Bastard Bill unfit for public office
A modest proposal for Australia Day
It has become fashionable for some wokesters to object to Australia Day celebrations, even calling we modern Australians an occupying…
Wiping “Australia Day” from the Big Bash games: polling shows it’s another fumble by our feeble cricketers
In the wake of an underwhelming summer of cricket in which the Australians lost a home series to the depleted Indian squad, Australia’s governing body…
An honour with a great big crown on top for Malcolm
Lord Malcolm of Point Piper has finally received an official honour, the Companion in the Order of Australia, the AC.…
Time to make our gongs truly Australian: the Great Bloke, the Grouse Sheila and more
Outstanding Australians are honoured at this time every year in recognition of their contribution to our country. The problem is…
January 26: The Church of Woke’s one day of the year
We are religious, as religion is an inescapable concept and everybody is religious. Religions have their holy days (from which we get…
The trust fund kids of the Guardian: too slack to even compile their own hit list
On January 21 and 22. the Institute of Public Affairs received correspondence about a planned register of think-tanks in Australia…
Bastard Bill unfit for public office
Bastard Bill’, ‘Slithering Shorten’ — call him what you will — confirmed again this weekend why he is comprehensively unfit…
ACB or ABC? Cricket Australia’s woke arrogance
The same cricketers who intend to snub Australia Day at home want priority receiving the Covid vaccine so they can…
The human costs of an ‘Australian-style’ quarantine system
Richard Curtis’ iconic Love Actually airport scenes may fall on the wrong side of saccharine, but they capture something of…
Drinking my way through the Capitol riots
What would you do if the world was ending? I suppose I would be somewhere drinking. At least, that’s what…
Is this the key to understanding Covid immunity?
Just how strong an immunity do Covid patients develop after they have acquired the infection and how long does it…
Why we should worry about the censorship of the far left
There are many important, principled arguments for free speech. But one of the most convincing is purely tactical. Why empower…
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…