flat white

How Canberra can stop Victoria becoming Dictator Dan’s Dystopia

Imagine a place where all power lies with one man. He gets to dictate the rules by decree. He can…

4 Nov 2021

Don’t forget Labor’s still loathsome

Prussian soldier strategist Carl von Clausewitz is best remembered for his statement, “War is the continuation of political intercourse with…

4 Nov 2021

Yes, Virginia, there is a culture war

Voters in the Commonwealth of Virginia just delivered a message that will radiate hope to Christians and conservatives in the Commonwealth of Australia.  Parents’ concerns…

4 Nov 2021

Glasgow and the greenhouse gap

As we watch the bureaucratic minions and the behemothic motorcades circulating in Glasgow, the ‘Greenhouse Gap’ appears to be growing.   On one side of…

4 Nov 2021

Forget the French fury and focus: Australia needs nuclear submarines now, not later

In the debate which has ensued since the federal government decided not to continue with the French submarine contract, it…

3 Nov 2021

Albo, Macron – and the amazing Real Housewives of the United Nations tantrum

As a general rule, I’m a great admirer of the French. They have an effortless style, an endearing self-confidence, and a love of the…

3 Nov 2021

The logic behind net zero

Tony Abbott once said, ‘climate change is crap’. What he should have said was ‘catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is crap’,…

3 Nov 2021

The climate moaners need to get some perspective from history

Greta Thunberg rejects all ideas of the enlightenment. Despite what she wails, she is now living in the best times…

2 Nov 2021

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New Jersey’s nothingburger governor underperforms

By removing Donald Trump from social media and New York governor Andrew Cuomo from office, progressives unwittingly gave an opening…

4 Nov 2021

I’m with Durr: trucker who spent $153 on campaign could be new NJ Senate president

Think of a newcomer who delivered a shock upset against an establishment insider and triggered a political earthquake. No, not…

4 Nov 2021

Where is the climate plan B?

The COP26 summit is unlikely to be an outright flop. There has been no shortage of drama, with speakersseeming to…

4 Nov 2021

I failed my country at COP

I’m on my way to Glasgow for COP26. It’s the first time I have been abroad since before Covid. Conveniently…

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Kiwi Life

Lorde vs Lana People who live in glass houses really shouldn’t get changed with the lights on. Doubly so, one…

30 Oct 2021

Saint Jacinda backs a two-tier society

For many so-called liberals, Jacinda Ardern seemed to be the perfect premier. Warm, empathetic, progressive, above all – moderate –…

25 Oct 2021

Vaping: one policy the Kiwis have got right

The Asia Pacific region has been split in two as to how to best deal with vaping. No bigger is…

21 Oct 2021

Insufficient intent

To tell you the truth, I lost interest in Aussie rules football some time ago.  My team is into a…

16 Oct 2021

Gladys & the ICAC porn

The daily revelations at the Independent Commission Against Corruption in New South Wales are providing satisfying sport for those who…

6 Nov 2021

At the fork in the road, the High Court took the low road

There is a story from the Cold War that may be apocryphal but deserves to be true. It’s difficult enough…

6 Nov 2021

Twiggy’s fugitive gas

Renewables are so yesterday. It’s now all about hydrogen. But not just any hydrogen – it has to be green…

6 Nov 2021

Lessons from Loudoun County

By the time you read this the result of Virginia’s gubernatorial election will be known. It is not known as…

6 Nov 2021

Make me Covid Lord High Executioner, please

In Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera The Mikado, the character Ko-Ko is appointed to the position of Lord High Executioner. He…

6 Nov 2021

The Petrovsky Affair

Professor Nikolai Petrovsky has just developed Australia’s first successful vaccine in 40 years. In any approximation of a normal world,…

6 Nov 2021

Sorry, that’s not a holocaust

If you have heard anything about Dave Chappelle’s latest comedy special on Netflix, The Closer, it’s most likely the accusations…

6 Nov 2021

Climate doom is harming the young

The Satanists came out to play in Noosa last week on Hallowe’en, staging a Black Mass at the Surf Club…

6 Nov 2021

The Crucible

Sometimes you think the Apocalypse doesn’t go away. It just takes new and frightful forms. No sooner was the lockdown…

6 Nov 2021

Keith Michell

So the lockdowns end, even in Melbourne, and we get a glimpse of what artistic performance may loom in a…

30 Oct 2021

Bob Dylan

Only in Australia and perhaps only in Sydney, that cradle of the cons and the jailers, the Rum Corps and…

23 Oct 2021

Maggie Smith

And so we look like being able to see live performance again in the two biggest cities in Australia: Sydney…

16 Oct 2021

Aussie Life

I’m not sure what the sacking of Michael Leunig says more about; the state of Australian journalism or the status…

6 Nov 2021

Kiwi Life

Lorde vs Lana People who live in glass houses really shouldn’t get changed with the lights on. Doubly so, one…

30 Oct 2021

Aussie Language

When New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet announced the re-opening of the state he said: ‘We can’t remain a hermit…

30 Oct 2021

Why I say no to apps

‘My phone says I can’t go out until Tuesday, so I can’t come and meet you,’ said my friend. And…

30 Oct 2021

New tactics are needed for the wars of the future

The strategic bankruptcy of the West has twice so far this century demanded that our brave soldiers risk their bodies…

30 Oct 2021

Life’s dark side: the catastrophic world of Stephen Crane

Long before Ernest Hemingway wasted his late career playing the he-man on battlefields and in fishing boats, or Norman Mailer…

30 Oct 2021

Use it or lose it: has the public library had its day?

I write this in a garret a few doors down from the public library in Muswell Hill, north London. It…

30 Oct 2021

Andrew Mitchell relives the agony of Plebgate

Andrew Mitchell, as he readily admits, was born into the British Establishment. Almost from birth, his path was marked out:…

30 Oct 2021

Mass hysteria in Massachusetts: the 17th-century witch crisis in America

One September day in 1649, in the frontier town of Springfield, Massachusetts, Anthony Dorchester returned from church to the house…

30 Oct 2021

It’s the fisherman who’s truly hooked

Trying to catch fish with rod and line is a pursuit that, for many, goes far beyond the pleasant passing…

30 Oct 2021

The revival of the blacksmith’s craft — a new generation goes at it hammer and tongs

At Intelligent Life, the Economistmagazine where I worked for some years, it was easy to feel intellectually challenged. Even the…

30 Oct 2021

Bright, beautiful and deceptively simple: the art of the linocut

In the 1920s the linocut broke out of the schoolroom and on to gallery walls. Here was a democratic new…

30 Oct 2021