James Allan

Burdens of proof and blatant bias

10 February 2018 9:00 am

The non-lawyer readers of this fine publication may not be aware of a key premise (really it is a trade-off…

Classic whodunnit

3 February 2018 9:00 am

How many readers know the answer to the question, ‘After the Bible and Shakespeare, who is the biggest selling author…

Conserve what?

20 January 2018 9:00 am

If, like me, you are a small government, strong borders and national defence, lots of free speech and as little…

New Year’s musings

6 January 2018 9:00 am

Love me do I think we all understand how ‘user pays’ works. Say you go to the local municipal swimming…

Australian notes

9 December 2017 9:00 am

Compare and contrast So it’s coming up to a year since one Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president…

Australian notes

2 December 2017 9:00 am

The Textorising of the right Let me make a confession, one that should you utter it out loud would mark…

Australian notes

18 November 2017 9:00 am

The Bennelong bedwetter Some say that this innovative and agile Team Turnbull government continues to go from strength to strength.…

Even worse in WA

11 November 2017 9:00 am

We all know that the Liberal party MPs are in a world of pain. The polls are diabolical. Political death…

Australian notes

4 November 2017 9:00 am

John Howard and the black hand It is not particularly far-fetched to claim that the Liberal Party is in big…

Trump notes

7 October 2017 9:00 am

Lefties on their knees Just when you thought political life in the United States simply could not become more polarised,…

Why Turnbull cannot be English

28 September 2017 7:24 am

There is a school of thought that Malcolm Turnbull can still salvage his leadership of the Liberal Party here in…

The Senate is dysfunctional

16 September 2017 9:00 am

Look across the entire democratic world and you will notice that some countries have only one legislative chamber. New Zealand…

Coming soon to a campus near you

9 September 2017 9:00 am

If you are not worried about the state of free enquiry in universities around the Anglosphere then you are probably…

Bottom drawer

2 September 2017 9:00 am

Deep in the bowels of the Australian Safe Schools Supporters (ASSS) headquarters, a planning session was taking place. All those…

Australian notes

19 August 2017 9:00 am

On Noel and Richo Last week in the Australian Noel Pearson wrote a piece responding to Graham Richardson’s earlier claim…

I believe the children are our future?

13 August 2017 7:15 pm

What do German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon,…

A politically incorrect three-point plan for government

9 August 2017 7:16 am

Same-sex marriage off the agenda? Here is my politically incorrect list of what any right-of-centre political party in Australia needs…

Australian notes

29 July 2017 9:00 am

Sensible centre is for suckers   I am going to point to the US, the UK and modern mainstream protestant…

Gillian Triggs: the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth

26 July 2017 1:01 pm

In today’s Australian Chris Kenny has a wholly accurate piece on Gillian Triggs. Kenny sets out the ways in which Triggs…

Australian notes

15 July 2017 9:00 am

On expertise The Wealth of Nations, by the Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Smith, is a great book. When you read…

The crucial left/right divide

12 July 2017 10:29 am

Forget all the recent talk about labels and who gets to wear the tag of ‘centrist’ or ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’…

Australian notes

8 July 2017 9:00 am

Malleable expectations Gary Johns is a fellow Speccie contributor. He’s also a friend. In fact, next month my wife and…

The black hands of Liberalism

27 June 2017 11:29 am

Somewhere near Liberal Party HQ the comrades of the Black Hand gathered to discuss their next move in the overthrow…

Australian notes

24 June 2017 9:00 am

The new aristocrats Listen these days to some of the world’s elite politicians, commentators and officials pontificate and you’d think…

Turnbull’s twilight urgatory

20 May 2017 9:00 am

‘I Told You So!’. These are not words that listeners usually enjoy hearing. In fact, if you’re looking for a…