Damn due process, let’s impeach Trump anyway
We are witnessing America’s arguably most destructive political convulsion as the Democrats’ move to impeach President Donald Trump. It is…
What’s woke this week?
Food has featured strongly in wokeworld this week, along with a prestigious art award. In other news, multifarious trigger warnings…
Recognising Jerusalem, two years on
It was in the first week of December 2017, almost a year to the day after being elected President of…
The ABC’s war on ‘us’
The ABC has recently released its new editorial guidance note on “Hate Speech, Terrorism and Mass Killing”. While the document is rich…
When will China’s brittle autocracy break?
You don’t have to be a China watching political historian to recognise the accuracy of the observation that China has…
An early Christmas present for business and taxpayers, a rude awakening for Sir Humphrey
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has given business and taxpayers an early Christmas present with today’s announcement of cuts to government…
Our failing school system doesn’t need more money
Put to the test in terms of the education’s systems 3 Es — excellence, equity, and efficiency — Australia has…
Atwood’s Antipodean tour set to lighten handmaids’ skirts by $1 million
Margaret Atwood, the frazzled-haired Canadian author of the blockbuster The Handmaid’s Tale franchise is set to make another fortune in…
The margin between a Tory landslide and defeat is tiny
In next week’s election, it feels like if voters had the choice they would elect a Conservative president and a centre-left…
Watch: Andrew Neil eviscerates Boris Johnson over interview no show
Boris Johnson has so far refused to take part in an election interview with Andrew Neil. Jeremy Corbyn, Jo Swinson,…
Pelosi’s rush to impeachment
‘Breaking news’ sirens sounded over the Twitter webs when Nancy Pelosi announced she is instructing House Democrats to draft articles…
Impeachment really is a pathetic clown show
First it was COLLUSION! Can you believe it? Trump was colluding with the Russians to steal the election from its…
Labour’s ugly taint of antisemitism
Religious leaders generally steer well clear of politics during election campaigns and nobody can remember when one ever before made…
Clive’s noble cause
The great Clive James died on the same day as the great Jonathan Miller but I know which one I…
Business/Robbery etc
It is not going away. Corporate leaders are increasingly stepping outside their legal requirement to serve the best interests of…
Academia rooted
The University of Sydney’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences continues to be the standard bearer for everything that is…
Teaching untruths about Jews
Physical Education teachers are caricatured as tormenting the unfit children in the class but in fact they are an essential…
London Bridge is falling down
On 30 November 2019, we were witness to a shocking display of behaviour on London Bridge, that our misandrist citizens…
Lock up the politicians
A favourite argument of the elites is that something is ‘inevitable’ or, more subtly, ‘the planets are aligned’. Blasting what…
Trump, impeachment and the media
Many of us living in the Westminster parliamentary part of the democratic world don’t have much grasp of what the…
Portrait of Rear-Admiral William Bligh (detail) Alexander Huey, 1814
Hero or Villain? That is the question posed about William Bligh by an exhibition currently at the Australian National Maritime…
The Memory Pool
‘Tis the season to be planning your holiday reading. I take inspiration from the marvellous bookshop in the beautiful lobby…
William Dobell “Woman in a Salon (Helena Rubinstein)” 1960
She was a girl from Coleraine who became the world’s first self made multi-millionairess. Born in Krakôw, Poland in1872, she…
Caroline O’Connor is the Spider Woman
They wrote musicals based on the most unlikely material but John Kander and Fred Ebb enjoyed ultimate success with Cabaret…
As English spread over the subcontinent, India lost forever its rich Persianate literary heritage
In the seventh century, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang made an epic journey through the Gobi desert and over the…
Britain’s obsession with boxing is as deep-rooted as its devotion to cricket
Boxing has long been a British obsession, exported successfully to North America, but never widespread on the Continent. Mainland Europeans…
Will Self’s memoir of drug addiction is a masterpiece of black humour
Well, it was always going to be called Will. More than once in this terrifying, terrific book, Will Self refers…
The people’s Prince: even as a teenager the musician charmed everyone he met
Many pop stars are easy to imagine as children, as it’s a profession that doesn’t really reward growing up. Elton…
The first Puritans weren’t so much killjoys as ardent believers in honest living
‘Puritan’ is a term of abuse, and we tend to use it to refer to such figures as the nightmarishly…
Lydia Davis, like an inspirational teacher, tempts her readers into more reading
A good indicator of just how interesting and alluring Lydia Davis’s Essays proved might be my recent credit card statement.…
The Great War was enough to make grown men weep
Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo it took a mere six weeks for the diplomats of Europe’s…
James Baldwin’s radicalism was part Marxist, part Christian
Great biographies try to answer questions about the complicated relationship between their subjects’ inner life and outer workings. How did…