Proof positive that Nick Cohen is teetering on the edge, near to actually becoming a proper liberal, the classical kind. The bad bit:

Maybe it is, but the French and the Americans are proving that the
internet, like every other human activity, can be regulated by law and
Britain’s state-sponsored gambling explosion is needless as well as
pernicious.

Still too much belief in the ability of the State to regulate behaviour. It’s true that both France and the US have passed laws to regulate internet gambling but…..are they actually effective laws? Are they in fact regulating internet gambling, or are they useless laws?

On the plus side:

At a meeting of the members of the World Bank in Singapore today,
politicians from dozens of countries will discuss whether they are for
corruption or against it. A surprisingly large number will be for it.
Not that they will be asking for bribes themselves, you understand:
these are men and women of the highest integrity. Rather, they will say
that if aid to the Third World sometimes means taking money from poor
people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor
countries, then the World Bank should stop being so agitated about it.
…
I hope you can see that Wolfowitz agitates so many people because he
raises questions that have no easy answers. I’m not fit to provide
them. All I can suggest is that it would be a mistake for the French,
Oxfam, Christian Aid, Benn and all the rest of them to get into the
position where it is ‘neoconservative’ to oppose corruption.

Quoting Peter Bauer is a good sign, especially using him in opposition to the French, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Benn and all the rest of them. He was, you may recall, given his peerage by St. Maggie. Not quite being able to bring himself to note that he’s quoting Bauer shows that there is still some way to go though: just not quite there yet and up with Uncle Milty’s most important point, that it is outcomes that matter, not intentions.