Crash course
Most of our prominent politicians studied the same subject at Oxford. Is it any wonder we’re so badly governed?
Europe vs liberty
An interview with the former Czech president, possibly the West’s last truly outspoken leader
Barking mad
There is a glaring double standard in our adoration for our pets and our tolerance for intensive farming
Love letters for the world
A review of ‘Letters to Vera’, by Vladimir Nabokov. Most love letters would not be worth reading. But Nabokov turns what he sees into sentences of pure magic
Old master
It also reveals a painter more concerned with the world around him than with formal abstraction
Disaster movie
The duo behind the hit BBC sitcom have had a disastrously off day with What We Did On Our Holiday
To 2178: Saint and playwright
In Vanity Fair (18/2), George Osborne is associated with 6/30 and 10/31. As Chancellor, he was preceded by 8, 26…
Silver fern leaf
The extraordinary victory of John Key and his National party in New Zealand’s recent election came as a relief to…
A funny thing happened on the way to the Senate
The Upper House in our federal parliament has become a maverick - much like those who sit in it
Diary Australia
Every three years in New Zealand, incumbent politicians must hit the campaign trail. Since 2008, I have chased votes in…
You can’t judge a book by its author’s genitalia
Feminism has lost the plot with the Stella Prize schools literary program
Who or what is a fair dinkum First Australian?
Recognising Aboriginal people in the Constitution throws up a multitude of problems
…and who is a fair dinkum Muslim?
Western leaders keep insisting that the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam
Culture Buff
It all began in the mid-1960s for the Brilliant Creatures: Germaine, Clive, Barry & Bob, now given de luxe treatment…
Head Beaters
Ah, democracy. The informed will of the majority. If only the practice was as simple as the theory. When it…
Australian Letters
Waiting to die Sir: Forgive my delay, only getting around to reading the UK content of the 12 July issue…
