James Allan

Our universities and more…

9 June 2018 10:11 am

I suspect a fair few readers are pretty incredulous about the whole Peter Ridd saga at James Cook University. Ridd…

West goes south

9 June 2018 9:00 am

Last November I was lucky enough to have been invited to the Sydney launch of the Ramsay Centre for Western…

Australian notes

19 May 2018 9:00 am

Want to know how low the commitment to free speech has sunk these days? About a week ago the White…

Evil vs dumb

12 May 2018 9:00 am

The great US columnist Charles Krauthammer once noted this truth about contemporary political life in America: ‘To understand the workings…

Those dastardly, discommodious Delcons

14 April 2018 9:00 am

Remember back to the time of the coup against Tony Abbott when the great and the good (I speak loosely…

Australian notes

31 March 2018 9:00 am

On tour with Jordan I got the phone call back in January. The man on the other end of the…

The fight Conservatives must have

17 March 2018 9:00 am

Hands up if you read Paul Kelly in last Saturday’s Australian? He was writing on the state of conservatism in…

Satirical notes

10 March 2018 9:00 am

Night of the Black Hands It was a dark mid-March weekend night in Adelaide. The fine citizens of South Australia’s…

What is the point of Cory Bernardi?

24 February 2018 9:00 am

Let me be honest. I don’t really see the point of Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives (‘AC’) party as presently configured.…

In defence of Tasmania

23 February 2018 8:03 pm

It feels a bit odd that someone like me, a native-born Canadian who has lived in Queensland for the last…

Burdens of proof and blatant bias

10 February 2018 9:00 am

The non-lawyer readers of this fine publication may not be aware of a key premise (really it is a trade-off…

Classic whodunnit

3 February 2018 9:00 am

How many readers know the answer to the question, ‘After the Bible and Shakespeare, who is the biggest selling author…

Conserve what?

20 January 2018 9:00 am

If, like me, you are a small government, strong borders and national defence, lots of free speech and as little…

New Year’s musings

6 January 2018 9:00 am

Love me do I think we all understand how ‘user pays’ works. Say you go to the local municipal swimming…

Australian notes

9 December 2017 9:00 am

Compare and contrast So it’s coming up to a year since one Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president…

Australian notes

2 December 2017 9:00 am

The Textorising of the right Let me make a confession, one that should you utter it out loud would mark…

Australian notes

18 November 2017 9:00 am

The Bennelong bedwetter Some say that this innovative and agile Team Turnbull government continues to go from strength to strength.…

Even worse in WA

11 November 2017 9:00 am

We all know that the Liberal party MPs are in a world of pain. The polls are diabolical. Political death…

Australian notes

4 November 2017 9:00 am

John Howard and the black hand It is not particularly far-fetched to claim that the Liberal Party is in big…

Trump notes

7 October 2017 9:00 am

Lefties on their knees Just when you thought political life in the United States simply could not become more polarised,…

Why Turnbull cannot be English

28 September 2017 7:24 am

There is a school of thought that Malcolm Turnbull can still salvage his leadership of the Liberal Party here in…

The Senate is dysfunctional

16 September 2017 9:00 am

Look across the entire democratic world and you will notice that some countries have only one legislative chamber. New Zealand…

Coming soon to a campus near you

9 September 2017 9:00 am

If you are not worried about the state of free enquiry in universities around the Anglosphere then you are probably…

Bottom drawer

2 September 2017 9:00 am

Deep in the bowels of the Australian Safe Schools Supporters (ASSS) headquarters, a planning session was taking place. All those…

Australian notes

19 August 2017 9:00 am

On Noel and Richo Last week in the Australian Noel Pearson wrote a piece responding to Graham Richardson’s earlier claim…