Do they just want it all to be over?
Late this afternoon, the Turnbull government lost a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, 61 to 69.…
It ain’t choice, Joyce
In 1995, I was there when, one question time, John Howard’s reinvigorated opposition so niggled prime minister Paul Keating that…
Behind Bill
David Marr appropriately titled his Quarterly Essay on Bill Shorten, ‘Faction Man’, for the Labor leader was shaped by the…
God is good but mammon pays the rent
I am a small business. Things are not exactly great and the world isn’t flush with funds and every dollar…
Their ABC on Barnaby’s bother: biased and banal
So, how’s the ABC responding to Barnaby Joyce’s little spot of bother? With all the class that you’d expect. Its…
Leadership means real promises on real policy
Bill Shorten probably can’t believe his luck. The Liberal Party has spent the entire Winter break and the first week…
Australia’s deindustrialisation
High energy prices are causing Australia to deindustrialise. Earlier this month mining giant Glencore’s chief Peter Freyberg’s called for the…
I believe the children are our future?
What do German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon,…
Their ABC: entirely unaccountable
It is a thesis of Media Watch Dog that no one really runs the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Not the chairman…
Chinese whispers overs North Korea
Australia could – and should – play a vital if silent role in the (literally) frightful face off between the…
London calling
What is the Edinburgh Fringe? It’s a sabbatical, a pit stop, a pause-and-check-the-map opportunity for actors who don’t quite know…
Time to end authenticity
They say the first step towards recovery is admitting that you have a problem. So I’m staging an intervention and…
Cathedral of creation
Sometimes, it pays to rediscover what’s already under your nose. I’ve been umpteen times to the Natural History Museum but…
England Lost/Gotta Get A Grip
Two songs in which Sir Michael informs us that he is distressed by both Brexit and Donald Trump. Released with,…
Going nuclear
Wednesday marked the 72nd anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki prompted…
The joy of sex
Your typical Trollope-loving, Brahms-bothering Spectator reader probably won’t be aware that the most recent winner of Big Brother was a…
General rule
Dwight Eisenhower was right to warn Americans in 1961 of the ‘military industrial complex’, but perhaps it is now the…
How I write
How do they do it? Among writers, the earnest audience member at a literary festival who asks, ‘Do you write…
Don’t forget the Yazidis
As the floodwaters subsided, the Ark drifted across northern Iraq. Finally, with a crunching jolt, it hit dry land. Its…
A tale of two Valleys
Silicon Valley looks like a cross between Milton Keynes and the set of the Stepford Wives. Row after row of…
Watercolour
Like many artistically inclined children, I was given a set of Daler Rowney watercolours for my birthday one year. My…
Monster mash-up
In Competition No. 3010, a nod to the late, great George Romero, you were invited to provide an extract from…
Dear Mary
Q. I was brought up to stick rigidly to any invitation accepted and never to ‘chuck’ when a better one…
Wuthering
Haworth is in a constant simmer of Brontë anniversary fever. It is looking forward to Emily Brontë’s 200th birthday next…
Corbyn’s fallen idols
Jeremy Corbyn finally broke his silence on Venezuela this week, but in the manner of a man who has his…
