Brown study
Before Lindsey Graham died
America was shocked by the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham who, it has been reported, died after a short…
Conservative civil war is a distraction
The civil war between the Coalition and One Nation began in earnest last week, so let’s talk about it. To…
Britain discovers Pauline Hanson
This UK trip was meant to be a fact-finding mission for One Nation – a studious exploration of the Populist…
Sink Labor in Secret Harbour
Remember at the tail end of June when Andrew Hastie declared war on One Nation only for Pauline Hanson to…
Stranger, which galaxy are you from?
We are the greatest nation on Earth … or so our leaders keep saying in a rather wooden and uncertain…
How will the Liberal Party atone for their ‘failings’?
I find it quite annoying that the media suggests that One Nation’s ‘slump’ in the polls (that keeps them 6…
A man on the train in Victoria
His family had voted Labor for generations. Even the Split hadn’t moved them. Something in the last ten years finally…
Net Zero prosperity, Net Zero children
Climate catastrophism rests on a moral inversion. It looks at the human activity that has made the world habitable and…
Hansonomics: ‘show us [our] numbers’
Barnaby Joyce is the gift that keeps on giving. He is possibly the greatest – genuine – ever gift to…
Discontent mistaken for virtue
What drives the anger and hostility of the more radical progressives? What makes them become impervious to facts and celebrate…
Australia must confront Iran’s shadow war on its shores
Recent warnings from Australian security agencies that hostile state actors, including the Islamic regime of Iran, are allegedly targeting teenagers…
Can One Nation break through the glass ceiling to the majors?
In Australian political history there have been minor parties that were setting up for a big swing but ended up…
Four years of failure from Labor
Most Australians know the economy is not working well. The GDP data show that Australia’s economy is growing, but many…
The Dartmoor Silence
Ann Widdecombe’s father, James Murray Widdecombe CB OBE, was born in Saltash, the small Cornish town where I grew up,…
What’s wrong with national service?
What’s wrong with National Service? Nothing. It’s the name that’s the problem… Mention ‘National Service’ to anyone over fifty and…
Were we lied to about skilled migration?
We believe Australians have been lied to about skilled migration. And analysis of official data only exposes the tip of…
Don’t worry, Big Brother is here to ‘keep you safe’
The Western Australian government recently announced its trial of ‘Overt Live Facial Recognition Technology’. In fact, by the time you’re…
The West’s circular firing squad
There is a peculiar pathology at work in the commentary class of the Western right. It is not stupidity, exactly.…
The Cyrus friendship
More than 2,500 years ago, one of history’s greatest rulers made a decision that changed the course of two peoples…
Artificial Intelligence and the elephant in the data room
Artificial Intelligence is a major issue these days for all sorts of reasons, ranging from union concerns over likely job…
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner loses again – A victory for free speech | Celine Baumgarten S3 Ep 18
Celine Baumgarten (Celine Against the Machine) has celebrated her SECOND victory against the eSafety Commissioner. This wasn’t only a personal…
Did Donald Trump conquer the world with witty insults? | Joel Gilbert S3 Ep 17
Did Donald Trump conquer the world with witty insults? I’m joined by Joel Gilbert to discuss the genius of humour…
Digital tyranny or ‘child safety’? 😵 & the bitcoin revolution | Efrat Fenigson S3 Ep 16
When Australia’s Under 16 social media ban started locking adult political writers out of #Substack – it was just the…
Pauline’s economics problem
It’s all happening in Britain. If you didn’t follow Nigel Farage’s extraordinary week last week, you probably should. Debate still…
The World Cup and economics
I’m not normally much of a sports fan. I used to follow Aussie Rules – barracking for Carlton is in…
The 51st state
The reason why Donald Trump wants Greenland is obvious. He wants to show the world by using Greenland’s history that…
Hang together or hang separately
We all have heard Benjamin Franklin’s famous advice to the American revolutionaries: ‘We must, indeed, all hang together, or most…
A world of higher inflation
Edmund Phelps, the Nobel laureate for Economics in 2006, died this year aged 92 just as his breakthrough theory, which…
One Nation is not the enemy
As Leader of the Opposition, Angus Taylor’s job is to join in defeating the Albanese government at the next election.…
Business/Robbery, etc
There are mounting threats to the Australia I have known and loved throughout my 96 years – a milestone I…
The politics of trade-offs
One Nation wants to be regarded as a serious party of government rather than merely a protest party. Fair enough.…
Don’t take down your St George’s Cross
As the country comes to terms with England’s World Cup drubbing, a familiar ritual is now playing out as a…
Nationalising British Steel is not the worst idea
Keir Starmer won’t leave much of a legacy, but his last week has brought one thing which will be seen…
Tone policing Nigel Farage will only backfire
There will always be a certain class of people who sigh that Nigel Farage only reaps what he sows. Ever…
Who can blame the White House teleprompter operator, America’s savviest gambler?
Taking the luck out of betting might lessen the thrill, but it certainly ups the profit. White House teleprompter operator…
Meet Burnham’s new political strategist
Andy Burnham’s new head of political strategy is a trustee of a charity that campaigns to repatriate Isis brides and…
Liz Truss brings CPAC to Britain – but not the crowds
I’m not going to say that CPAC is dead… but it’s not the most alive… pic.twitter.com/IsRoUTenz0 — Anna Ridgway (@annaroseridgway)…
Sadiq Khan gains a gong
Just when you thought you couldn’t dislike Sir Keir Starmer any more, he has gone and awarded Sir Sadiq Khan…
Starmer tells Argentina: hands off the Falklands
Sir Keir Starmer has officially backed Spain to beat the Argies in Sunday’s World Cup final. A spokeswoman for the…
Will assisted dying be Macron’s final legacy?
France’s National Assembly passed a bill on Wednesday granting terminally ill adults the right to end their lives with medical…
The Gazan family ruling makes a mockery of human rights
The need to think seriously about our membership of the ECHR gets more glaring daily. Some time ago, a Gazan…
The Trump monotony
One of Donald Trump’s greatest strengths is his ability to repeat himself endlessly. It takes some doing. At 9 p.m.…
Why Ann Widdecombe is being mourned for in America
I was just waking up last Friday when I heard the news of Ann Widdecombe’s death. It was still very…
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…
What they don’t tell you about Christmas in New Zealand
‘I still think New Zealand the most beautiful country I have ever seen,’ Agatha Christie marvelled in 1922. Evidently she’s…
What will Jacinda Ardern do next?
When I first met Jacinda Ardern in the early 2010s, the notion that the young MP with the toothy smile…
Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is a triumph
A Treasury on YouTube
It’s strange how much we take for granted the world we inherit, which is available to us on YouTube for…
To be trans Hamlet or not to be
Is there something strange about seeing a great comedian who identifies as a trans woman do a solo Hamlet, the…
Tip-Toeing in Manchester
The world knows that Andy Burnham, the ‘King from the North’, was a very successful mayor of Manchester. There have…
Beauty, blarney and banshees
It’s a bit odd in its way that a fair fraction of the more or less British theatre we watch…
An alternative Paris: Château Rouge, by Amit Chaudhuri, reviewed
Nearly ten years ago, the author, critic and classical Indian musician Amit Chaudhuri took up a visiting fellowship in Paris.…
Bringing Homer into the home: how the Iliad and Odyssey became widely available
Homer’s ghost is particularly busy, popping up in the dreams of pretty much every poet going. In fact if you…
A feast of wartime espionage: the latest crime fiction
Do novelists need credentials? Once, almost a century ago, the vogue for hard-boiled fiction meant that in the masculine Hemingway…
Terrorists with a taste for luxury: the flamboyance of the Baader-Meinhof gang
In the summer of 1970, a group of West German radical activists flew from Berlin to the Middle East. They…
The past yields up its secrets: The Red Mouth, by Sheila Armstrong, reviewed
Sheila Armstrong’s strange and beautiful novel has 12 chapters, each named for a month of the year – though not…
The appeal of asymmetry: Contrapposto, by Dave Eggers, reviewed
There are novelists who seem to spend their entire careers either apologising for being themselves or trying to become someone…
Good moaning: the subversive sitcoms of the 1980s revisited
The foundations of all British situation comedy were laid by Charles Dickens. If you were to remove that tiresome fun-sponge…
Christian soldiers in retreat – the disastrous Fifth Crusade
The Fifth Crusade, which was fought between 1217 and 1221, marked a new direction for the crusading movement of the…