The brave new world of 'moral bioenhancement'
The government needs to wean itself off tobacco tax
Albert Einstein pointed out the obvious when he said, “We can not solve our problems with the same level of…
The granddad speech
CNN is saying the Biden speech proves he isn’t an old man, even though anyone with elderly parents would recognize…
Is it time that we learned to stand on our own two feet instead of cashing in on the market for victimhood?
Back in at January, the Benson Centre for the study of Western Civilisation hosted noted scholar Ayaan Hirsi Ali. In…
If we outsource our thinking to artificial intelligence will we also surrender responsibility – and more?
Artificial Intelligence can’t come soon enough, especially if one considers the behaviour of some people in the middle of the…
Go have a long lunch, Emma, and put away the phone
It’s awful losing your job. Bloody awful. Full stop. Most of us have been there one time or another. We…
The brave new world of ‘moral bioenhancement’
O wonder!How many goodly creatures are there here!How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,That has such people in’t. — William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act…
The cultural juggernaut of transgender ideology: not kids’ stuff
Even as an adult, it can be an intimidating and daunting task to untangle and challenge the lies of transgender…
Labor: the party of the workers – or the woke?
Labor might need to split into two separate parties if it is to represent workers as well as inner-city poodle…
China disappears at the DNC
Members of media hailed the all-digital Democratic National Convention and convention coordinator Stephanie Cutter, the former Obama adviser famous for…
We're stuck in a coronavirus time warp
There is actually some good news emerging from the tragic gloom of the Covid-19 epidemic. Despite some relaxation of lockdown…
It's time for Imran Khan to accept Israel is here to stay
‘Our stand on Israel is clear,’ Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan said this week. ‘We cannot recognise Israel until Palestinians…
Brexit blame game as latest talks stall
Despite Boris Johnson’s call for Brexit negotiations to speed up, the seventh round of talks has today ended with little progress. Neither side…
This isn’t leadership
One of Scott Morrison’s key innovations, as border protection minister, was to stop the practice of making announcements every time…
The madness of Saint Jeannette
George Orwell – one of the 20th century’s great enemies of authoritarianism and bureaucratic lies – famously observed that ‘saints…
BLM and the N word
Godwin’s Law states that ‘as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler or Nazis approaches…
Middle East game changer
On 13 August, politics in the Middle East, that most volatile of regions, transformed in what has been described as…
This craven breed of men
Let’s be honest. The docile, supine, pusillanimous way in which many Australians are meekly accepting being ordered into their homes,…
Facenanny knows best
‘Your post goes against our Community Standards on misinformation’ warns the Facebook censor when your article vanishes from its site.…
Business/Robbery etc.
Greg Combet: Labor’s cashed-up secret weapon Get used to seeing Greg Combet’s face on TV; his new ‘personal’ superannuation ads…
Under the cover of Covid
A spectre is haunting the world—the Mussolini syndrome where the leader addresses the populace based on a cocktail of alien,…
Zadie Smith
She had a heady start to her writing career. The rights to her first novel were the subject of a…
A.N. Wilson
Kathy Lette says that during lockdown she has been reading Dickens. Her choice illustrates the enduring appeal of Charles Dickens…
James Darling striding the shores of Limebuners’ Bay
‘Just as I am’ is the recurrent opening line of a hymn written in 1835 by Charlotte Elliott. It was…
Pierre Soulages
A French painting purchased in Melbourne in 1953 has been repatriated selling for $5.26m earlier this month in Paris. For…
Bombs over London: V for Victory, by Lissa Evans, reviewed
Lissa Evans has been single-handedly rescuing the Hampstead novel from its reputation of being preoccupied by pretension and middle-class morality.…
Should we all be prepping for the end of days?
In the Covid-19 crisis the calamity-howlers have found a vindication: go back to survival mode and bunker down because nobody…
Beauty and the beast: Jane Birkin’s love affair with Serge Gainsbourg
I met Jane Birkin’s parents, who flit across these pages. Her mother, Judy Campbell, was an actress in Noël Coward…
In just eight years Selim I became ‘God’s Shadow on Earth’
Faber must take a rather dim view of British readers’ historical awareness these days. This is a biography of one…
A rainy day in the Highlands: Summerwater, by Sarah Moss, reviewed
There is an old Yorkshire tale about a prosperous town which, legend has it, once stood on the site of…
It’s time to leave Chopin in peace
There’s a scene early on in A Song to Remember — Charles Vidor’s clunky Technicolor film of 1945 — in…
Sport, for the English, has always been a defiant assertion of liberty
The English cannot be understood without some appreciation of their attachment to their games, and yet this is an area…
Who is telling the truth in Kate Reed Petty’s True Story?
This debut novel, which opens with ‘a high- school lacrosse party in 1999 and the rumour of a sexual assault,’…