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Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal: 100 per cent there for the taking
Over a decade ago, a mock ad campaign fantasied about invading New Zealand on the off chance Australia would acquire…
Well, this is a surprise! Elon and Nigel go to war
Things are getting awkward between X owner Elon Musk and Reform leader Nigel Farage. Last week, the billionaire appeared to…
Rotherham: why now?
Years ago, I was privileged to sit on a panel with Samantha Smith as one of Mark Steyn’s ‘angels’ (a…
Senator Rennick versus the Libertarians
With the breakdown of ideological coherency across the Liberal Party and their coalition partner, the Nationals, Australian conservatives are experimenting…
Defending families from the arrogance of government
Australia has long prided itself as a free spirit. A nation of people in control of our destiny with a…
Nuclear or poverty
Australia is being frog-marched toward blackouts, skyrocketing bills, and economic fragility under the Albanese Labor government’s reckless pursuit of so-called…
Happy Epiphany! Wokeism is not post-modern Marxism, but heretical Christianity
Each year I try and put the season into a Christian perspective because, as plenty of scholars, from Tom Holland…
Albanese is in a league of his own
At the end of last year, Anthony Albanese inked a deal with his Papua New Guinea counterpart, James Marape, to…
An open letter for Peter Dutton from an old ‘No’ voter
Dear Mr Dutton, I hope Rowan Dean’s prediction on Sky News Australia’s ‘The Outsiders’ that you will win the upcoming…
Their god is not willing, Penny
How many Palestinians does it take to change a light bulb? None! They sit in the dark forever and blame…
Australians built a nation – has anyone noticed?
The 19th Century Prince of Sicily said in the wonderful novel The Leopard, ‘If we want things to stay as they…
Is Peter Dutton listening to Trump?
President Trump is creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to eliminate harmful and useless layers of bureaucracy. This may…
Goodbye Pesutto, you won’t be missed
On December 27 in Spring Street Melbourne, while the state of Victoria was literally on fire, Victorian Liberals were hard…
Defusing the wind drought trap
Can the United States, and its wind farms, escape from the wind drought trap? The US is only one Democrat…
A new Syria?
As schools and churches reopen across Syria following the toppling of the Bashar al-Assad regime, a mood of relief is…
Beyond the nuclear price tag
Australia’s debate on nuclear energy is stuck in a narrow conversation about cost. Critics focus on high upfront prices for…
Inflation two-step
As George Orwell recognised in 1984, politics is the art of double-speak. You condemn an obvious evil, while at the…
Hark! No herald angels sang
Not everyone will have noticed, but the strains of carol singing were heard less this past Christmas than in previous…
Albanounceables galore
Last June, while Nato leaders and partners gathered in New York to discuss the threat from Russia and China, Prime…
Beware a Minsky moment
In August 1998, Russia devalued the rouble, failed to make repayments on local-currency debt and imposed a three-month halt on…
Business/Robbery, etc
What really was the stimulus that, in the latter months of 2024, awakened corporate America from its woke nightmare of…
Politics in the Pothole State
Luckily, we have been able to escape the Pothole State for a few weeks. The car is safely in the…
Delaying the inevitable
There are ways to make decisions and there are the actual decisions one makes. The former is about procedures, the…
Crumbling Crinks
The crumbling of the Crinks – China, Russia, Iran, North Korea – is one of the most heartening developments of…
Beach turf wars are dividing Australia
At a time when Donald Trump threatens to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal, China is flexing its military and…
Why the French state fears Elon Musk
The French government on Wednesday declared war on X and on Elon Musk, directly threatening to ban the platform. Speaking…
The truth about the LA wildfires
It is like a Hollywood disaster movie with a difference: it really is happening close to Hollywood, and the stars…
The Democrats are changing their tune on Trump
The early attitudes from Democrats toward the new Trump administration are difficult to judge in a vacuum – and that’s…
Operation Resolution: cleaning up after HMNZS Manawanui
HMNZS Manawanui, formally a chirpy red and yellow MV Edda Fonn, sank on October 6 much to the shock of…
Why is this New Zealand airport clamping down on hugs?
‘Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world,’ Hugh Grant famously offered in the heartwarming opening scene of Love,…
How New Zealand managed to sink a tenth of its naval fleet
New Zealand just lost one tenth of its naval defence fleet. The HMNZS Manawanui – the jewel in the nation’s small military…
How does New Zealand solve a problem like China?
New Zealand’s most important trading partner is also the nation’s biggest security headache, according to a new risk-assessment report produced…
Who’d want to survive a nuclear war?
Thrillers
It’s funny the preconceptions you have about the Christmas/New Year period. I hadn’t anticipated seeing Juror #2 the new Clint…
Summer Reading
There are a thousand ways of celebrating the Christmas holiday that are culture specific but have a universal appeal. You…
The triumph of When Harry Met Sally
Look at any list of the ‘greatest ever romcoms’ and you’ll find When Harry Met Sally near the top of…
Pulp have always been in the wrong place at the wrong time
Pulp, the legendary band fronted by Jarvis Cocker, have revealed that they’ve signed a new recording deal with equally legendary…
Aussie life
It’s hardly surprising that Doris Day’s jaunty homage to Marcus Aurelius ‘Que sera, sera’ was one of the 1956’s best-selling…
Language
At the start of each year, Lake Superior State University publishes a list of ‘Banished Words.’ These are the words…
In defence of BA’s new loyalty scheme
One of my favourite cartoons shows a couple sitting in luxury at the front of a plane, the wife peeking…
What’s the point of a minster?
The Philip Larkin Society has sponsored a pew in the huge medieval church of Holy Trinity, Hull. Larkin died 40…
Bad vibrations: Lazarus Man, by Richard Price, reviewed
Richard Price’s tenth novel follows four characters in the wake of a tenement building collapse in Harlem that kills six…
Alexander Pushkin – Russia’s greatest letter-writer
Alexander Pushkin was brought to ruin by his letters more than once. When the Russian postal police intercepted a letter…
The unfulfilled life: Ask Me Again, by Clare Sestanovich, reviewed
Eva, the protagonist of Clare Sestanovich’s debut novel, is a young woman struggling to find her place in the world.…
Norman Lewis – a restless adventurer with a passion for broken-down places
The travel writer Norman Lewis, the son of a Welsh psychic medium, died in Essex in 2003 at the age…
Outlandish epic: Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, reviewed
In 1948, Natalia Ginzburg, then an editor at the Italian publishing house Einaudi, received an 800-page brick of a manuscript…
Rebellion and repression: Oromay, by Baalu Girma, reviewed
‘We don’t want a James Bond adventure here,’ warns a jumpy spymaster as he grapples with an anti-state conspiracy in…
A winter’s tale: Brightly Shining, by Ingvild Rishoi, reviewed
With Christmas only just gone, I hope it’s not too late to recommend Ingvild Rishoi’s bittersweet seasonal novella – a…
The Vikings never really went away
For many people, the mental picture of a Viking is of a blond giant in a horned helmet leaping out…