Is the Home Office working against the Tories?
It has long been suggested by senior politicians from both main parties that civil servants in the Home Office pick…
We are facing an epidemic of online fraud
At what point are we going to drop the fiction that acquisitive crime is on the wane and admit that…
Watch: DeSantis grinds teeth during grilling
Poor Ron DeSantis. Once, he was the frontrunner to take over the Republican mantle from Trump. But now, following a…
Politics and power at the Canberra Writers Festival
This past weekend produced a veritable smorgasbord of political conferences to cater for all tastes. We had the 48th Labor…
Sanctions are failing to turn Putin’s oligarchs against him
When personal sanctions on Russian oligarchs and officials were imposed by the UK, US and EU after Putin’s invasion, the…
No more cheques in the mail
Ever had the experience of a service provider sending you an email with the message: ‘Our records show your invoice…
Net Zero is a revolutionary idea, but not all revolutions are a good idea
There is a saying that revolutionary ideas are first heretical, then they become interesting and controversial, until suddenly they are…
Affirmative consent: a seductive ‘maybe’ no longer means ‘yes’
Warren Buffett once got into trouble with a joke that touched on the matter of sexual consent. He was lucky…
Indigenous bureaucracies keep the gap alive
While reading Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien’s The Voice to Parliament Handbook: All the detail you need, I was reminded of…
What the future holds for women’s football
Well, that’s the end of that. Football, like an unrepentant runaway, stubbornly refuses to come home. Spain, deservedly probably, edged…
America has lost the war against Islamist terror in Africa
After 9/11, the US built a network of military outposts across the northern tier of Africa to fight a shadow…
After Sunak, who?
Nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens, the author Fay Weldon once declared. This observation about life’s tendency…
Ireland’s bonkers plan to kill cows to save the planet
You have to hand it to the green movement. When it comes to their increasingly farcical and delusional race towards…
Christian churches are under attack in Pakistan
On Wednesday, 19 churches and more than 80 Christian homes in Pakistan were ransacked after the inhabitants of the city of Jaranwala…
Au revoir to Le Gavroche
You do not need to be a ‘food person’ to know the name Roux. Or to be familiar with Le…
The rise of the popcons
The Republican Party has to come to grips with populism. Donald Trump’s commanding lead in the race for the 2024…
You should read Simon Raven
It is high summer but in the early mornings you can already sense the first thrilling signs of autumn, the…
Matildas wouldn’t stand a chance against men
Melbournians stuck in traffic on the frequently congested Punt Road would have seen an exciting billboard last week. ‘Fair Sport for…
The widening gap of medical knowledge
No experience is wasted if we learn from it, and in the time of Covid many of us were pushed…
The Voice must make a conservative case to win
The proliferation of Vote ‘Yes’ shirts on the university campus, bumper stickers, and YouTube campaigns where the speaker is sped…
Italy’s bill to reject synthetic food passes Senate
In early 2021, Microsoft’s Bill Gates engaged in various speaking events for his book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. It…
The National: ‘Can an independent Afghanistan offer lessons for Scotland?’
It’s a tough time for Scottish nationalists these days. Polling for indyref2 remains static while the SNP’s own ratings have…
Elon is offering us a raw deal with X
Elon Musk, the owner of X — once known as Twitter, may she rest in peace — is making Americans…
In praise of the Moscow mule
If called upon to declare the seven greatest cocktails of all time — a Magnificent Seven, as it were —…
China’s property sector is on the brink of disaster – again
Once, not that long ago, few people outside China had heard of the property developer Evergrande. Now it is synonymous…
