Why the actor Sam Neill was so loved
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…
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…
We are happy to fuel everyone’s nuclear future except our own
This week in Melbourne, Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Narendra Modi signed the agreement that opens the door to Australian…
The anatomy of a scandal
The establishment has a single reflex for dealing with insurgents like Pauline Hanson. Only one leader, at the LNP State…
Arash the Archer
In Iranian mythology, Arash the Archer represents the highest form of sacrifice for one’s homeland. His story is not merely…
Ten problems with the Greens’ Anti-Conversion Bill
In keeping with what we has occurred in many other states in Australia, the Greens in Tasmania are seeking to…
I’m a freelance journalist. AI is stealing my work and calling it ‘training’
As someone unfortunate enough to use LinkedIn for work, the amount of AI slop I wade through daily has become…
My daughter changed my mind about quotas
I never thought I’d write a sentence beginning with, ‘My fifteen-year-old daughter has changed my mind about quotas.’ Yet here…
The next Senate will be a mess
We are living through a political revolution. The Liberal and National parties are in trouble, One Nation is booming, and…
What if Binface wins?
When Nigel Farage announced on July 7 that he was resigning as MP for Clacton and would immediately contest the…
I want my country back! Who took it…?
‘I just want my country back.’ It is one of the most misunderstood phrases in Australian politics. Pauline Hanson says…
The politics of low-cost energy
Britain’s Energy Security and Net Zero Minister, Ed Miliband, and Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, are,…
One flag, two economies
On 17 June, at the National Press Club, Pauline Hanson said the sentences that have kept the commentariat employed ever…
En Garde for the common good
Politics is complicated, particularly for young people. My fellow Gen Z conservatives often find ourselves in a never-ending intellectual duel,…
Are Labor’s so-called productivity reforms ‘shovel-ready’?
A tradesperson in Geelong is not automatically recognised as one in Townsville. Forms have to be filled out and applications…
The unproductive public service
When I look at tax, I get increasingly concerned with how comfortable we are becoming with the government’s lack of…
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…
A very English revolution
Everyone has their own way of thinking about America’s Declaration of Independence. For some, it is the birth certificate of…
The treason of the tenured
Associate Professor Matthew Champion of the University of Melbourne has spent his career studying how medieval and early modern communities…
Out and about with B1
I guess it makes political sense. Having taken a second job, Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen – B1…
The beautiful game?
A s some readers may recall, I love competitive sports. I played varsity basketball at university in Canada. I represented…
Style versus substance
When subscription news captions recently blared the words ‘Far-Left Winning Streak’ inside the Democratic party, they were reacting to a…
China Shock 2.0
Whenever people cite causes of the global financial crisis, they often blame the era’s macroeconomic imbalances, the same distortions behind…
Men without books
I once heard a clever quote that The Simpsons had run out of content because it had successfully deconstructed its…
Bread, circuses and ballistic missiles
If we were to dignify Anthony Albanese with a governing ethos, it would be bread and circuses. As national debt…
The classless response to Ann Widdecombe’s murder
Ann Widdecombe represented British politics at its best: she was deeply principled and sincere, yet warm and dignified. But in the response to her death, over…
Why Lindsey Graham was always ready for war
Political lives almost always end in failure, or at least anticlimax, but Lindsey Graham went to his reward while in…
Robbins puts Starmer in the dock
Hell hath no fury like a disgruntled former employee – and, in this case, perhaps justifiably so. As Sir Keir…
Why the actor Sam Neill was so loved
Actor Sam Neill, whose unexpected death was announced today by his family, was claimed as a son by not one,…
Ken Bates, Chelsea, and the bad old days of football
The timing of the death this weekend of Ken Bates, the former owner of Chelsea and Leeds United, will have…
George Cottrell and the troubling incuriosity of Nigel Farage
I wrote in this space not long ago, in the context of Nicola Sturgeon, about how incuriosity can, when taken…
Labour can’t blame the Tories for Britain’s tagging crisis
Electronic Monitoring – ‘EM’ or ‘tagging’ – is at the heart of the government’s plans for the justice system. Tags…
Thomas Tuchel has done the impossible: he’s made me love the Germans
Oh Thomas Tuchel, how I love you! Unlike the last boss of the England team, Saint Gareth of Southgate, there’s…
The price children pay for ‘free’ nursery
Bridget Phillipson’s proposal to extend 30 free hours of childcare to families on benefits is lunacy. Over eight years working…
Burnham’s tour of Britain is pure narcissism
Andy Burnham, who will be prime minister this time next week, has apparently decided to spend part of the summer…
The mass appeal of Ann Widdecombe
The death of Ann Widdecombe calls to mind the song of the same name by Victoria Wood. The festive ditty…
Will Lindsey Graham be remembered as a great senator?
Already the denunciations of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died at 71, are piling up. Former Republican operative Steve Schmidt’s verdict was not untypical. He declared…
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…
Why Count Binface could beat Farage
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…
Striped caps and striking shoes
June 11 saw the death of the Yorkshire-born English painter David Hockney who was arguably the most celebrated painter of…
Buckle up for the smack-downs: the media behemoth that is modern wrestling
For British readers of a certain age, wrestling occupies a very particular place in the collective memory. Long before the…
An ill-fated romance: Dark is the Morning, by Rupert Thomson, reviewed
As a prolific writer of literary fiction, Rupert Thomson has had plenty of practice in creating a good story. In…
The art of betrayal: Exhibition, by Alex Hyde, reviewed
Exhibition, Alex Hyde’s second novel, recounts the intimate, messy, ambiguous and ultimately ill-fated relationship between two fictionalised Young British Artists…
What precipitated a worldwide total war in the 1930s?
More than 80 years after it ended, we are still living through the aftermath of the second world war. When…
Distant shadows: Frame 37, by Nicholas Shakespeare, reviewed
In photography, balance, whether radial, conceptual or symmetrical, is critical to the success of a composition. An unbalanced photograph can…
How does the Catholic J.D. Vance justify Trumpian policies?
‘Read Hillbilly Elegy,’ a friend messaged me a decade ago. ‘The author really gets it.’ So I did, and indeed…
Too close for comfort: Family Friends, by Chloë Ashby, reviewed
‘Across the courtyard the water glistens a pale blue, the sun’s rays shimmering on its surface. The surrounding garden is…
Southern Gothic: the horror story of Alex Murdaugh, paterfamilias and ‘family annihilator’
The central figure of The Family Man, the lawyer Alex Murdaugh (pronounced ‘Murdock’), spends his life getting implicated in so…