flat white

Has newsweek become newspeak?

People may suspect they are living in an Orwellian media fever-dream when articles like this appear in Newsweek. Over the…

1 Dec 2023

The conceit of the elites

Europe is in the midst of a series of conflagrations. Last Thursday, Dublin was set ablaze in response to a stabbing attack allegedly…

1 Dec 2023

Peak stupid? NSW Liberals back Greens and Labor on Net Zero target

Two big events occurred in Macquarie Street on Thursday morning. In Parliament, the Liberals joined the Greens in the Lower…

1 Dec 2023

Winston’s moment

The Shaky Isles have a new government. At last. Christopher Luxon, with whom I spent a pleasurable day in Hawke’s…

1 Dec 2023

Time for Albo to cut Bowen loose

It may be somewhat fortunate for Chris Bowen that approval polls for the performance of the Climate and Energy Minister…

30 Nov 2023

Blueberry Fields Forever

‘Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to blueberry fields. Nothing is real, and there is nothing to get…

30 Nov 2023

Is Treasurer Chalmers the Pontius Pilate of interest rates?

Australian Prime Ministers typically leave a single memory to mark their reign. Morrison had his lump of coal. Rudd loved…

30 Nov 2023

Transylvanian gold

Why is everyone arguing about the validity of Roman gold found by a peasant in Transylvania? More to the point,…

30 Nov 2023

Game of wolves

The Albanese government mantra regarding relations with China ‘we need to cooperate with China where we can, disagree where we…

30 Nov 2023

Multiculturalism put to the test

‘Australia is the most successful multicultural nation in the world.’ Australian political leaders of all persuasions have often paraded this…

29 Nov 2023

Pray for sensible socialists and compassionate capitalists, son

There it was again, in a report about what Minister Bowen is planning next – that dreaded phrase … ‘dramatic…

29 Nov 2023

Mandate madness

The 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season was one of the worst in recorded history with fires burning across Australia for over…

29 Nov 2023

The power of satire, with The Babylon Bee’s Joel Berry

Satire is one of the most important ingredients of a healthy public discourse. But it is under threat across the west. Comedy, once the most subversive of artforms, has caved to the woke mob. Misinformation laws threaten to curtail free speech even further. And perhaps some of us have lost the ability to laugh at the irreverent and the politically incorrect.

Joel Berry is not one of those people. Joel is the Managing Editor of the Babylon Bee, one of (if not the) most popular satirical websites on the planet. Millions of people read the Bee’s content every month.

Elite universities loathe us

The Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne identifies its purpose as considering how Australia’s founding as a settler colony…

2 Dec 2023

Saving capitalism

One of the best presentations at the recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference held in London was given by Paul…

2 Dec 2023

United Nations of hypocrites

Last week I wrote about the disappointing silence from the Islamic and feminist organisations about the brutal sexual violence inflicted…

2 Dec 2023

Picking judges matters

My family and I arrived in Australia in January of 2005. So I’ve been here nearly two decades now. As…

2 Dec 2023

Australia – a democracy in name only

Once upon a time, Australia was a united nation. Its people respected Australia Day, Anzac Day and Christmas Day. They…

2 Dec 2023

Woke anti-Semites

The murder of more than 1,200 people by Hamas terrorists on 7 October was a crime against humanity, but many…

2 Dec 2023

EV speed bump

The electric car market’s apparently smoothly accelerating journey along the global sales highway has hit a speed bump. The industry…

2 Dec 2023

Hamas & friends

Israel’s war against Hamas has reached a crossroads. If the goal is to destroy Hamas, the role of Qatar can…

2 Dec 2023

Ron DeSantis just isn’t presidential material

Sans Trump, the Republican presidential debates of 2023 have mostly been piddling contests in a shallow pool. We’ve seen nasty…

1 Dec 2023

Hamas has made a mockery of the ceasefire deal

Early this morning, Hamas fired the first shot that signalled the end of its ceasefire deal with Israel, roughly an…

The EU is in denial about stopping the boats

The Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling is the latest EU initiative to address the continent’s migrant crisis. Unveiled in…

1 Dec 2023

Does a political solution to the Israel-Gaza conflict exist?

Is there a political solution to the Gaza conflict? Earlier this morning, the seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas broke…

1 Dec 2023

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Kiwi life

Given the UK’s Rishi Sunak sacking Suella Braverman for saying what many others would feel – that the police were…

25 Nov 2023

New Zealand’s coalition goes to war with Jacinda Ardern’s legacy

New Zealand finally has a government again. It’s been 40 days since Labour was defeated in the country’s election, but the…

24 Nov 2023

The worst Noel? Why Kiwis are turning against wealthy foreigners

Wealthy foreigners are flocking to New Zealand, but not all Kiwis are happy about their arrival: not least locals who…

4 Nov 2023

Poetic justice in New Zealand

October 14 was a good day to be a conservative on either side of the Tasman. On the same day…

21 Oct 2023

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Our pick of woke craziness going on in the worlds of arts, academia, business and the media from The Spectator Australia

Aussie life

Who can honestly say they’ve never contemplated murder? What red-blooded Australian can put their hand on their heart and swear…

2 Dec 2023

Language

We are unlikely to forget the look on Anthony Blinken’s face when the word ‘dictator’ slipped out of Joe Biden’s…

2 Dec 2023

Stockton, Cleverly and scatological etymology

There’s a street in the City of London called Sherborne Lane. In the Middle Ages it was known as Shitteborwelane…

2 Dec 2023

Dear Mary: Help! My stepmother uses fabric conditioner

Q. My father missed my mother so much after 50 years together that, following her death, he married again. I…

2 Dec 2023

A choice of this year’s gift books

Obviously, the best and funniest gift book out this Christmas is my own Still a Bit of Snap in the…

2 Dec 2023

Britney Spears is back with a vengeance

I am working on a play about Marilyn Monroe at the moment and, reading Britney Spears’s book, the similarities of…

2 Dec 2023

What would life on Mars actually look like?

Just as extreme altitudes have notable effects on the human body and mind, so too does extreme wealth seem to…

2 Dec 2023

A history of the onion leaves one crying for more

I am a big fan of Mark Kurlansky. His Cod is one of a handful of books I recommend to…

2 Dec 2023

How sport helped shape the British character

Faith in state planning was central to Harold Wilson’s pledge to modernise Britain. It was his rhetorical vision of a…

2 Dec 2023

When atonal music was original and exciting

In the 1960s and 1970s, British music was transfixed by the Manchester School. Led by the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander…

2 Dec 2023

The British Empire’s latest crime – to have ended the Enlightenment

What is the Enlightenment, and when did it come to an end? Neither are easy questions to answer. The Enlightenment,…

2 Dec 2023

The horrors of the ‘Upskirt Decade’

The subject that Sarah Ditum addresses in Toxic is why the early part of this century was ‘such a monstrous…

25 Nov 2023