Australia’s greatest weakness
Tony Abbott, the ‘masochist’ conservative warlord
It’s all hands on deck to save the Liberal Party (not necessarily the Coalition). The return of former Prime Minister…
The watershed legal moment that could drown Australia in climate reparations
Something terrifying happened last week. The UN General Assembly supported the International Court of Justice in its shameless climate crusade…
Angus Taylor calls the PM an ‘arrogant pr–k’
The Leader of the Opposition, Angus Taylor, has dished out a bit of much-needed character. Angus Taylor quietly interjected ‘arrogant prick’…
Alex Antic doesn’t like Paris either
Calling the Paris Agreement ‘just a piece of paper’ is a mistake that will haunt the Coalition, possibly all the…
The political pendulum is moving to the centre-right
When explaining the dramatic rise of One Nation, surging from just over 6 per cent of the primary vote at…
The Architecture Cult
Like so many others, I was lured into architecture as a child by the seductive glow of British television. Grand…
The ‘tradwife’ question
Recently, 60 Minutes ran a segment on tradwives: the women who have stepped away from the ordinary demands of a…
Australia’s greatest weakness
Australia should be one of the most resilient nations on Earth. We possess enormous mineral wealth, abundant agricultural land, vast…
What did I miss?
From Port Havannah, Vanuatu: What have you missed? If you’ve had a gutful of trending politics like me, probably all of it.…
The new aristocracy doesn’t wear crowns
A few weeks ago, Senator Dave Sharma used Senate Estimates to question why a government-appointed fuel security coordinator was being…
Is deradicalisation ‘coercion’?
We have been hearing that word ‘deradicalisation’ tossed around again of late, normally as a question: ‘Will they undertake a…
A house divided
What does it mean to be a conservative in modern society? The Centre Right in Australia has been engaged in…
America’s Dien Bien Phu moment?
In this essay, I pose a question related to the rise and fall of empires. Does the current impasse over…
Desperate tears, who cares?
‘By 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty.’ – Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke (June 23, 1987) It’s…
Sudan’s forgotten children
While much of the world remains transfixed by Ukraine, Gaza, and the endless convulsions of American politics, one of the…
The ‘Pilbara killer’ and the ‘lithium triangle’
Annual contract negotiations between BHP and China’s Mineral Resources Group, which now coordinates purchasing for roughly 80 per cent of…
Bringing back the disillusioned
A good friend, whose views on the world are pretty close to my own, is used to being ignored in…
How a feminised public square lost the plot on sex
I have often heard gender ideology described as a new kind of misogyny – and in its material impact, it…
The Pahlavi Crown
The Pahlavi Crown, created for the coronation of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1926, was intentionally designed to reflect the grandeur…
Time to end the d–khead slur?
Fanny. In West Central Scotland – where my formative grasp of English was forged – we used to playfully dub…
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner loses again – A victory for free speech | Celine Baumgarten S3 Ep 18
Celine Baumgarten (Celine Against the Machine) has celebrated her SECOND victory against the eSafety Commissioner. This wasn’t only a personal…
Did Donald Trump conquer the world with witty insults? | Joel Gilbert S3 Ep 17
Did Donald Trump conquer the world with witty insults? I’m joined by Joel Gilbert to discuss the genius of humour…
Digital tyranny or ‘child safety’? 😵 & the bitcoin revolution | Efrat Fenigson S3 Ep 16
When Australia’s Under 16 social media ban started locking adult political writers out of #Substack – it was just the…
Lies and deception
When I was growing up, a clear distinction was always made between right and wrong. It wasn’t as if my…
If only Labor took Enoch Powell’s advice
‘You don’t tax a loss. You only tax a profit.’ That was the great insight of Enoch Powell six decades…
Just repeal and undo
How many readers have noticed this huge failing in so many long-standing, establishment conservative political parties around the democratic world?…
Caliphate by other means
The return of Isis ‘brides’ alongside the anticipated trial of an alleged Isis-inspired Bondi terrorist has forced Australia to revisit…
Who is an Aborigine?
The definition of Aboriginal has shifted from race to association. The problem with this nicety is that the essence of…
The fool on the Vatican Hill
St Peter’s Basilica is located near the Vatican Hill (in Latin Mons Vaticanus), across the River Tiber from the location…
JobKeeper – the disaster
Since the turn of the millennium, Australia has produced a long catalogue of poorly considered and badly designed public policies.…
Obituary for climate catastrophism – not the Coalition
The dramatic rise of One Nation, crystallised in the results of the South Australian election and the Farrer by-election, has…
The treatment of Henry Nowak’s killer was all about race
‘How can you say they’re not racist?’ a young Asian woman shouted from the public gallery. Vickrum Digwa had just…
What really happened in the Manchester airport brawl case?
On Friday, news came that Mohammed Fahir Amaaz and Muhammad Amaad will not face a third trial for assaulting PC…
If only Peter Mandelson were still in government
The Mandelson files have produced a truly damning revelation about Keir Starmer’s government. But it is one which will be…
Michael Grade is right to worry about the BBC’s future
Michael Grade is one of the great figures of British broadcasting. I remember the cheers echoing around the BBC when…
Bonnie Blue and the truth about the pro-life movement
Bonnie Blue has achieved something nigh impossible in today’s political landscape – she has united the country under one singular…
The property ladder is broken
The failure to get on the property ladder used to be the modern-day bogeyman for young adults. It was used…
Keir Starmer is not serious about defence
Today marks a year since the government published its Strategic Defence Review (SDR). From the outset, it was clear that…
Canada is misremembering the Komagata Maru incident
Another day, another act of national self-abasement from the Canadian government. On May 23, it was all about the Komagata Maru incident,…
Emily Thornberry isn’t a real Gooner
For most of my life, I’ve lived quite close to Arsenal’s home ground. And although, in an act of childhood folly, I…
There’s nothing like the Isle of Man TT
Aside from interruptions by wars and pandemics, the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy has been run since 1907. Better known…
How the US is taking on Mexico’s narco-politicians
Soberanía is non-negotiable. That’s what Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum repeats time and again, at her mañaneras, at speeches, at rallies,…
The desperate sycophancy of Mandy’s campaign for the Oxford chancellorship
After months of back and forth, today the government finally released the latest tranche of the Mandy documents, which have…
The row over English becoming an official language of New Zealand
Parliamentarians in New Zealand have been limbering up for an oddly unedifying debate over what ought to be the most…
What they don’t tell you about Christmas in New Zealand
‘I still think New Zealand the most beautiful country I have ever seen,’ Agatha Christie marvelled in 1922. Evidently she’s…
What will Jacinda Ardern do next?
When I first met Jacinda Ardern in the early 2010s, the notion that the young MP with the toothy smile…
The de-Wokification of New Zealand’s education system
The conservative coalition government of New Zealand came to office promising to wind back an enormous, government-run system of ‘Woke’…
The Pope’s merciless war against the Old Rite
Elegance and intrigue
Anyone who knows the Sixties can easily be reminded of the beauty and the authority of Sidney Poitier. The MTC…
Sex symbol or respected actor?
You don’t have to be any specific age to thrill to the Opera Australia production of La Traviata. It is…
A masterpiece of economy
There’s something very odd about the fuss that’s been made about David Szalay who won the Booker a few months…
The performance of her career
It’s odd, isn’t it, the uncanny relationship between success and achievement. Just the other night the Melbourne Theatre Company had…
Portrait of an addict: Keshed, by Stu Hennigan, reviewed
In the tradition of literary lowlifes and lushes as conceived by Charles Bukowski or Jean Rhys, Keshed is a story…
Reading between the lines: the power of the unsaid
This is the kind of book I wish I had the chance to sit down and discuss with the author.…
Caroline Aherne’s comedic genius is much missed
Who do we have on television now, or even on social media, who can unmask pomposity and self-obsession quite like…
How the 18th-century Panopticon inspired today’s giant distribution hubs
The future of work is increasingly on our minds. Now that AI is coming for our jobs, will we end…
Witty, lyrical and abstract: the art of Kurt Schwitters
Aged ten, Jennifer Potter moved to Ambleside in the Lake District and was soon aware that one of the giants…
A family affair: Love Lane, by Patrick Gale, reviewed
The title of Patrick Gale’s latest lyrical novel alludes both to its central theme of the hidden, winding paths of…
The vexed relationship of Winston Churchill and George V
It is ironic that although Winston Churchill revered the concept of monarchy – his wife Clementine joked that he was…
Why should it be shameful to study the Classics?
Mary Beard opens this book with a recollection of her first meaningful encounter with the ancient world. It was 1960,…