President Biden’s short road back
On August 14, 2020, I woke up to a barrage of WhatsApp messages. Group conversations I’m in were buzzing. The…
Unfair contracts bill a boon for small business
With all the focus on Covid, it’s good to see that major reform efforts are still underway. Last week the…
Fact check: how much US kit have the Taliban got?
With the war in Afghanistan having officially ended on Monday, the world’s thoughts have turned to how the Taliban will…
Should Britain brace itself for a major flu outbreak this winter?
Could flu be a bigger problem than Covid this winter? Professor Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on…
How Germany’s Free Democratic party capitalised on the AfD’s misfortunes
One of the most remarkable stories to come out of Germany in the last year has been the rise of…
From vaccine passports to vaccine apartheid
According to a YouGov poll published in yesterday’s Australian, two-thirds of Australians agree that people who are not vaccinated should be denied…
The Bank of England’s new monetary hawk
Andy Haldane’s departure from the Bank of England opened up one of the most influential roles in guiding UK monetary…
Why a move to home quarantine is long overdue
For those stuck in their umpteenth lockdown – despair not! It seems that after 18 months of working from home, someone…
There’s polling – and there’s polling
Whenever you read a piece on polling by honest commentators like our own Charles Pier, you’ll find a line in…
Is the EU trying to hamstring the French military?
Much recent discussion has focussed on the collapse of Afghanistan and the decline of the West. The humiliating American-led Western…
Lockdown with Aristotle – and a teenager
Who would’ve thought I’d be seeking the advice of a 2,400-year-old guy during a New Zealand lockdown. Maybe you’re thinking…
Joe Biden’s victory lap around Afghan defeat
President Biden walked to the White House podium on Tuesday and proclaimed the US withdrawal from Afghanistan an ‘extraordinary success’.…
The grim rise of antivax death porn
America is a porned-out society. Half of young men and a fifth of young women admit to viewing porn in…
Ben Eltham vs Craig Kelly: it’s never ok to dox
Yesterday on Twitter, Guardian Australian Arts writer Ben Eltham, possibly bored from writing about culture in a country that doesn’t…
Joe Biden is not the grief whisperer
Since when is the President of the United States everyone’s therapist? Since the 2020 presidential election, when Democratic politicians and…
ANZUS, Afghanistan – and where’s Billy Hughes or John Monash when you need them?
The last Australians to stand up to bullying by the United States were World War I General John Monash and…
Brad Hazzard’s schoolmaster schtick is making lockdown more laborious
It makes perfect sense that the New South Wales Health Minister would describe unvaccinated people as “self-entitled and indulgent”. He…
Is troubled Trudeau the new Theresa May?
Oh dear. For years Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been at pains to prove his feminist credentials. Whether it’s correcting a…
On child vaccination, parents should have the choice
On Saturday, the Health Secretary made his most bullish comments on child vaccination so far. Writing in the Times, Sajid Javid argued that…
Was Hurricane Ida really caused by climate change?
It’s climate change, innit? No sooner had Hurricane Ida smashed into the coast of Louisiana with winds of around 150…
Living in a left-wing psychodrama
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we have managed to survive four years of…
The Tunisian paradox
‘We swore to defend the constitution,’ shouted the deputy speaker of the Tunisian parliament, to which a young soldier retorted,…
Profiles in Courage: Malcolm Turnbull
From today’s lockdown emergency toilet paper source, The SMAge: Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says American-led wars in the Middle…
Covid collapse fails to revive MPs’ bars
The bars at Parliament have played host to many scenes over the years – plots, arguments, merriment and even fisticuffs –…
Thirty per cent of Coalition voters question if ScoMo deserves another win
The fortnightly Essential Poll is out today, eclipsed (as it all too often is) by the Monday Newspoll, despite showing…
