Spare us the Australia Day antics
ScoMo runs up the white flag on carbon
It was only at midday Friday The Spectator Australia asked Will Australia face carbon tariffs under the Biden regime? By…
Will NSW follow Dan Andrewstan and only consult allies over the transgender agenda?
Here’s an interesting insight into how the game of politics is played. Regarding the Victorian ‘Suppression (Conversion) Bill’ where the MP’s stated…
Happy Australia Day Daniel Andrews – you hideous hypocrite
There are many words I could choose to describe Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews. In the spirit of Australia Day, I…
War is a continuation of politics by other means – trade too
War is a continuation of politics by other means. The German strategist Carl von Clausewitz, who wrote the book on…
Australia’s news bargaining code is unworkable – and could break the internet as we know it
America is the most innovative country globally because American businesses hustle to innovate and create new products and services. Competition…
She Who Must Not Be Named
Australia’s greatest tennis player turned Christian minister is vilified every January for daring to hold a traditional view of marriage…
So what can we say about the Podium Poet?
So let’s talk about the poetry thing and the poet who read poetry at the inauguration. America’s National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman who recited the…
Australia versus Google
The out-going Trump administration finally woke up to a nasty little rort that the Australian government was planning on running…
Russians are daring to dream of life after Putin
Alexei Navalny, Russia’s leading opposition figure, demonstrated unfathomable courage in returning home after the Kremlin had poisoned him with Novichok.…
Word of the week: Sceptic
Definition: A person who questions the beliefs of others Lord Sumption, is a sceptic. The former Supreme Court judge has…
Spain's transgender wars are turning nasty
Lidia Falcón O’Neill is a legendary figure in Spanish politics. Half a century ago, she stood up to Franco as head of…
'Smart' motorways are an accident waiting to happen
If I could wave a wand and reverse just one government policy it would be the expansion of so-called ‘smart…
Super wasteful
The claim that Australia’s system of compulsory superannuation is the envy of the world is routinely made. But who is…
Black out
Late last year saw publication of another indigenous report, thousands more words about challenges facing these troubled communities. The Australian Human Rights Commission’s Women’s Voices report contained a heavy…
Nowhere Man
‘The virtual inauguration of Joe Biden is a fitting culmination to a campaign which was notable for its absences; a…
Making America Miserable Again
The election of Joe Biden as the forty sixth president of the United States will see a reversion to Washington’s…
The year the world caught communism
The world was initially shocked by the brutality of China’s lockdown to deal with the outbreak of a novel coronavirus…
Detransitioning over the rainbow
Next month, the Victorian parliament will enact the ‘Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Bill 2020’, which was drafted to protect…
Cancel culture on campus
Let me give readers more to worry about when it comes to today’s rampant cancel culture, a phenomenon that seems…
Business/Robbery etc.
Bully in China cries foul Bullies always cry foul when the tables are turned. While a bullying China imposes its…
The Investigation
Slowly, after what seemed like infinite, malingering delays, virus-driven, the world of arts and entertainment is starting to open again…
Masked opera
We were all excited to be there. You would have thought that we hadn’t been to an opera performance. Well,…
Bridgerton
Who would have thought that Netflix would score so sumptuously with a Regency soap that flaunts colourblind casting like a…
Banks, the new biography of Joseph Banks by Grantlee Kieza reviewed
One of the most eligible bachelors in England, he was strong, handsome, well-educated, adventurous and a fabulously rich young man.…
Will the next generation wonder what the fuss over Brexit was about?
Robert Tombs’s new book is not long: 165 pages of argument, unadorned by maps or images. But brevity is good,…
The art of the short story: what we can learn from the Russians
This is such a superb idea that it’s a wonder a book like this has not cropped up before. Here…
God’s many mansions: a guide to the world’s greatest churches
The surroundings of the Crimea Memorial Church in Istanbul are ‘little better than a dump’, wrote the British embassy chaplain…
The Generic Asian Man: Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu, reviewed
Of the handful of things we can establish about Willis Wu, the protagonist of Charles Yu’s second novel, the most…
On the cowboy’s trail: Powder Smoke, by Andrew Martin, reviewed
Detective Inspector Jim Stringer is back. This is a York novel, or rather a Yorkshire crime novel. The LNER railway…
A burnt-out case: the many lives of Dr Anthony Clare
Those who best remember Dr Anthony Clare (1942-2007) for his broadcasting are firmly reminded by this biography that we didn’t…
Cruelty and chaos in Karachi
Karachi, Pakistan’s troubled heart, is known to cast a seductive spell over residents and visitors alike. In Karachi Vice, the…
An English 17th-century double portrait holds many clues to its meaning
This is a big book about a minor painting — a double portrait of John Bankes, aged about 16 (the…