Matthew Lesh

Did red tape worsen Britain’s inflation problem?

23 February 2024 4:21 am

It has been a miserable few years for our quality of life. People have gotten used to that sinking feeling…

George Osborne’s smoking ban is deluded

3 May 2023 10:25 pm

Former Chancellor George Osborne has become the latest British politician to call for a smoking ban. The architect of the…

Why WhatsApp could quit the UK over the Online Safety Bill

19 April 2023 9:25 pm

WhatsApp, Signal and five other messaging services have joined forces to attack the government’s Online Safety Bill. They fear the bill will kill…

The Online Harms Bill still threatens free speech and privacy 

4 November 2022 6:30 pm

The Online Safety Bill became a lightning rod for criticism during the Conservative party leadership contest over the summer. A…

The EU rules creating an armada of empty ‘ghost flights’

9 January 2022 7:00 pm

This week it was reported that Lufthansa Group – which also owns Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and Swiss International…

A Catch-22 defeated Peter Ridd – but there’s still hope for academic freedom

13 October 2021 12:25 pm

Peter Ridd has lost in the High Court, but the judgment has nevertheless set an important precedent in favour of…

There's nothing wrong with foreign owned football

21 April 2021 3:50 pm

Many are blaming the failed European Super League on foreign owners, presenting it as a greed fuelled attempt by overseas…

Deal or no deal

14 September 2019 9:00 am

No longer can Brexit be considered inevitable: British democracy is on life support, and there are many who want to…

Transforming Goosefish into Monkfish: branding’s slippery secrets

1 June 2019 9:00 am

We live in a logic-obsessed world, from computer modelling of the economy to businesses run by spreadsheets. But we also…

Galileo wins court case

27 April 2019 9:00 am

‘Vindicated. The score is 17-nil, the judge’s findings were damning. It could not have gone better,’ Professor Peter Ridd explains…

Everything is… just fine

26 January 2019 9:00 am

‘Britain in worst crisis since WWII,’ declared the Australian’s front page last Thursday. ‘Britain’s state of dismay,’ professed the Age’s…

The job of universities

13 October 2018 9:00 am

Amelia is an academic at an Australian university. She reached out to me earlier this year after seeing my work…

Free speech now comes with security costs?

7 August 2018 6:07 pm

La Trobe University is encouraging censorious behaviour by charging special security fees for an event with commentator Bettina Arndt hosted…

The kids aren’t all left

1 August 2018 7:33 am

Last week Elin Ersson, a 21-year-old Swedish student, halted the deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker from Sweden by refusing…

Australian notes

30 June 2018 9:00 am

Universities of the closed mind A series of leaked emails reveal the depths of prejudice and groupthink at Australia’s universities.…

Where have all our entrepreneurs gone?

21 June 2018 1:04 pm

Australia is has experienced a gigantic fall in entrepreneurship. Between 2003-05 and 2012-14, small business start-ups — as a percentage…

Budget 2018: What have you achieved?

9 May 2018 7:42 am

Treasurer Scott Morrison’s budget speech opened with the remark ‘What have you achieved?’ to which the chamber responded with howling…

Is it Monash or Marxist University?

1 April 2018 3:22 pm

Monash University, the first Australian university to introduce trigger warnings, appropriately begins their “#CHANGEIT” advertising campaign by declaring “SOME OF…

Top three lefty unis

24 February 2018 9:00 am

From the sandstones to the concrete monstrosities, Australia’s university students are returning to lecture halls and classrooms in coming weeks.…

Time for a freedom fight back in our universities

22 January 2018 7:49 am

‘Who has been too scared to express their opinion in a tutorial?’ I asked a room packed with students last…

Repeating Turnbull’s blunder

5 October 2017 2:54 pm

Watching the Conservatives fall apart over leadership gives me uncanny déjà vu after Australian politics. In the last eight years, Australia has…

Expat diary

30 September 2017 9:00 am

‘Oooo, Jer-emy Cor-byn. Oooo, Jer-emy Cor-byn,’ the cult-esque chant goes as we walk past. I’m marching with the LGBTories in…

The freedom conundrum

19 August 2017 9:00 am

Recently I attended the Centre for Policy Studies’ Margaret Thatcher Conference on Security 2017 at the august Guildhall in the…

The left’s exotic Venezuelan romance meets reality

3 August 2017 6:00 pm

In London’s posh South Kensington ‪on Sunday afternoon I witnessed anti and pro-Venezuelan government protests form outside the Venezuelan embassy.…

Senator’s inspirational first speech savages welfare traps

23 June 2017 4:49 pm

‘I remember the first time we found welfare money in our bank account shortly after our arrival in Australia,’ South Australian Senator Lucy…