Simon Collins

Simon Collins

20 April 2019 9:00 am

When Christopher Hitchens decided to qualify the title of his 2007 magnum opus God is not Great with the caption…

Simon Collins

6 April 2019 9:00 am

There are two kinds of political figure who cannot be effectively satirised. One is the kind of leader who makes…

Simon Collins

23 March 2019 9:00 am

In the early 1980s I went out briefly with the daughter of a Thatcher cabinet minister, and spent several evenings…

Simon Collins

9 March 2019 9:00 am

If there is anything which can be relied upon to bring a nation together better than the achievements of its…

Simon Collins

23 February 2019 9:00 am

Queensland may have thrown in the towel in its wars with the cane toad, the rabbit and the crown-of-thorns starfish,…

Simon Collins

9 February 2019 9:00 am

Two weeks ago on this page I complained about how rarely mainstream Australian media uses the word ‘masculinity’ without the…

Simon Collins

26 January 2019 9:00 am

Underpinning Orwell’s most chilling dystopian vision was the belief that controlling what people say is half way to controlling what…

Simon Collins

12 January 2019 9:00 am

If you still haven’t got around to making a New Year’s resolution, why not make one you won’t be able…

Simon Collins

8 December 2018 9:00 am

Last week a friend invited me to the final year art students’ show at the University of NSW. As I…

Simon Collins

24 November 2018 9:00 am

In the England of my childhood, greengrocers were heavily reliant on South African farmers. This was still the case when…

Simon Collins

10 November 2018 9:00 am

I don’t know if media coverage of the Geoffrey Rush defamation trial boosted Australian cinema attendances for last week’s simulcast…

Simon Collins

27 October 2018 9:00 am

It wasn’t until the mid-1980’s that the party-pooping Ulema shut down Saudi Arabia’s cinemas. So there’s a good chance that…

Simon collins

13 October 2018 9:00 am

No doubt many Speccie readers took heart from ANU Chancellor Gareth Evans’s recent suggestion that the business of a university…

Simon Collins

29 September 2018 9:00 am

I am in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to visit my daughter. This is my first visit to the Steel City, so to…

Simon Collins

1 September 2018 9:00 am

From a One Nation kind of perspective, one of the most inconvenient truths about the Muslim population of modern Australia…

Simon Collins

18 August 2018 9:00 am

Like many poms with a strong sense of post-colonial entitlement, I took a long hard look at Canada before I…

Simon Collins

4 August 2018 9:00 am

In a few years’ time the only clue that the name Fairfax was ever synonymous with wealth and influence in…

Simon Collins

21 July 2018 9:00 am

Like most Australian men I am horrified by reports which attest to the ubiquity of violence against our womenfolk. But…

Simon Collins

7 July 2018 9:00 am

Some years ago, as a judge on one of adland’s more obscure international awards panels, I had to assess the…

Simon Collins

9 June 2018 9:00 am

Harry and Meghan’s big day was such a media roadblock in Australia that there were about fifteen hours when it…

Simon Collins

26 May 2018 9:00 am

Has Flipper finally flipped? After centuries of challenging dogs for the Mans’ Best Friend guernsey, an incident in New Zealand…

Simon Collins

12 May 2018 9:00 am

Even Australians who consider the Commonwealth Games a meaningless anachronism must have been pleased with our team’s performance last month.…

Simon Collins

28 April 2018 9:00 am

I wonder if Malcolm Turnbull has found time yet to see Armando Innuccio’s new film The Death of Stalin? I…

Simon Collins

14 April 2018 9:00 am

While we’re still in the conference stage of the 2018 Super Rugby competition it’s too early to say whether the…

Simon Collins

31 March 2018 9:00 am

Like many Australians I was greatly affected by the news that James Packer has decided he is not well enough…