Epics are hard and dull – but today’s are ‘great’ and ‘nice’
Spoiler alert: in Henry Fielding’s play Tom Thumb, the hero is swallowed by a cow ‘of larger than the usual…
Rocket science
The news has finally reached us over here in London. Australia is going to have an election. The choice will…
Compensating abuse
Here’s a piece of news you won’t get from the ABC or the ex-Fairfax press. It concerns the gold-and-wool-rich provincial…
Brown study
The federal parliament used to be a place of vigorous but respectful debate. Not now. I was reflecting on this…
Simon Collins
When Christopher Hitchens decided to qualify the title of his 2007 magnum opus God is not Great with the caption…
Diary
I stepped out in Warringah on Saturday and stepped into a social media storm. I had earlier asked my old…
Whatever happened to the flapping butterfly?
The confluence of mathematics and science provides us with proof and certainty. It is also beautiful: think of Einstein’s theory…
Whiffy-leaks
If fish and visitors stink in three days, as Benjamin Franklin advised, it’s easy to see how Wikileaks founder Julian…
Aussie Maggie
It is an irony and paradox that successful conservatism often requires radical solutions. So it was with Margaret Thatcher’s revolution…
A prayer for the West
Symbolism matters. It’s why the Muslim call to prayer rang out across New Zealand after the Christchurch massacre, and why…
Melbourne cast of Cosi
It was one of the most delightful Australian films of the 1990s. Directed by Mark Joffe, Cosi was also one…
Smoking out the neo-coms
Among the many considerable services Tony Abbott has rendered Australia, one was to persuade the late Paul Ramsay to endow…
Tinpot Torquemadas
Just when freedom of speech has been under attack through the Passion of Israel Folau, this week proved the ‘woke’,…
Robert Mueller pursued every avenue to dispel the collusion myth
If the report released Thursday proved anything, it was that Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors had an extremely…
Notre Dame, Good Friday and Israel Folau
It’s wonderful news that all of a sudden Rugby Union Australia believe in God, Heaven and Hell. Many of us…
The Mueller report: if not collusion, then obstruction?
When Robert Mueller was appointed as Special Counsel, ‘[t]he President slumped back in his chair and said, “Oh my God.…
Notre Dame and the fate of the West
With the cause of the blaze that took down much of Notre Dame still uncertain (accident, arson, terrorism?), many commentators…
What’s woke this week?
In France, trees have become sentient beings with rights, no less, while in Britain a man self-identifies as a dog.…
Israel Folau and the tyranny of tolerance
Rugby Australia’s attempt to remove Israel Folau from the game is now being presented as nothing more than a matter…
Who is the busiest Tory leadership candidate of them all?
Tory MPs agree that Theresa May’s days in Downing Street are numbered, but when it comes to picking her replacement…
Will a Queen’s speech spell the end of May’s government?
What is the maximum point of danger for the government in the coming months? After Theresa May secured a six…
Are you, or have you ever been, a climate sceptic?
Well, it’s official. Australian politicians face a religious test for office. But it doesn’t have anything to do with God.…
Bob Brown’s Adani convoy: an invasive species on the move
Australia has, throughout our history, been subjected to invasive species. Rabbits, cane toads, prickly pear and Indian mynah birds are…
CBD: BS didn’t have a bad day, it was the right-wing media
Our perspicacious political insider writes exclusively: Why does bad luck have to come at all let alone in threes? Especially…
A tale for this week of death and resurrection
Notre Dame burned. Like many in Australia, I woke up yesterday to the news of the fire that consumes the…
