‘Few international problems in the postwar period have proved as difficult for Australia as the development of a friendly and…

The protest rally across the road from Parliament in Sydney was no lynch mob. They were ordinary, mostly elderly people…

Everyone was supposed to burst into howls of protest when the government announced last week that it was abolishing 20…

What a pleasure it was to be back in Sydney this month after an absence of 14 years. That city…

Flying across the Pacific, I am reading two new works from the recent explosion of books on the outbreak of…

Tony Abbott will be the latest Australian prime minister to kowtow to Jakarta

Victoria’s desalination plant is a reminder of the perils of making public policy in a panic

A mini-tornado hits north Sydney: what on earth can it mean?

Sustainability. Tick! Inclusivity. Tick! Fairtrade. Tick! All that mattered to Labour was the Crystal Methodist's show of liberal piety

In three years in power, the coalition has produced almost no memorable line. Should we be worried?

Issues like gay marriage and women bishops show how distant the Conservatives are from their Christian roots

British prime ministers today have powers like monarchs, and EU laws sideline primary legislation — let's repatriate our revolution

As fat women become more powerful as a lobby, slim women who eat sensibly and exercise are treated as neurotic obsessives

The twelve months that brought heaps of snow, satire, sex, pop — and ended with an event that outstripped all the rest

The theme of the contest is 'Man in Motion'; here are four of the nine entries shortlisted

Everybody knows that the London art scene is thriving, and so of course the big international commercial galleries have set…

While the SNP flirts with economic liberalism, it remains a high-spending party of the left that will impoverish the people

Home The government announced proposals for the National Health Service, including a law to criminalise wilful neglect by doctors and…

Plus: Honouring the men — and 75 women — who flew from RAF Tempsford; thank you, Sachin Tendulkar, for your photo

Plus: Centenarian hammer throwers; porn popularity; will the selfie join the smackhead? 

Rather charmingly, he wanted both parties to reach the end of their reproductive cycles together

No middle way Sir: Ask not whether Iran wants to negotiate with us; ask whether we want to negotiate with…

The two Eds are trying to make things go smoothly — but do Cameron and Osborne need more friction?

Plus: The PCC finds against the Guardian; Mrs T to a T; my book as a drug haul; this is your pilot Prince William speaking

I've ruled out Wark and Coren, the Guardian thinks its Vorderman or Robinson — the question is why the author fears using her name

From primary school onwards, we're handed this starter pack of right-on notions — and if we question them we're regarded as pariahs

Plus: There is no need to ask whose fault it is when a cyclist dies; here's how we can have bike-only streets without building any

Plus: Thriving northern companies that disprove the 'north-south divide'; one night with bankers at Imelda's palace for the Pope

Books of the year from Philip Hensher, Jane Ridley, Barry Humphries, Jane Ridley, Melanie McDonagh, Matthew Parris, Nicky Haslam and more

New letters and a group biography by Robert Dallek help round out our portrait of John F. Kennedy

Gavin Stamp's Anti-Ugly and Lost Victorian Britain are a glorious lament for our lost architectural heritage - and a celebration of what remains

The connections that Patrick Marnham makes in Snake Dance - from the Congo to Fukushima, from Conrad to the Bomb - are sometimes tenuous but always compelling

In Man Belong Mrs Queen, Matthew Baylis discovers some excellent reasons

The Naked Eye plays some remarkable games with pictures. But what does it amount to?

If you have read Iain Sinclair’s books you will know that he is a stylist with a love of language.…

A brilliant new brick from Nigel Slater, and the other cookbooks you should want for Christmas

J. Michael Lennon's biography does his his old friend proud - without always making him sympathetic

Reviewing All Change was the ultimate luxury

Neil Rennie's Treasure Neverland shows how real buccaneers turned into legend

My Autobiography shows just how much he wants to win - and perhaps how little he's learned

The facts in Ben Urwand's The Collaboration are shocking enough, without his tendentious interpretation

Driving Ambition reveals why he commands respect, sometimes by not giving away secrets

The new museum of art and craft stays true to its ethos of community, fellowship and shared culture

Scottish Opera has commissioned a huge tapestry to celebrate one of the world's most painterly operas

Pop Art Design, Barbican Gallery — review

Nostalgic for the Future, Lisson Gallery— review

Aquatopia: The Imaginary of the Ocean Deep, Tate St Ives — review

The composer believed in miracles, but the image of an unsmiling preacher is just his public persona

In the future, everyone will have silly names. Some people will be called Haymitch Abernathy. Others will be Effie Trinket…

Jason; The Coronation of Poppea; Agrippina; all by the English Touring Opera — review

The Island by Athol Fugard, The Door by Cherise Cross — review

An Adventure in Space and Time, The Ultimate Guide to Dr Who — review

Air Force One; Book of the Week (The Screwtape Letters); Curlew River — review

Catalyst: Contemporary Art And War; Mike Moore and Lee Cracker; Donovan Wylie - review

Plus: Thanks for calling me a billionaire, Deborah Ross, but nobody in the world should own more than 100 million quid

The beer garden at the back of the pub was empty, save one woman sitting alone at a table contemplating…

'Something inside me, some vital component whose function it is to restrain base instincts, went ping!'

The pope wants to bring the Church back to the days when it had no hierarchy or laws — but those days never existed

Women have some of the top-class horses — look out for those of Rebecca Curtis, Emma Lavelle, Venetia Williams

Everyone over a certain age can remember the sense of shock that comes when policemen start looking like mere boys.…

As predicted last week, the samurai standoff between Anand and Carlsen was swiftly shattered. After quiet draws in games one…

Black to play. This is a variation from Anand-Carlsen; World Championship (Game 4), Chennai 2013. Anand avoided this position, although he…

In Competition 2824 you were invited to submit double clerihews about a well-known sporting figure past or present.   The…

Our hero must be revealed by shading six cells appropriately. Four unclued lights are key words in 11s featuring the…

The two words were BULL and BEAR. BULL is suggested by 36, 41, 6 and 10; BEAR by 34, 37,…

The think tank Policy Exchange has just published an excellent report on Britain’s urban green spaces called ‘Park Land’. The…

Sexual orientation and immigration are so emotionally charged, sometimes we retro-fit our arguments to fit our instincts 

Plus: Using Colleague D to deal with Colleagues A, B and C; the automatic pet feeder as a husband choc-eating device

St James’s Street is a repository of urban comfort. It contains majestic clubs, a gunsmith, a boot-maker, a barber, a…

Catching up with the excellent biography of the 3rd Marquess of Bute (the man who built Cardiff Castle among other…