven years. He formerly had been a governor of the Ditchley Foundation
Ditchley Foundation
The Ditchley Foundation is a British organisation based at Ditchley House near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, which aims to promote international relations, especially Anglo-American relations, through a programme of around fifteen annual conferences on matters of international interest...
, which organises conferences at its stately home in Oxfordshire. He is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association
British Humanist Association
The British Humanist Association is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes Humanism and represents "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs." The BHA is committed to secularism, human rights, democracy, egalitarianism and mutual respect...
.
Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist (4th Estate) was shortlisted for the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson prize.
Books
He is the author of several works of popular sciencePopular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...
:
- 1993 The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human NatureThe Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human NatureThe Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature is a popular science book by Matt Ridley exploring the evolutionary psychology of sexual selection...
In Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
’s Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
, Alice meets the Red Queen who runs everywhere but stays in the same place. This book champions a Red Queen
Red Queen's Hypothesis
The Red Queen's Hypothesis, also referred to as Red Queen, Red Queen's race or Red Queen Effect, is an evolutionary hypothesis. The term is taken from the Red Queen's race in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass...
theory for the evolution of sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction is the creation of a new organism by combining the genetic material of two organisms. There are two main processes during sexual reproduction; they are: meiosis, involving the halving of the number of chromosomes; and fertilization, involving the fusion of two gametes and the...
: that it was invented to keep changing the genetic locks so as to remain one step ahead of constantly mutating parasites. The Red Queen also addresses dozens of other riddles of human nature
Human nature
Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally....
and culture – including why men propose marriage, the method behind our maddening notions of beauty, and why the human brain may be like the peacock’s tail – a seduction device.
- 1996 The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation
In The Origins of Virtue, Ridley argues that the human mind has evolved a special instinct for social exchange that enables us to reap the benefits of co-operation, ostracise those who break the social contract and avoid the trap of being 'rational fools'. It traces the evolution of society first among genes, then among cells, then in ants, vampire bats, apes and dolphins, and finally among human beings. Along the way, it plays games with computers, traces the psychological roots of football riots, finds trade to be ten times as old as economists believe, compares dead mammoths to lighthouses, explains the evolution of human emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
s and shows how to save the rain forest. In an interview with Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...
magazine, former US President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
named this book as one which had influenced his thinking.
- 1999 Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 ChaptersGenome (book)Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters is a 1999 popular science book by Matt Ridley, published by Fourth Estate.The book devotes one chapter to each pair of human chromosomes. Since one chapter is required to discuss the sex chromosomes, the final chapter is number 22...
The human genome
Human genome
The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...
, the complete set of genes in 23 pairs of chromosome
Chromosome
A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...
s, is an 'autobiography' of our species. Spelled out in a billion three-letter words using the four-letter alphabet of DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
, the genome
Genome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
has been edited, abridged, altered and added to as it has been handed down, generation to generation, over more than three billion years. This generation is the first to read this book, and to gain hitherto unimaginable insights into what it means to be alive, to be human, to be conscious or to be ill. By picking one newly discovered gene from each of the 23 human chromosomes, and telling its story, Matt Ridley recounts the history of our species and its ancestors from the dawn of life to the brink of future medicine. James Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, described the book as "lucid and exhilarating".
- 2003 Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, & What Makes Us Human, also later released under the title The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nurture in 2004
This book chronicles a new revolution in our understanding of gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
s, recounting the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. The emerging truth is far more interesting than a stale antithesis between heredity
Heredity
Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve...
and environment. Nurture depends on genes, and genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
; through the pattern of their turning on and off they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.
- 2006 Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code
Ridley's biography of Francis Crick
Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
won the Davis Prize for the history of science from the US History of Science Society.
Ridley also edited The Best American Science Writing 2002, one of a series of annual science writing anthologies edited by Jesse Cohen, and contributed a chapter to Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think
Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think
Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think is a festschrift of 25 essays written in recognition of the life and work of Richard Dawkins. It was published in 2006, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the publication of The Selfish Gene. A wide range of topics are covered from...
, a collection of essays in honour of his friend Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
(edited by his near-namesake Mark Ridley
Mark Ridley (zoologist)
Mark Ridley is a British zoologist and writer on evolution.He studied at both Oxford and Cambridge in the 1980s , was a professor at Emory University, Atlanta, U.S.A., and - as of 2005 - works at the Department of Zoology, Oxford University...
).
- 2010 The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, published by 4th Estate. Reviewed in Nature 465, 294–295 (20 May 2010). The Rational Optimist was shortlisted for the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson prize.
Ridley creates a wide-ranging history of human society from early Hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
groups into the early 21st century. He argues that human beings have an often underestimated capacity for change and social progress. From early on in human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
, Ridley writes, trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
and other kinds of exchanges between groups "gave the Species an external, collective intelligence" (Ridley 350). He continues with histories of socio-economic progress under free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
civil institutions
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
. He then dismisses what he sees as overly pessimistic views of global climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
birthrate decline. The book contains numerous graphs depicting social changes, such as how world GDP per person grew from about $1,000 in 1900 to $6,000 in 2000.
Publications and articles
Ridley writes the weekly "Mind and Matter" column for the Wall Street Journal, which "explores the science of human nature and its implications". Recent writings include "Connecting the Pieces of the Alzheimer's Puzzle" and "Does a Different Nuclear Power Lie Ahead?".- "Where Progress Comes From: Africa Needs Growth, Not Pity and Big Plans", The Wall Street Journal (27 November 2010)
- "Humans: Why They Triumphed", The Wall Street Journal (22 May 2010)
- "Why ban genetic modification?", Wired (UK) (20 January 2010)
- "Will history condemn Al Gore?", Wired (UK) (4 December 2009)
- "When Ideas Have Sex: The Role of Exchange in Cultural Evolution", Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology (23 September 2009)
- "Why are we all getting cleverer?", Wired (UK) (9 June 2009)
- "Robber barons got rich by making things cheaper", Wired (UK) (21 April 2009)
- "Darwin's Legacy", National Geographic (February 2009)
- "Bjorn Lomborg", Time Magazine (April 26, 2004)
- "What Makes You Who You Are", Time Magazine (May 25, 2003)
- "Will We Clone a Dinosaur?", Time Magazine (April 10, 2000)
- "Life's Twisted Plot Line", Time Magazine (February 28, 2000)
- "Will We Still Need to Have Sex?", Time Magazine (November 8, 1999)
- Down to Earth: A Contrarian View of Environmental Problems (collection of columns from the Sunday TelegraphSunday TelegraphThe Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
), Institute of Economic Affairs (February 1995) - Down to Earth II: Combating Environmental Myths (collection of columns from the Daily Telegraph, Sunday TelegraphSunday TelegraphThe Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
and others), Institute of Economic Affairs (August 1997) - "Can Selfishness Save the Environment?" (co-author), The Atlantic (September 2003)
Personal
He is the son and heir of Viscount RidleyMatthew Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley
Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley, is a British nobleman, who served for approximately a decade as Lord Steward of the Household....
, whose family estate is Blagdon Hall
Blagdon Hall
Blagdon Hall is a privately owned country mansion near Seaton Burn, Northumberland which has Grade I listed building status.The estate has been in the ownership of the White Ridley family since 1698....
, near Cramlington
Cramlington
Cramlington is a town and civil parish in the county of Northumberland, North East England, situated north of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The town's name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or an Anglo-Saxon origin, the word "ton" meaning town. The population was estimated as 39,000 in...
, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. Ridley is married to the neuroscientist
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
Anya Hurlbert and lives in northern England; he has a son and a daughter. He is a great grandson of Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
.
Northern Rock
Ridley was non-executive chairman of Northern RockNorthern Rock
Northern Rock plc is a British bank, best known for becoming the first bank in 150 years to suffer a bank run after having had to approach the Bank of England for a loan facility, to replace money market funding, during the credit crisis in 2007. Having failed to find a commercial buyer for...
from 2004 to 2007, earning £300,000 a year, having joined the board in 1994. His father had been chairman from 1987 to 1992 and sat on the board for 30 years.
In September 2007 Northern Rock
Northern Rock
Northern Rock plc is a British bank, best known for becoming the first bank in 150 years to suffer a bank run after having had to approach the Bank of England for a loan facility, to replace money market funding, during the credit crisis in 2007. Having failed to find a commercial buyer for...
became the first British bank since 1878 to suffer a run on its finances at the start of the credit crunch. It was forced to apply to the Bank of England for emergency liquidity funding, following problems caused by the US subprime mortgage crisis
Subprime mortgage crisis
The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was one of the first indicators of the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages....
. Matt Ridley resigned as chairman in October 2007, having been blamed in parliamentary committee hearings for not recognizing the risks of the bank's financial strategy and thereby "harming the reputation of the British banking industry."
Debate over Ridley's political philosophy
In a 2006 edition of the on-line magazine EdgeEdge - the third culture
Edge is an online magazine exploring scientific and intellectual ideas published by the Edge Foundation.Scientists and others are invited to contribute their thoughts in a manner readily accessible to non-specialist readers...
published by the Edge foundation
Edge Foundation, Inc.
The Edge Foundation, Inc. is an organization of science and technology intellectuals created in 1988 as an outgrowth of The Reality Club. Its motto is 'To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together and have them ask...
, Ridley wrote a response to the question "What's your dangerous idea?" which was entitled "Government is the problem not the solution", in which he describes his attitude to government regulation:
In 2007 the environmentalist George Monbiot
George Monbiot
George Joshua Richard Monbiot is an English writer, known for his environmental and political activism. He lives in Machynlleth, Wales, writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain and Bring on the...
wrote an article in 'The Guardian' connecting Ridley's libertarian economic philosophy and the £27 billion failure of Northern Rock. In the same newspaper Terence Kealey defended libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
, arguing that the performance of the government's regulatory agencies confirmed scepticism about state intervention, because the government had crowded out the market's own regulatory mechanisms.
On 1 June 2010 Monbiot followed up his previous article in the context of Matt Ridley's book 'The Rational Optimist', which had just been published. Monbiot took the view that Ridley had failed to learn from the collapse of Northern Rock.
Ridley has responded to Monbiot on his website, stating "George Monbiot’s recent attack on me in the Guardian is misleading. I do not hate the state. In fact, my views are much more balanced than Monbiot's selective quotations imply." On 19 June 2010 Monbiot countered with another article on the Guardian website, further questioning Ridley's claims and his response.
In November 2010, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy exchange between Ridley
and Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
founder Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
on topics discussed in Ridley's book The Rational Optimist.
Gates wrote: Those two ideas, said Gates, are that "the key to rising prosperity over the course of human history has been the exchange of goods" and "rational optimism...there have been constant predictions of a bleak future throughout human history, but they haven't come true."
Gates went on to conclude
Ridley replied:
Ridley then summarized his own views in response to Gates:
External links
- Matt Ridley's website
- Treasury - Minutes of Evidence: Examination of Witnesses: Dr Matt Ridley, Chairman, Northern Rock
- Ridley interviewed for Massive Change Radio in January 2004
- Biography page on Edge.org
- Matt Ridley, "We've never had it so good - and it's all thanks to science," The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 3 April 2003. Article in newspaper. - Matt Ridley, "What's your dangerous idea?"The EdgeThe EdgeDavid Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
On-line magazine 2006 - Matt Ridley, "Darwin's Legacy", National Geographic, February 2009.
- Matt Ridley, "Putting Darwin in Genes", Thinking Digital, May 2009.
- Matt Ridley, 'When Ideas Have Sex', a video of his TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
talk