flat white

Forget multiculturalism

The best of British culture has been on display these past ten or so days. We can use words like…

20 Sep 2022

The domestic violence gravy train

Vimala, a retired Indian university lecturer, looked forward to spending time with her son, a Sydney-based doctor, his wife, and…

20 Sep 2022

Our collective immortality

Over the last week many patients – I suspect, upon hearing my accent – have asked my opinion of the…

20 Sep 2022

Until we meet again

Red roses hit the side of the state hearse as the Queen’s coffin was driven from London to Windsor at…

20 Sep 2022

Greens: a masterclass on how to fail at identity politics

Imagine being a political party that obsesses about identity-driven virtue signalling as the most important qualification for Parliament – and…

19 Sep 2022

The most important reform in 20 years

Stage three income tax cuts represent Australia’s most important piece of microeconomic reform in 20 years. From 2024, the marginal…

19 Sep 2022

Menzies 2.0 – starting the journey

What does Menzies 2.0 look like in 2022? No one disputes that conservatism in Australia is in a parlous state…

19 Sep 2022

Ruled by fools

Australia has become a nation ruled by fools. We have surrendered power over every aspect of our lives and industry…

19 Sep 2022

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The complete guide to the Queen's funeral

Today, the world says farewell to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. World leaders, including US president Joe Biden, French president…

19 Sep 2022

What the Queen’s funeral tells us about Britain

State funerals say a lot about the country in which they take place – and one of the things in…

19 Sep 2022

How The Spectator covered the deaths of previous British monarchs

To commemorate the 70-year and-214-day-long reign of Queen Elizabeth II, this week’s issue of The Spectator is the first ever…

19 Sep 2022

The midlife crisis spread: why are the affluent so depressed?

‘You are here’, as those signs in windswept carparks unhelpfully point out. Yup. No mistaking it, you will tend to…

19 Sep 2022

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Godzone is coming to Oz

Back in the 70s, I lived in New Zealand, (known locally as God’s own country, or ‘Godzone’ for short). A…

15 Sep 2022

Will New Zealand ever become a republic?

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that her government will not be pursuing any moves toward changing…

13 Sep 2022

Political dystrophy

The contempt in which so many hold politicians is unfair to those with integrity and high ideals. However, the revelation…

27 Aug 2022

A very talented family

What happens when democratic principles collide with cultural values and political self-interest? In New Zealand, that’s starting to look like…

20 Aug 2022

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Business/Royalty, etc.

The death of Queen Elizabeth brings some historical warnings as Charles becomes the third king to bear that name. While…

17 Sep 2022

Robin Hood, Robin Hood

When I was a young girl, we didn’t have a television. My parents were slow adopters. But it was OK…

17 Sep 2022

The elites united will never be defeated

D.H. Lawrence was an English novelist, poet and essayist. He was the fourth child of a north Midlands coal miner…

17 Sep 2022

Death by carrot

A private Facebook group about people who died suddenly is growing suddenly. It had less than 10,000 members in early…

17 Sep 2022

How to go to war

The reverberations continue from Scott Morrison’s secret business with serial swearing in to multiple ministerial portfolios. It’s past time for…

17 Sep 2022

Putin has already lost

Russia’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine, writes Philip Short in his expansive new biography, Putin: His Life and Times, was…

17 Sep 2022

‘Quick, somebody call a Diversity Officer!!’

It is not just young and impressionable university students who are being compelled to attend virtual re-education camps before being…

17 Sep 2022

Elizabeth the Great

The almost universal sadness on the passing of Elizabeth II has come as a surprise to those who think the…

17 Sep 2022

A god of fury and destruction

David Hare is the most eminent British dramatist of the generation that includes the man we have to learn to…

17 Sep 2022

Just yesterday

The death of Mikhail Gorbachev last week transcended politics because it was a reminder of how the culture of the…

10 Sep 2022

Where art and pleasure collide

The morality of art always seems like such a simple thing. The Greeks want back the so-called Elgin Marbles pilfered…

2 Sep 2022

His lightning art

The combinations and permutations of different forms of artistic activity are always weird. Stacks of people will want to see…

26 Aug 2022

Aussie life

‘I’d rather see a church burn,’ is my usual response to a glass of wine getting knocked over. So if…

17 Sep 2022

Language

The word ‘map’ no longer means just a bit of cartography – it now also means ‘minor attracted person’. In…

17 Sep 2022

My lunch with the Queen

None of this would have happened had I accepted my neighbour’s invitation to dine with a Swiss billionaire banker, or…

17 Sep 2022

The ugly side of AA

A lot has been going wrong lately in the support group I’ve been attending for more than 20 years. I…

17 Sep 2022

The sheer tedium of life at Colditz

They say each generation needs its own biographies of Cleopatra, Joan of Arc and Napoleon, not just when more evidence…

17 Sep 2022

James Bond and the Beatles at war for Britain’s soul

‘Better use your sense,’ advised Bob Dylan: ‘take what you have gathered from coincidence.’ John Higgs is a master of…

17 Sep 2022

An outcast in Xinjiang: The Backstreets, by Perhat Tursun, reviewed

Like Dostoevsky’s Underground Man, Perhat Tursun’s unnamed protagonist is an outcast. A young Uighur in an increasingly Han city (Urumchi,…

17 Sep 2022

Back on the road: Less is Lost, by Andrew Sean Greer, reviewed

Get ready for more of Less: Andrew Sean Greer’s hapless novelist is back on the road. First things first: you…

17 Sep 2022

A character assassination of Rudy Giuliani

Lord help me I love a hatchet job, and you’ll have to too if you want to make it through…

17 Sep 2022

The Index of Prohibited Books makes a fine reading list

In a classic paradox of bureaucracy, the Index of Forbidden Books only really hit its stride when its original task…

17 Sep 2022

Mad men plotting: The Unfolding, by A.M. Homes, reviewed

Fifteen years ago, A.M. Homes published The Mistress’s Daughter, an explosive, painful account of how she met her birth mother,…

17 Sep 2022

A translator’s responsibilities are as formidable as a transplant surgeon’s

When asked what it is we do, translators often resort to metaphors. We liken the act of translation to performing…

17 Sep 2022