Lost in translation
Earlier this year, I was asked to speak at the Round Table Forum on ‘the hollowing out of democracy: managerial elites,…
Behold, Western Australia’s march toward a Chinese-style surveillance state
Is anyone else concerned about the direction our once laid-back, freedom-loving nation is headed? Thanks to serious errors in government…
The end is nigh
Communists are marching on Paris. Weekend after weekend. Traipsing the wreckage of civilisation with them. Smashing. Stealing. Revelling in the…
Lord of the sock puppets
Anthony Albanese has joined the Unplug24 campaign, announcing on X: The movement is in honour of Mac Holdsworth who, to…
Lest Labor forget this Remembrance Day
As I left for my truck run in Central NSW this morning, the Flanders poppies stood at attention along the…
Trials and tribulations of free speech in Australia
I am a long-time critic of our High Court’s adventurism and willingness to usurp the legitimate lawmaking power of the…
Haiti: the world’s reluctant laboratory
When the government of Nayib Bukele announced the deployment of more than 2,000 Salvadoran troops to Haiti, the official justification…
Australia’s bloated bureaucracy needs a slice of PIE
Australians love a pie. We eat them at the football, at service stations and, in moments of poor judgment, one-handed…
The saving of Victoria Barracks
The backdown by Prime Minister Albanese on the sale of Victoria Barracks in Sydney (and, I believe, two other heritage…
Britain needs a second amendment
The European continent, at least the Western part, lunges further into disarray every time you check the TV news. If…
Councillors are happy, shame about the ratepayers
Local government is the only institution where customers are unhappy, management is delighted, and the solution is to send a…
Albo is sleepwalking us into ‘Down and out in Paris and London’
In the late 1920s, George Orwell lived in poverty in Paris. His savings stolen, he worked as a dish pig…
The King’s umbrella
King Charles, who is also King of Australia, was drenched at Antigua’s independence celebrations on Sunday. He was seen throwing…
More than music
Some music entertains us. Some makes us think. And then there is music that reaches into our souls, awakens memories…
Victorian Labor – a ‘credibility-free’ zone
For good reason, Federal Labor MPs are keeping their distance from their toxic Victorian Labor counterparts as the November 28…
Donald Trump defied populism and the woke-right podcasters to do what was right
It has been amusing as well as entirely predictable to watch the Trump Derangement Syndrome crowing over the so-called Blue…
Australia’s most serious skills shortage
I’m generally sceptical when our leaders claim Australia needs to import more people because of skills shortages. But there is…
What can Australia learn from the US election?
The MAGA movement has hit a wall. The US mid-term elections held earlier this week were a wipeout for the…
State of origin
It’s a common complaint from voters that politicians don’t live in the real world, and it’s evident when you see…
A recession in all but name
Ministers blame the war, yet it left Australia with higher core inflation and interest rates than America, Britain, Canada, or…
MIDTERM BLUE – NAMI CRASHES OVER DONALD TRUMP | Is this the end of the WEST as we know it? | S3 Ep 27
In this episode: Democrats rise as war in #Iran and mass migration turn the polls against #DonaldTrump #MAGA Republicans. #DavidJones…
OH NO, NOT BLUEY! – Labor has started a war against speech and satire | S3 Ep 26
In this episode: Is BLUEY ground zero for the war against satire? Victoria – the reddest state – is about…
TURN THE POLITICAL TEMPERATURE DOWN… WHO TURNED IT UP?! – Labor’s outrageous hypocrisy | S3 Ep 25
In this episode: Macron’s ‘soft touch’ on far-left riot agitators. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni vows swift justice against looters. Labor’s inter-generational…
Dismissal 2.0
We need a Second Dismissal, a Dismissal 2.0, if you prefer. The Albanese government is out of control. It is…
Brown study
One of the more enjoyable tasks that descended on me during my epoch-making time as a minister in the federal…
Maga is dead. Long live Maga
Trump’s Maga has suffered a spectacular rebuke. But the demand that gave it life – for a country that works…
Vive la France? Quelle France?
For nearly 250 years, France has experienced a succession of short-lived regimes: a directoire, a consulate, two empires, two monarchies,…
OK, I admit I got it wrong on the midterms
It is a bad, bad US midterm election result to lose over eight per cent of the party popular vote…
Back from the brink
For various reasons, I have spent virtually all this year in Melbourne. Being here month in, month out, really focuses…
Al Capone 2.0
In 1920s Chicago, gangsters bombed saloons that bought from the wrong supplier. In 2026 Melbourne they are doing it again.…
Business/Robbery, etc
In the fantasy world of the Albanese Labor government’s ‘renewable energy superpower’ dreams, yet another unachievable critical minerals policy change,…
Turkish delight
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen demonstrated his formidable negotiating skills even before he landed at COP31 this…
Democrats must build consensus with Donald Trump
‘All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is…
Yobbos of the manosphere
Yet again, Australians have been made fools of by a supposedly independent commission that we never elected, that we pay…
Oink! Oink!
Picture the scene. Jack is having a can of Balter beer; Jill is having an Aperol spritz. They are sitting…
Is Britain still safe for America’s armed forces?
The episode at RAF Fairford in September, when five men were arrested near the perimeter of the airbase, initially on…
The civil service won’t reform itself
It was billed as the largest shake-up of the civil service in its 170-year history. That grandiose trailing of Antonio…
Why no one cares about white working-class boys
Improving educational outcomes for white working-class children is not ‘just the responsibility of schools but calls for action from across…
Does Pete Hegseth deserve impeachment?
Anybody naive enough to expect Defense – sorry, War – Secretary Pete Hegseth to show any ounce of humility during…
Will the Abu Dhabi talks lead to peace in Ukraine?
Is Vladimir Putin serious about ending his war on Ukraine? Or are the peace talks that began today in Abu…
Labour suspends David Walliams
David Walliams has had his Labour membership suspended, the party confirmed today. It comes after the Little Britain actor was…
Why Nvidia should cut Jensen Huang loose
What to do about Jensen Huang, the Nvidia boss (for the moment, at least) who has admitted to an extramarital…
David Walliams accused of preying on teenage girls
David Walliams has been accused of preying on teenage girls, in two cases first initiating contact when they were 15…
The downfall of David Walliams
At last – at last – the worst kept secret in celebrity news has been released into the public domain. Spectator readers may not…
Badenoch pledges to crack down on welfare
Kemi Badenoch today threw down the gauntlet to Andy Burnham over welfare, as she set out plans to slash £36…
Andy Burnham is learning how difficult doctors can be
Andy Burnham has today completed another rite of passage for modern prime ministers: trying to persuade doctors not to go…
Only in the civil service could this fraudster have held down five jobs
The coincidence is delicious and telling. Civil servant Kashim Chowdhury was convicted of nine counts of fraud, having held five full-time…
New Zealand election musings
By the time you read this, the New Zealand election will be about a week away. Now I’d like to…
Why you shouldn’t shrug at New Zealand’s greyhound racing ban
Greyhound racing ended in New Zealand on August 1. Those who neither own a greyhound nor care for the sport…
A New Zealand republic in Jacinda Ardern’s lifetime?
New Zealand’s former Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, believes the nation will become a republic within her lifetime. We have heard…
The row over English becoming an official language of New Zealand
Parliamentarians in New Zealand have been limbering up for an oddly unedifying debate over what ought to be the most…
The prison early release scheme is already a disaster
A whisper so loud it is deafening
Next year’s Adelaide Festival is looming and it’s fascinating to see what Matthew Lutton has planned for us. Among the…
A patina of majesty
Patrick Stewart, the man who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and then went on to…
An urge to take over the play
It’s astonishing what awaits the culture vulture. A lot of people know the riches on offer when they see the…
The beauty of the ruthless truth
There are times when the screen, big or small, looks like a gift of the gods. In the last week…
Saved by the Yanks
A startling new book thanks the United States for saving Australia from invasion in the second world war. Dr Tom…
The hypocrisy of Frank Capra’s populism
Frank Capra’s pictures about the ‘little man’ vs the system went over so big that he was the first Hollywood…
Haunted by the ghost of Sherlock Holmes
When Sherlock Holmes first stalked across the pages of London periodicals in 1887, journalists eagerly asked Arthur Conan Doyle ‘how…
Under deep cover: The Taper Man, by Nick Harkaway, reviewed
Writers who have famous authors for parents might view it as an inhibiting burden, but Nick Harkaway, the son of…
From bog moss to orchids – the thrilling history of plant evolution
On the night of 1 March 1943, RAF Bomber Command launched its heaviest raid of the war so far. More…
Animal magic: a choice of children’s books
Toby Alone by Timothée de Fombelle begins: ‘Toby was just one and a half millimetres tall, not exactly big for…
College scandals: Lords of Serendipity, by Randy Boyagoda, reviewed
Randy Boyagoda has buried the campus novel in its grave. The setting of Lords of Serendipity is not the ‘city…
Sylvester Stallone’s own rags-to-riches story
If you think that Rocky is the greatest movie ever made, and Sly Stallone the finest actor, you will love…