Religious freedom of political communication: a constitutionally protected freedom
Now that same-sex marriage has been legalised, there is a further need to recognise the right of religious individuals and…
This isn’t an honour, it’s a circle jerk
Some of my readers keep asking why I keep writing about the adventures of Yassmin Abdel-Magied. After all, to keep…
Newspeak at UNSW
I know it’s become hackneyed, overused, and almost now cliché, but the following political slogan—by ‘The Party’— from George Orwell’s…
In which their ABC outdoes itself
On Friday Fairfax media — Fairfax media, mind you, not The Australian — reported: ABC journalists should focus more on…
Caring and sharing – and spending
It’s official – the “conservative” Coalition government has now accumulated more government debt in five years in office than its…
A dangerous silence over Telford
Whenever a Hollywood actress complains about some lecherous man, there’s blanket coverage. Even our MPs feel the need to tut.…
Portrait of the week: Sergei Skripal, Dame Louise Casey, Philip Hammond’s spring statement
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, told the Commons that the chemical that put in hospital Sergei Skripal, a Russian…
California is the unexpected antidote to censorious liberalism
If I needed a safe space, I would nominate California. Against most odds this seedbed of censorious liberalism has thrown…
Kim Jong-un’s unwise offer
President Trump’s acceptance of talks about denuclearisation must have been as big a shock to Kim Jong-un as his offer was…
Sorry Rod Liddle, we may not want more immigrants but we still need them
Growing our own Sir: Rod Liddle is clearly right that ‘the people of Europe do not want any more immigration…
Let’s find the most idiotic Brexit headlines
Gimson’s Prime Ministers, out this week, is a crisp and stylish account of every one of them. I happened to…
Revealed: the Tory health tax bombshell
The single most important domestic policy decision that the Conservatives must take is what to do about public spending. After…
Genocide in South Africa: now that’s a black-and-white issue
Last time I was in South Africa I spent two weeks deep in the Karoo, that desiccated wasteland in the…
To those with a taste for desolation, Lake Turkana may be the most beautiful place on Earth
As I write, a great gale is blowing in from Lake Turkana. The dry hills on the other side, always…
How mass immigration drives the housing crisis
Ever since Theresa May’s clarion address of the UK’s housing shortage (and how many successive PMs have embarked on the…
Advice from the Institute of Directors: prepare for the scandal tornado
As ‘business lobby groups’ go, the Institute of Directors has always struck me as worthy but unexciting: a more authentic…
Vladimir Putin’s toxic power
Vladimir Putin’s spies have a dizzying variety of weapons at their disposal. This week Britain learned of a new one:…
The Russian spy who went to all the Tory parties
I first met Sergey Nalobin in 2012 at Soho House. He introduced himself, in accented English, as from the Russian…
Steve Bannon interview: “I’m fascinated by Mussolini”
We are in a hotel suite at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Zurich when Stephen K. Bannon tells me he adores…
When does cricketing banter cross the line?
‘Good morning, my name’s Cowdrey.’ England batsman Colin, later Lord Cowdrey, to the Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson. ‘That’s not…
The extraordinary life and times of Lithuania’s greatest poet
The first book that Tomas Venclova read in English was Nineteen Eighty-Four. Not a bad start in the language, given…
Notes on… Lord Byron in Venice
‘I want to see Venice, and the Alps, and Parmesan cheeses.’ So wrote Lord Byron in 1814, some two years…
Today’s pirate gold is the Patagonian toothfish
Sea Shepherd is a radical protest group made famous — or notorious — by the American cable TV series Whale…
In 1968, even supercilious Boston was ankle-deep in LSD
‘And this is good old Boston/, The home of the bean and the cod,’ John Collins Bossidy quipped in 1910,…
Who is monitoring the 200 million videos available daily on YouTube?
On 25 April 2005, Jawed Karim sent an email to his friends announcing the launch of a new video site…
