You have to laugh at Extinction Rebellion
I ventured out into Westminster earlier this week to take a look at the Extinction Rebellion protest and it reminded…
Why averages don’t add up
I recently learned from a doctor friend that salt isn’t necessarily bad for you. Yes, there is a minority whose…
Dear Mary: How can I tell a man at yoga class to cover up?
Q. My sister runs a yoga school and a middle-aged gentleman has joined. Although she is delighted to encourage male…
A vintage tale of Thatcher, Reagan and some truly great wines
Poor Old Girl. The final act may not have been sanglante, but as the third volume of Charles Moore’s life…
What’s the word for a word that’s been used only once?
It is easy to speak a sentence never spoken before since the world came fresh from its mould. It’s not…
Anna Karenina
Tolstoy’s most fascinating character, Anna Karenina clearly fascinates David McAllister who has recently announced his 20th and final season as…
2018 Thawley Essay prize runner-up
At the time of writing, December 2020, the #newedition movement can be considered a truly global phenomenon. As it sets…
Eat the activists
I have a modest proposal. Lately, there have been some commendable if flawed solutions put forward to deal with the…
Letter to Greta
Dear Greta, You should feel very proud of yourself. Your crusade against Climate Warming has taken you into the homes…
Off with his head!
The President of the United States is a sort of elected monarch, which is why the office itself is imbued…
All the dumb things
‘Gee our schools are good!’ a friend once said. ‘By the time our kids are 12, they know everything!’ No…
Recognising China (for what it is)
Scott Morrison’s recent speech to the Lowy Institute was the most important prime ministerial foreign policy announcement in some years.…
Coyote and Road Runner
The biggest news story for years has been a real-life depiction of those classic cartoons, Coyote and Road Runner. In…
Turmoil in the Anglosphere
Well, there’s certainly a fair bit of action coming out of Canada, Britain and the US these days. In my…
Lead on, Libs
Seventy-five years ago this week, a Canberra meeting convened by Robert Menzies decided to establish a new political party, the…
Brown study
I am just amazed that we seem to be sleepwalking into a complete overthrow of our structure of government and…
Brexit party voters will decide Boris Johnson’s fate
The fate of Boris Johnson’s premiership will be determined by Nigel Farage and the Brexit party. Even if a Brexit…
Joe Biden: victim of the cult of youth
Bernie Sanders suffered a heart attack, but Joe Biden’s campaign may be the casualty. The 78-year-old Sanders’s physical condition renewed…
The science is settled? I’m an engineer, and I’m not
Climate change, it seems, is a pill that has to be swallowed whole or not at all. Swallowing this pill…
Extinction Rebellion: an army of Unabombers
Most Australians are pretty sympathetic to the whole protesting thing. After all, we’re a functioning democracy with largely robust protections…
Don’t blame oil and coal companies for climate change
This year’s Nobel Prize for the silliest piece of scientific research must go to something called the Climate Accountability Institute,…
Is Putin winning the war in Ukraine?
‘The Ukraine Affair’ involving Donald Trump was front-page news across the world this month – but not in Ukraine itself. There…
Donald Trump’s shameful Syrian betrayal
Donald Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria is one of the most shortsighted foreign policy miscalculations in recent memory.…
Will Greta Thunberg win the Nobel Peace Prize? I really hope not
We’ve begun to behave as if young people are special; more virtuous and wiser than adults. It’s wrong and it’s…
