Diary
We have chartered a ferry to take our 180 guests from Circular Quay to Fort Denison for the dinner to…
Australian notes
The offence of the Greens, especially Adam Bandt, in blaming the bushfires on Tony Abbott is not that they politicised…
Insiders are being starved
By sidelining the media elites, the Coalition may pursue a winning PR strategy
Pity Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts
Some Australian actors have slightly better luck playing non-Australians
Our valued Vatican envoy
In mid-2009, I landed in Italy for an extended break, as it happened, on the day of the L’Aquila earthquake.…
Brown Study
During my illustrious career as one of Her Majesty’s ministers, an incident occurred that senior public servants still talk about…
Mine of information
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air is an art show largely without art (at Manchester Art Gallery until 19…
On your marks…
One day there simply won’t be any strange byways of the English language left to write quirky little books about.…
The romance of fall
The fall: one of the few instances where American English is superior to English English. ‘Autumn’ has a comfortable charm,…
True gamblers
Not having the odd £100,000 to spare, I had never before joined the world’s richest owners and their bloodstock agents…
Smart cars
Someone in New York told me this story. I admit that I didn’t believe it when I first heard it.…
In defence of developers
When architectural preservationists meet at the tedious conferences and grim councils of despair that feed oxygen to their nihilistic and…
Mine of information
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air is an art show largely without art (at Manchester Art Gallery until 19…
Entertaining romp
Bold decisions are at the core of great artistic directorship. And Tamara Rojo, the ballet star leading English National Ballet,…
On your marks…
One day there simply won’t be any strange byways of the English language left to write quirky little books about.…
What is Facebook? That’s the problem – nobody really knows
I’d never noticed that there aren’t any tits on Facebook. The place always seems brimming with right tits to me.…
Why can’t the BBC be impartial in the climate change debate?
‘Well, you’re arguing facts against opinions. OK, I mean, the fact that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air…
Australian notes
The offence of the Greens, especially Adam Bandt, in blaming the bushfires on Tony Abbott is not that they politicised…
Portrait of the week
Home Shares in Royal Mail, floated on the stock market at 330p, began trading at 475p. SSE, the energy supplier,…
Diary
I will sort out the failures in education policy — as soon as I stop staring at Cameron's red face
Tyrannical sexual appetites
A new book about Colonel Gaddafi goes into shocking detail about his monstrous sexual appetites. He used rape as a…
