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A tale of two tactics

What’s the country most similar to Australia in terms of our constitutional history, size, people, legal system, punching weight in…

2 Nov 2024

Our slowing and deformed economy

At a recent gathering of European leaders, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni noted that over the past 35 years, Europe’s…

2 Nov 2024

A recce of the Hallowe’en decs

One of my favourite pastimes is to roam around the neighbourhood with the grandchildren, taking in the sights and looking…

2 Nov 2024

Hayek’s fine mind

Recently, the names of the three Nobel prize winners in economics were announced. Fifty years ago, one of the best…

2 Nov 2024

All is not well

The recent incident involving the respected trade unionist, Joe de Bruyn, is the latest manifestation of the battle raging for…

2 Nov 2024

Our China-loving pope

Readers will recall the late Cardinal George Pell’s scathing Spectator Australia article, published a day after his passing, which spoke…

2 Nov 2024

Gearing up for civil strife

A New South Wales Electoral Commission inquiry last year rejected electronic voting as inherently risky and urged paper-based voting be…

2 Nov 2024

Chairman’s scrounge

‘Mum’s aspiration was that my life would turn out better than hers. It was because of her that a working…

2 Nov 2024

Team Badenoch vs Team Jenrick: A beginner’s guide

The end is in sight. The polls have closed. On Saturday, the result of the Tory leadership contest will be…

There may soon be peace in Lebanon

If the leaks and briefings are to be believed, Israel is getting ready to end its war in Lebanon. With…

1 Nov 2024

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has the perfect riposte to the anti-Israel bores

Finally, a celeb has stood up to the Israel bashers. It took the famously dour frontman of Radiohead to do…

1 Nov 2024

The Women’s Equality Party deserves its fate

Of all the grotesque modern types who cast a silly-yet-sinister shadow over the dog-days of Western civilisation – the Queers…

1 Nov 2024

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Why is this New Zealand airport clamping down on hugs?

‘Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world,’ Hugh Grant famously offered in the heartwarming opening scene of Love,…

24 Oct 2024

How New Zealand managed to sink a tenth of its naval fleet

New Zealand just lost one tenth of its naval defence fleet. The HMNZS Manawanui – the jewel in the nation’s small military…

7 Oct 2024

How does New Zealand solve a problem like China?

New Zealand’s most important trading partner is also the nation’s biggest security headache, according to a new risk-assessment report produced…

8 Sep 2024

Why are so many young people abandoning New Zealand?

Heading to the UK is a longstanding rite of cultural passage for many Kiwis. People like my youngest son, who…

24 Aug 2024

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Aussie life

Despite historically owning less property than men, women have always exerted a powerful influence in the sector. Like lyre birds,…

2 Nov 2024

Language

When human rights commissions were established both federally and in all the states, we assumed this was a good thing…

2 Nov 2024

The glaring mismatch in English football

Your starter for ten: who was the last English manager to win the top flight of English football? Treat yourself…

2 Nov 2024

Does ‘tummy’ turn your stomach?

‘How old does he think you are?’ asked my husband when I told him my GP had asked me if…

2 Nov 2024

Books of the Year I

Jonathan Sumption Barbara Emerson’s The First Cold War: Anglo-Russian Relations in the 19th Century (Hurst, £35) is an outstanding account…

2 Nov 2024

From public bar to cocktail bar: books for the discerning drinker

One of the joys of getting older is the appreciation of the solitary pint. But what to do as you…

2 Nov 2024

Waifs and strays: Gliff, by Ali Smith, reviewed

‘Gliff’ is a word which can mean ‘a short moment’, ‘a wallop’, and ‘a post-ejaculatory sex act’; to ‘dispel snow’,…

2 Nov 2024

The mystery of Area X: Absolution, by Jeff VanderMeer, reviewed

I have to confess that I am not a fan of horror fiction. I have a stack of unread H.P. Lovecrafts sent…

2 Nov 2024

Truly inspirational: the hospital diary of Hanif Kureishi

You’d think a book about a paralysed man lying in hospital for a year would be bound to be depressing.…

2 Nov 2024

The many passions of Ronald Blythe

In Regency Britain, balls were often timed to coincide with full moons. Provided there was no cloud cover, moonlight made…

2 Nov 2024

Out of the depths: Dante’s Purgatorio, by Philip Terry, reviewed

Many readers of Dante get no further than the Inferno. The inscription over the gates of Hell, the demon-haunted circles,…

2 Nov 2024

You didn’t mess with them – the doughty matriarchs of the intelligence world

As Hilary Mantel memorably noted, history represents what people try to hide, and researching it is a question of ferreting…

2 Nov 2024