Offendo-phobes unite
The still night is shattered by the sound of crackling; the darkness consumed by the blaze of light emanating from…
No dole for non-working sole parents
A new front in the ‘welfare wars’ has opened following revelations that a significant number of those dependent on welfare…
When truth no longer prevails
It was a week of email agitation. You can’t pick your family, they say, and they’re right. Mine is a…
Death by television
Forty years ago this month a film appeared, so prescient I wonder if its author, Paddy Chayefsky, saw the 2016…
Tongue twister
Arrival is a big budget sci-fi film with a smaller, more pensive, cleverer film trying to get out, which has…
Order, order
The catalogue to Pallant House Gallery’s latest exhibition features a favourite anecdote. It is 1924 and a competition is being…
Magnetic north
Years ago, when I met a famous concert pianist, I was surprised when he greeted me in a northern accent.…
Magnetic north
Years ago, when I met a famous concert pianist, I was surprised when he greeted me in a northern accent.…
Angry bird
Dynastic affairs and international relations were once a seamless continuum. Royal weddings accompanied peace treaties. An heirless realm was vulnerable…
Angry bird
Dynastic affairs and international relations were once a seamless continuum. Royal weddings accompanied peace treaties. An heirless realm was vulnerable…
Brief encounters
When Mozart was commissioned to write an opera for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II, he produced La clemenza di…
Brief encounters
When Mozart was commissioned to write an opera for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II, he produced La clemenza di…
Country music
There was something unexpectedly moving about hearing not just one but several renditions of the somewhat naive and rose-tinted but…
Country music
There was something unexpectedly moving about hearing not just one but several renditions of the somewhat naive and rose-tinted but…
Consider this…
Kill the Commission: free speech There is nothing that the Australian Human Rights Commission does that cannot be done by…
Consider this…
Kill the Commission: free speech There is nothing that the Australian Human Rights Commission does that cannot be done by…
Bridge
The last three weekends have not been relaxing for those of us playing the Premier League, with all its attendant…
18C… now what?
The action of Judge Michael Jarratt in throwing out the prosecution brought by the Australian Human Rights Commission of Queensland…
18C… now what?
The action of Judge Michael Jarratt in throwing out the prosecution brought by the Australian Human Rights Commission of Queensland…
Should I pop a cheque in the post or brave the dangers of online banking?
There’s an electronic device on my desk that looks — through its bubble- wrap — like a cheap miniature calculator.…
Let’s shut out this angry, unrepresentative mob
If you’re aiming to refute the suggestion that you can’t comprehend the difference between mob rule and the rule of…
It’s time to consider the real Trump
For 18 months, Donald Trump was amazingly useful to British politicians. Whatever their party, he provided them with the most…
Crown jewels
Nairobi. February 1952. Laughing children brandishing sticks are driving an indignant bustle of ostriches up a rudimentary 1950s-Africa semi-bush runway…
Trump will be much, much better for Britain
The deplorables are rather wonderful people, aren’t they? Both here and in the United States. The people’s revolution continues apace,…
#TrumpsAussieMates
Appearing on Lateline the other night as the only Trump supporter the ABC producers could find willing to predict a…
