Time to patch up our ragged economic miracle
Australia’s vaunted economic miracle is looking a bit ragged after another sluggish quarter. There is still growth, but barely enough…
We can’t pick and choose when freedom maters
The AFP raids on the ABC and a News Corp journalist are alarming, but the discussion needs to go beyond…
Snowflakes and crocodile tears
It’s been a very entertaining few weeks following Sydney University’s decision to take disciplinary action against key organisers of the…
Goodbye, Hong Kong?
I worked as a journalist, both in print and radio, in what used to be the British Crown Colony of…
What about John Setka’s freedom of speech?
If, like me, you think free speech is the bottom line of a free society, and don’t care what is…
The CBD returns with low-emission bright sparks for these dark days
Our peeved yet perspicacious political insider writes exclusively: As CBD slowly recognises the need to reconcile oneself to the fact…
Remember beauty
A kind heart, joyful smile, orchestral harmony, architectural brilliance, the majesty of nature. Timeless beauty, whatever its form, is the…
The real problem with the Australian economy
The unemployment figures came and went yesterday with just the usual passing mention. There is a real problem in Australia,…
Matt Hancock’s Boris endorsement irks One Nation Tories
Is Boris Johnson’s route to No. 10 now unstoppable? The former foreign secretary has more MPs backing him than any…
Tory leadership hopefuls turn on one another in Channel 4 debate
The first televised Tory leadership debate drew as much attention for who wasn’t there as who was. After Boris Johnson…
How Rory Stewart derailed his Cabinet colleagues’ campaigns
When Rory Stewart first announced his intention to enter the race to be the UK’s next prime minister, he was…
Boris Johnson’s clear lead increases the chances of a short contest
Boris Johnson has today confirmed his place as the frontrunner to be the next prime minister. In the first voting…
Undie-cover agents
Last week, with all the stealth of the pirates of Penzance, Australia’s Federal Police, raided not one but two major…
It’s China, not climate
Despite constant doom-saying over climate and commentators wringing their hands over floods in Queensland and droughts in NSW and Victoria,…
Tory turmoil
Since the advent of cable news and the internet most politically-interested Aussies now follow US politics more than UK politics.…
Boris or oblivion
They recently released a poll over here in Britain. Only women were polled and they were asked ‘Would you sleep…
Libs must now lead
The euphoria is understandable. After trailing Labor in the polls throughout the last parliament, the Liberals can be forgiven a…
Press and government at war. Thank heavens
The suggestion that Australia may well be the world’s most secretive democracy is even more ludicrous when we consider its…
They’re a weird religious mob
‘I cannot believe in this election that there is a discussion even under way that gay people will go to…
The Donald next door
From tomorrow, and for a few days thereafter, my wife and I will have a new neighbour here in London. …
On the Beach at Trouville 1870. Bequest of Michel Monet 1966
A magnificent Empire-style townhouse near the Bois de Boulogne contains a remarkable collection of paintings. On rue Louis Boilly, the…
Alyona Kovalyova and Jacopo Tissi in Diamonds Act 3 of Jewels
The name is a byword for exacting standards and grand tradition. The Bolshoi Ballet, at the peak of the ballet…
Anna Bolena
Where would we be without the Tudors? Certainly our shelves, stages and screens would seem empty without their era which…
Captain James Cook. Wedgwood and Bentley, c.1779
Three speakers: one is Director of The Royal Collection comprising over a million objects in 13 royal residences across the…
Heroism in a hopeless cause: why the crusades remain fascinating
The crusades are part of everyone’s mental image of the Middle Ages. They extended, in one form or another, from…
Mystery in the Sundarbans: Gun Island, by Amitav Ghosh, reviewed
Meet Deen Datta, a nervous, practical and cautious man, born and brought up in Calcutta, who now lives in Brooklyn,…
Naomi Wolf is holed below the waterline
What is it about Naomi Wolf that inspires such venom? Perhaps that she’s American, brash, media-savvy and not averse to…
Searching for Coco on the Côte d’Azur
Anne de Courcy, an escapee from tabloid journalism, has become a polished historian of British high society in the 20th…
Gunning for Narendra Modi
K.S. Komireddi sets out to establish his secular credentials before he sets up his primary argument: which is that India’s…
Is one of history’s most rousing speeches apocryphal?
As rousing death-and-glory speeches go, it is one of the best. With a besieging Roman army only hours from storming…
Has Daisy Dunn chosen the wrong Pliny to write about?
I couldn’t help thinking, as I read this book, of an old story, vaguely recalled from English A-level classes, about…
The great anti-hero of our time: Diary of a Somebody, by Brian Bilston, reviewed
Brian Bilston’s life is summed up perfectly by the incident with his neighbour’s dog. The annoying Mrs McNulty comes round…
The rollicking adventures of a real-life female sleuth
Susannah Stapleton’s erudite but hugely entertaining debut is a true-life detective story about the quest for a true-life detective. A…
As long as poverty and maritime trade exist, so will piracy
Western attitudes to piracy have dripped with hubris. In his classic history of 1932, Philip Gosse confidently argued that European…
Moby — from teetotal vegan to promiscuous party monster
In 2002 I flew to New York to interview the dance music producer whose 1999 release Play remains the bestselling…
Hostility to Islam has disguised a host of other prejudices
In 2011, when the editor of Charlie Hebdo put Muhammad on the cover, he did so as the heir to…