Scared
Boris Johnson wishes Putin was a woman
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed that Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he was a woman.…
Multiculturalism is in, and that's a good thing
According to the latest Census results, for the first time, more than half of Australians (51.2 per cent) are now…
The big reason you can’t afford a home
Why are houses so ridiculously expensive in Australia? This, and other expletive-laden questions, I shouted at my screen while scrolling…
Where’s ‘The Voice’ of reason?
Hey, Mr Albanese, fools rush in and all that… Hold back on the referendum for a moment. The voice of reason should…
Climate Justice? Victoria’s fresh assault on businesses
Last week’s restoration of the electricity market, following the regulator assuming full control on June 15, means the energy crisis…
The person who should have resigned
The resignation of four Victorian Ministers last Friday is too little, too late. That’s despite other Ministers previously stepping down…
Shameful star chambers ruin men's lives
In a recent judgment about a sexual misconduct case at Cornell University, the judge compared the campus disciplinary committees to the infamous…
Was Ghislaine an Epstein victim?
Let me start by saying that this is not a defence of Ghislaine Maxwell, the part-time girlfriend, part-time sexual fixer…
Boris Johnson's fate is to be forgotten
Boris Johnson divides Britons in a way few other politicians manage. To his dwindling group of supporters, he is the…
Does Meghan Markle know what ‘guttural’ means?
When the Duke of Sussex heard about the Supreme Court judgment revoking the ruling in Roe vs Wade, ‘His reaction…
The Donald Trump Show’s biggest plot twist yet
Since it debuted in 2016, The Donald Trump Show — the televised meta-commentary from hell we’ve all been living in…
Incompetence and corruption
The question has long been whether basic stupidity has underpinned so much of our politicians’ and administrators’ decision-making – or…
Some have wokeness thrust upon them
Co-governance. Partnership. The unrelenting quest to try to refashion the New Zealand Diceyan unwritten Constitution (one of the modern world’s…
Ardern’s cow tax set to destroy NZ farming
After Friday’s joint press conference between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, it is painfully…
Ignorant or subversive?
That the worst Prime Minister New Zealand has ever had has bought into the climate emergency scam – or finds…
Balancing peace and justice in Ukraine
While a UN official, I developed the concept of ‘a balance of interests’ as an alternative to ‘the national interest’…
Dom disappoints as Matt dumbs down
When Dominic Perrottet became the premier of New South Wales last October, after Gladys shuffled off after a brush with…
Incompetence and corruption
The question has long been whether basic stupidity has underpinned so much of our politicians’ and administrators’ decision-making – or…
Some have wokeness thrust upon them
Co-governance. Partnership. The unrelenting quest to try to refashion the New Zealand Diceyan unwritten Constitution (one of the modern world’s…
Vanishing vaccine mandates
This week, with hardly a whisper from its chief public health officers, Australia largely abandoned its vaccine mandates. For the…
Cavalier King Charles
After news broke on 15 June that the European Court of Human Rights had scuttled Britain’s plan to start offshore…
Yes there is a ‘colonial project’ – China’s
The Chinese Communist regime first denies to its people that its military killed demonstrators protesting peacefully in Tiananmen Square, at…
Roe v. Wade in the dustbin of history
Democrats haven’t been so mad since Lincoln freed their slaves. The US Supreme Court has finally put a stop to…
A very polished performance
Sam Neill is one of those Kiwis we want to claim as we do everyone from Russell Crowe to Neill’s…
Time takes a cigarette
June 16 was Bloomsday, the day we celebrate James Joyce’s Ulysses, and it was a special Bloomsday because 2022 is…
Tinkering with the masters
It was sad to see Ray Liotta, that magnificent actor, had died the other week. He was most famous for…
Sheer erotic pulsation
Anyone whose extreme youth was graced by the experience of watching the Nederlands Dans Theater is liable to be astonished…
Is Gone with the Wind to blame for Trumpism?
‘America is merely a story the nation tells itself,’ the historian and cultural critic Sarah Churchwell writes in The Wrath…
How inoculation against smallpox became all the rage in Russia
The concept of vaccination evolved from 18th-century inoculation practices and many people contributed to the accretion of knowledge. This book…
At last, a book about James Joyce that makes you laugh
I do not think I am alone in confessing that I had read critical works on James Joyce before I…
Dangerous liaisons: Bad Eminence, by James Greer, reviewed
Vanessa Salomon is an internationally successful translator. Clever, beautiful, privileged – ‘born in a trilingual household: French, English and money’…
Michael Beloff QC drops names – but they’re not the ones we’re curious about
‘The law,’ according to W.S. Gilbert’s Lord Chancellor, ‘is the true embodiment of everything that’s excellent’ and, by common consent,…
We could all once tell bird’s-foot trefoil from rosebay willowherb
‘There are a great many ways of holding on to our sanity amid the vices and follies of the world,’…
Where is Ruja Ignatova, the self-styled cryptoqueen, hiding?
This is a depressing book. It’s a reminder of everything that is sick, broken and generally maledicted about the human…
The conspiracy against women’s football
The moment before the fall of women’s football can be precisely dated. On Boxing Day 1920, Dick, Kerr Ladies FC…