What is it with journalists in this country? 2

Matt Nolan at TVHE points us to this piece of economic genius from Chris Barton in the Herald:

Those who call for a cost-benefit analysis of the plan don't understand the internet

No, those who call for not doing a cost-benefit study don't understand cost-benefits studies. As Matt notes,

His implicit point is that there are benefits in the future, and there is uncertainty around how these benefit will pan out – while this is true, it makes a proper cost-benefit analysis more important, not less. Bleh.

Bleh indeed. Surely it is not too much to ask for a journalist to actually learn about cost-benefits studies before talking about them.