flat white

Net zero bandwagon’s wheels are wobbling

Are the wheels of the net zero bandwagon beginning to wobble? You might think that I am only posing this…

23 Nov 2024

Trump’s lesson for the centre right

One of the key takeaways of Donald Trump’s return to the White House is the eclectic and unprecedented coalition he…

23 Nov 2024

Trigger warning: common sense outbreak at UN!

Has Hell frozen over? Uncommonly for the UN (think Antonio Guterres with the global warming hyperbole), one of its recent…

23 Nov 2024

Defeat of the elites

So a big lesson from the US election is that, like Trump, conservatives can ignore the advisor class, and win. …

23 Nov 2024

Net zero defence

From Rome’s greatest enemy Hannibal to the modern-day Pashtun tribal leaders in Afghanistan, history recognises it is better to be…

23 Nov 2024

MAD Bill is dead

When it comes to global competition, Australia likes to punch above its weight. The world war on free speech is…

23 Nov 2024

In his father’s footsteps

My esteemed colleague James Allan once wrote in The Spectator Australia that he could have voted for the Kennedy Democrats.…

23 Nov 2024

Hey, Mr Trump, have we got a deal for you

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, King Louis XIV’ s minister of finance, once pithily observed that, ‘The art of taxation consists of plucking…

Could Ukraine go nuclear?

Should Ukraine have nuclear weapons? This is a question that was raised, a little insincerely, by President Zelensky recently as he…

20 Nov 2024

DC officials brace for Trump’s reign

You better watch out, you better not cry… President-elect Donald Trump is coming to town. And according to a recent…

20 Nov 2024

Joe Biden has put Ukraine in an impossible position

This week, Joe Biden lifted one of the many restraints placed on Ukraine in its war with Russia. The outgoing…

20 Nov 2024

The farmers’ revolt makes me proud to be British

My first thought upon seeing today’s revolt of the farmers was just how gloriously normal it looked. For more than…

20 Nov 2024

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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,…

24 Oct 2024

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…

7 Oct 2024

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…

8 Sep 2024

Why are so many young people abandoning New Zealand?

Heading to the UK is a longstanding rite of cultural passage for many Kiwis. People like my youngest son, who…

24 Aug 2024

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Aussie life

Were you to pop down to the shops and buy a Wagon Wheel these days, chances are you’ll be disappointed.…

23 Nov 2024

Language

Here’ s a style guide suggestion – it’s time to resurrect the word ‘Aboriginal’. With a lower case ‘a’ this…

23 Nov 2024

Aussie life

I am not worried about being outed as a recipient of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ hospitality. Yes, it is true that…

16 Nov 2024

Language

I never thought I’d grow up to be a Grumpy Old Man – but look how good I am at…

16 Nov 2024

What will the cities of the future look like?

At the Pacific Design Center Gallery in Los Angeles, artists have created an imaginary enormo-conurbation into which humanity’s billions have…

16 Nov 2024

Blooming marvellous: the year’s best gardening books

I am an absolute sucker for a handsome reproduction of a rare and highly illustrated natural history, preferably more than…

16 Nov 2024

The fresh hell of Dorothy Parker’s Hollywood

Hollywood didn’t kill Dorothy Parker, but booze probably did. In fact, if Hollywood hadn’t paid her so well to spend…

16 Nov 2024

Who would be a goalkeeper?

‘We are all goalkeepers now,’ declares Robert McCrum, and who could seriously argue with that? Every day we try to…

16 Nov 2024

A quest for retribution: Fire, by John Boyne, reviewed

At the end of John Boyne’s novel Earth, Evan Keogh, a conscience-stricken young footballer, hands evidence of his connivance in…

16 Nov 2024

South Asia in a time of the breaking of nations

Early on Christmas morning in 1962, the Indian diplomat S.S. Banerjee heard a mysterious knock on his door in Dacca,…

16 Nov 2024

The ambassador’s daughter bent on betrayal

In June 1933, the 24-year-old Martha Dodd, the daughter of the newly appointed American ambassador to Berlin, arrived in the…

16 Nov 2024

Seeds of hope in the siege of Leningrad

The idea was revolutionary – yet there was something ancient at its heart. The scientist Nikolai Vavilov, arriving in Petrograd…

16 Nov 2024