How to negotiate with Russians
Russians are notorious for an aggressiveness at the negotiating table. In 2017 I met a group of diplomats from eastern…
How to fix VAR
Will football fans ever be happy, or are they addicted to outrage? In April, Coventry City played Manchester United in…
The misinformation bill is dead, but equally oppressive laws coming
While the federal Misinformation and Disinformation Bill has been abandoned, planned new Victorian anti-hate speech laws will widen the net…
Will the misinformation zombie rise in ’25?
The stunning rebuke of the federal government’s proposed misinformation laws has seen freedom of speech live to fight another day.…
More university bureaucracy, more problems
The modern world has a bureaucracy problem. When confronted with an issue, the typical response from government is to create…
Dear Mr Dutton, we want something else (with love from Barcelona)
From Barcelona: It’s hard to escape Australian politics when I see examples of inaction all over the Iberian Peninsula. The…
Crossroads
It is hard to work out Labor’s priorities, by which we mean Labor’s priorities in destroying this nation. On virtually…
Australian notes
On 30 November Britons and Australians alike celebrate the 150th birthday of a great, but largely forgotten man: Winston S.…
Is Trump a conservative?
From neo-cons and reo-cons to arch-cons and rom-cons, please define us first!
Drunk in a midnight choir
Biography can create the most heightened sense of drama. Just at the moment SBS On Demand is showing a streamer…
Aussie life
Let me be absolutely clear: when I referred to the next president of Australia’s most important military ally and economic…
Language
Speccie reader Doug writes to ask about ‘mansplaining’. This comes from the same feminist language cauldron as ‘toxic masculinity’ (meaning…
The cinema is the worst place to watch a film
I’ve always loved cinema, but hardly ever cinemas. It’s no surprise to me that movie-going audiences are in decline. Ticket…
Wonderful comedy of manners: Kiln Theatre’s The Purists reviewed
A slice of the ghetto arrives at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn. The Purists is set on the stoop of…
Who can afford to send Christmas cards any more?
At this time of year I’d usually be writing dozens of Christmas cards, with a Snowball to hand, heavy on…
Is being ‘infamous’ a bad thing?
John Prescott, so Dominic Sandbrook observed last week, ‘infamously exchanged punches with a protestor in full view of the cameras’.…
The dark side of Black Friday
How is it possible that we’re still reading headlines about the £4 billion fundraising from the Gulf that saved Barclays…
