Peace nixed
Cancel culture panel cancelled by cancel culture
Last Saturday I participated as a panellist at the Disrupted Festival of Ideas. Organised by the State Library of Western Australia, I was on…
That Murdoch media digital dominance in full
The concerted efforts of leftie bedwedders, axe-grinders, opportunists — and, most of all, censors who don’t want the Australian public…
It’s not just about him or Joe
Many – including our PM Scott Morrison with his unsubtle public phone chat the other day with Joe Biden, whom…
Will the Australian way of life be a long-term coronavirus victim?
COVID-19 has consumed the public’s attention for almost six months, but the economic crisis caused by devastating lockdowns has started to shed light…
Young and free – but who’s Gert?
The Premier of New South Wales has suggested that one word of our national anthem should now be changed to…
The strange sexism of Anita Recount
Forget bonk ban. The real sex hang-ups — or more accurately — sexuality hang-ups seem to be from progressive types…
There’s no public service recession, new figures find
How much is enough? How much should our children and grandchildren be forced to pay for the cowardice of our…
Why we need to stay concerned by debt
Government borrowings are skyrocketing as you read this. Unfashionable though it is to worry about this, there are still some of…
Dominic Cummings's departure is dangerous timing for Boris
Dominic Cummings didn’t angle for this job: Boris Johnson begged him to take it. The Tories faced extinction after the…
The next American empire
Americans have never been sure of their standing in the world, and the world has never been sure of Americans’…
Why No. 10 is cautious about the Covid vaccine
The news about the Pfizer vaccine has persuaded Tory MPs that there is now a route out of this crisis,…
Britain's economy has been bouncing back – but there's a major caveat
Britain’s economy rebounded by a record 15.5 per cent between July and September, reflecting the relaxation of lockdown measures and increased consumer…
May I quota you?
What would you call a glass ceiling that blocks men from career advancement? A lipstick ceiling? Whatever, it exists, even…
The Marquess of Queens, buried not yet
As I write this calls from the Democrats and the press – but I repeat myself – for President Trump…
Peace nixed
A Biden administration is likely to implement a significant shift in US policy concerning Israel and the Middle East broadly.…
Business/Robbery etc.
Treasury plans to fill the RBA’s interest rate vacuum Is it cause for alarm, or an inevitable trend, that the…
Flu d’état
Ross Clark explains in the Daily Mail (3 November) how Boris Johnson’s ‘experts’ have manipulated data to terrify England into…
Zero net sense
Thanks to US president-elect Joe Biden’s declaration that his administration will set a target of net-zero emissions for the US…
Laughs on the way to the guillotine
Who says the ABC can’t do comedy? Their US election coverage was hilarious. The look on the faces of their…
A very wicked outcome in the land of Oz
Last week, Melbourne residents emerged from corona-hiding like the Munchkins after the death of the Wicked Witch of the West…
The Undoing
It’s a strange prospect for strange times, the young violinist Freya Franzen on the stage of Melbourne’s Concert Hall playing…
Arthur Streeton Land of the Golden Fleece 1926
In February 1922, Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, was married in the first…
Sean Connery
Sean Connery outlived all of them, those great British actors who came to such prominence in the early Sixties: Richard…
Simon Fieldhouse Mozart Statue, Vienna
Simon Fieldhouse is a Sydney- based artist who has developed a very particular area of expression. Typically, he uses watercolour…
Things mankind was not supposed to know — the dark side of science
One day someone is going to have to write the definitive study of Wikipedia’s influence on letters. What, after all,…
The autistic mind could hold the key to the future
An old, cynical adage holds that ‘if all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail’. I remembered…
Masculinity in crisis: Men and Apparitions, by Lynne Tillman, reviewed
Masculinity, we are often told, is in crisis. The narrator of Men and Apparitions, Professor Ezekiel (Zeke) Stark, both studies…
Humiliating the IRA was a fatal mistake
It was said that Reginald Maudling, as home secretary, once boarded a plane in Belfast and immediately requested a stiff…
Driven to distraction — the unhappy life of Vivien Eliot
Do you think your mother slept with T.S. Eliot? That was the question I needed to ask the 98-year-old in…
Gardening books for Christmas — reviewed by Ursula Buchan
Dan Pearson is one of the finest of all British garden designers, blessed with sensitivity, a wonderful eye, deep plant…
Universities are supposed to encourage debate, not strangle it
Liberal values are under attack on two flanks. Those of us who think extensive freedom of expression, universal human rights…
The courage of a madman: Maurice Wilson’s doomed assault on Everest
Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all 14 of the planet’s peaks higher than 8,000 metres, is probably the…