The Spectator’s Notes
It is not self-evidently ridiculous that Nigel Farage should be the next British ambassador to the United States. The wishes…
Faulty ignition
Apart from the next Game of Thrones, there’s nothing I’ve been looking forward to quite as much as The Grand…
Zurich’s wild side
On the green edge of Zurich, where this neat and tidy city melts into neat and tidy countryside, an icon…
Prisons should be nicer places? Nonsense
Now that post-Marxian vacuous liberalism is over, it is surely about time that we revived the vigorous writings of Thomas…
Raising the flag (without getting arrested or killed)
On November 28, East Timorese celebrate the anniversary of the day in 1975 when their country was declared an independent nation and they raised…
The Donald, the media — and the misunderstandings
You’ve really got to hand it to mainstream media commentators – often wrong but never in doubt. Their spectacularly inaccurate…
Why I joined — and quit — the Australian Republican Movement
As a long-time republican, I made the decision last year to join the Australian Republican Movement. Having spent the better…
“Privilege”? Tell that to the Queensland University of Technology three
Writer Benjamin Law used the final Q&A for the year to claim discussion around 18C was just our privileged class…
The Human Rights Commission must be abolished
Cato the Elder would end every speech with, ‘Carthago delenda est’; ‘Carthage must be destroyed’. Rome had defeated Carthage in…
Mount Gay Rum
Jonathan Ray visits the oldest rum distillery in the world and gets his hands dirty blending My travels round the…
The Joy of Chocolate
In Grenada, Jonathan Ray attempts to extend his life by eating plenty of dark chocolate. I’m in the House of…
Registered Organisations Bill a win for workers
Monday’s long awaited passage of the Registered Organisations Bill has been touted as a much-needed win for the Turnbull Coalition…
When “Australian” said it all
I feel many reading this will know of families that have been interwoven from their past through to their present so first a…
One Nation, many leaders, few (cogent) ideas
Of all the political imperatives missing in Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party, loyalty, unity and personality rate among the highest.…
The forces underpinning Trump are nothing new
Australian political commentators and self-proclaimed experts who have been traumatised or shocked by Donald Trump’s victory could well be accused…
We need a Strictly political Balls-up
In the UK, what gets people talking passionately isn’t Brexit. It’s not Trump. It’s not even the May government’s looming Autumn Statement mini-budget…
Pauline Hanson and Australian Jewry
If there is word such as Trumpism, then it is expressing itself in Australia via the rise of Pauline Hanson’s…
Roz Ward, Safe Schools, not so so safe streets
Could that be former Safe Schools supremo and general hard-left ratbag Roz Ward engaging in a bit of biff in…
My husband and I … are paying for the renos, thank you
You would have thought that with the egg on their faces over Brexit and the American election, the media would be…
I quit
In Competition No. 2974 you were invited to submit a resignation letter from God. Despite mankind’s attempts to kill…
2287: Quarry
In eight clues, cryptic indications omit reference to parts of answers; these parts must be highlighted, to reveal a word…
About a boy
Indignation is an adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2008 novel and amazingly, for an adaptation of a Philip Roth novel —…
Dear Mary
Q. Following a lavish house party I received a flood of effusive thank-you letters, the bulk of which praised the…
London Notebook
The new government seems to be struggling with the logistical intricacies of removing Britain from the European Union. I can…
Long life
I started watching The Crown, the £100-million television series on the early years of the Queen’s reign, on Netflix but…
