The Amazon is burning – but the Chicken Littles pants are also on fire
Amazon rain forest is burning in Brazil and people are angry: When a fire tore through Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris earlier…
The rise of left-wing anti-Semitism
Evidence is mounting that anti-Semitism is on the rise. For a recent example, a CNN poll found that “more than…
Gillette now knows: razor pain is really irritating
At some point in a brainstorm when everyone was fuelled with too much caffeine, it probably seemed like a good…
Tim Fischer: a statesman of courage and character
Last week Australia lost one of its great characters in public life with the death of our tenth deputy prime…
Why won’t the left admit: their war on Alan Jones is a war on dissenting opinion
The woke lynch mob has been busy recently, ramping up their perennial crusade to blackball centre-right voices in the media.…
Our universities Chinese cash cows crisis
Australia’s universities are taking a multi-billion-dollar gamble with taxpayer money to pursue a high-risk, high-reward international growth strategy that may…
Dear ABC, what about diversity of thought?
The(ir) ABC is pushing for 50-50 on-air gender quotas. As part of a “major diversity” push, the taxpayer-funded channel is…
Subsidies, bureaucrats, blackouts and bills: inside our electricity disaster
The Australian Energy Market Operator is one of the half dozen different government institutions responsible for planning and managing the…
For better or worse, Boris Johnson is different
I’ve learned only one thing at the G7 summit of big rich countries here in Biarritz: Boris Johnson absolutely loves…
Are abortion activists overstating the demand for terminations?
I recently went to see my local member — who also happens to be the NSW Opposition Leader, Jodi McKay…
Nick Kyrgios is a dick (and other startling revelations)
Nick Kyrgios is a dick. True, I don’t know Nick, so I apologise to him if I’m wronging him, but…
David Koch’s ‘dark money’ was misunderstood
Here’s a shocker: people are more complicated than the caricatures disseminated by their enemies suggest. Witness the stupefyingly rich David…
Trump’s yin and yang game with China
It should be obvious by now — but somehow isn’t. Whenever @realDonldTrump says something wild, you can bet the real…
Can France keep Germany in check after Brexit?
‘France has a German policy, she has no other’, remarked the seasoned observer of international affairs and future editor of…
What would George Orwell make of Brexit?
In the London Review of Books this month, James Meek wrote a long article about Jacob Rees-Mogg and his ‘curious duality’ in…
Kashmir in happier times
In the nineteen-thirties, my parents, middle class, mixed-race Burghers from then-Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, honeymooned in Kashmir. It was a…
Boris’s nightmare is that the EU accepts his Brexit offer
As was to be expected, the EU’s reaction to Boris Johnson’s offer of revisiting the Withdrawal Agreement if the backstop…
To get a deal Boris needs to show (or fake) some humility
There were many Brexiteers who were urging Boris Johnson to travel to Washington before he went anywhere else, to underline…
Portrait of the week: back to the backstop, PC Harper’s death and the wrong kind of lightning
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, wrote to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, saying: ‘The backstop cannot…
Brace yourself for no deal
I AM up on the far north-west coast of Scotland, where the weather is changing every five minutes under vast skies…
How did Richard Braine become Dick Braine?
Name calling Richard Braine was appointed leader of Ukip, leading to jokes about the party being led by a ‘Dick…
Boris is facing his Sparta moment
The PM’s hero is the Athenian statesman Pericles, and a Periclean crossroads is now approaching. According to the biographer Plutarch,…
Letters: civil servants have ruined our trains
Travelling in discomfort Sir: I don’t agree with much of what Matthew Parris says these days, but he was spot…
The royals should embody virtue – not signal it
ONE should not be censorious if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex fly in private jets to their holidays, though…
It’s time to talk about what no deal really means
The main reason Conservative MPs prefer Boris Johnson’s government to Theresa May’s is because of its clarity of message. The…
