flat white

Zohran, real estate czar

We are a little over 160 days into the second term of President Trump.  That’s just a tad over five…

5 Jul 2025

Budget season ends

I read a lot of novels. It is a relief to get away from all those economic reports and commentary…

5 Jul 2025

Will Trump sink Aukus?

Recently US Under-Secretary of Defense, Elbridge Colby, announced a review of the Aukus agreement.  Our Defence Minister Richard Marles claimed…

5 Jul 2025

Dead babies

It has been a little over a year since Western Australia removed abortion laws from its criminal code. Depending on…

5 Jul 2025

The rape gangs scandal

The twin scandals of the existence of child rape gangs and elite contempt for white working-class girls go back over…

5 Jul 2025

F-bombs and N-bombs

There has been so much misinformation and disinformation about the Trump Doctrine. Where to start? The biggest misnomer, as one…

5 Jul 2025

Cold comfort at Glastonbury

The antics at Glastonbury last weekend took place in performance spaces with twee names such as ‘Woodsie’s Stage’, ‘Avalon’, ‘Arcadia’,…

5 Jul 2025

Could Wite be the new Blak?

‘I’m dreaming of a wite Christmas’ wrote Irving Berlin, invoking an American ideal. ‘Wite’ is a beautiful word, euphonic and…

Musk’s AI chatbot praises Hitler

Uh oh. Elon Musk’s AI chatbot is in the doghouse – after Grok shocked Twitter users when it began praising,…

9 Jul 2025

Relying on Macron to tackle the migrant crisis is a fool’s errand

The French have so far been underwhelmed by Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Britain. The late Queen was universally admired…

9 Jul 2025

Would scrapping jury trials save Britain’s broken courts?

The Sentencing Review, published in May, may not have had much to say about sentence length. But now we have…

9 Jul 2025

King Charles’s bromance with Macron is true soft power

As the once-promising bromance between King Charles and Keir Starmer appears to be fading, the monarch has found another leader…

9 Jul 2025

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Jacinda Ardern’s triumph of style over substance

Jacinda Ardern’s tenure as New Zealand’s Prime Minister (2017–23) was lauded globally as a masterclass in empathetic leadership, her image…

5 Jun 2025

Jacinda Ardern and the empty politics of ‘kindness’

Just over two years on from stepping down as Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern is awaiting the imminent…

27 Apr 2025

307,000 Voices

Growing concerns at the impact of unregulated free speech around the world, and especially in the English-speaking West, are understandable.…

5 Apr 2025

New Zealand’s cringeworthy new tourism slogan

‘Everyone must go!’ New Zealand’s new tourism declares, but so far almost everyone seems to be cringing. The prime minister…

18 Feb 2025

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Aussie life

Tony Abbott has written Australia, a personal take on our history, focused on the positives. But this is a mug’s…

5 Jul 2025

Language

A short time ago I was chatting with the former deputy prime minister of Australia John Anderson about the sort…

5 Jul 2025

The politics of pips

‘What larks!’ exclaimed my husband archly, assuming that a connection between personal independence payments and Pip in Great Expectations would…

5 Jul 2025

‘Boldness was his friend in betting and in life’: A tribute to the great Barry Hills

I have always enjoyed Royal Windsor Racecourse, as it styles itself. It may not have quite so many dignitaries popping…

5 Jul 2025

Who’s deceiving whom?: The Art of the Lie, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, reviewed

In this age of lies and delusions, the trickster may seem to be a peculiarly modern creature, but he or…

5 Jul 2025

Masculinity in crisis – portrayed by Michael Douglas

There isn’t another actor alive whom I’d rather watch than Michael Douglas. Just as Pauline Kael once said that the…

5 Jul 2025

Could the giant panda be real?

Nathalia Holt’s book begins irresistibly. The year is 1928. Two sons of Theodore Roosevelt called Ted and Kermit – yes…

5 Jul 2025

Highs and lows: The Boys, by Leo Robson, reviewed

The Boys, the entertaining debut novel by the literary critic Leo Robson, is set in Swiss Cottage during the 2012…

5 Jul 2025

Tim Franks goes in search of what it means to be Jewish

It’s hard to classify this thought-provoking book – part memoir, part philosophical exploration, but mostly a deeply researched family history.…

5 Jul 2025

Putin’s stranglehold on the Russian press

Since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the Russian press has been slowly, methodically strangled, which has forced existential…

5 Jul 2025

The key to Giorgia Meloni’s resounding success

Giorgia Meloni has emerged as one of the most significant politicians in Europe since she became Italy’s first female prime…

5 Jul 2025

The race against Hitler to build the first nuclear bomb

Ettore Majorana vanished in March 1938. According to Frank Close in Destroyer of Worlds, the 31-year-old Sicilian physicist ‘probably understood…

5 Jul 2025