It doesn’t matter who runs the republican movement
Modi’s ignorance of Gandhi’s renown shocks the world
Modi’s recent remark about Gandhi’s renown, or in his mind, lack thereof, has shocked the whole world. While giving an…
Foreign issues dominate Australian politics
I miss the days when Australian politicians were only interested in solving Australian problems. Maybe that was never the case,…
Everyone is catching subsidy fever! But will it really lower inflation?
Subsidies are politically infectious right now. Jim Chalmers and Anthony started the latest outbreak with energy subsidies, which they claimed…
Money in decline, society in decline
Society is declining in value because our money is declining in value. This is self-evident. And yet every time I…
NSW refuses to pardon 3,628 children for breaching pandemic orders
New South Wales police fined 3,628 children between 2020-22 for Covid-related ‘offences’. Most were from low socio-economic LGAs. Of these,…
Voice referendum failure is still misunderstood
The profound misunderstanding why over 60 per cent of voters rejected the Voice referendum’s proposition is demonstrated in a May…
The death of the American legal system is the rebirth of Trump
Today we announce the death of the US legal system. The death of Justice. The death of Democracy. And the…
Brace Yourself
Former President Trump was convicted on all 34 counts by the Manhattan jury. Actually, these are just the same alleged…
A new energy transition: coal, nuclear, and natural gas
What is the ‘energy transition’? For Labor, it is a transition to renewables. For the Liberals, it is a transition…
Shark mitigation for surfing
Over recent decades, an increasing rate of shark attacks worldwide has prompted many scientists, entrepreneurs, and governments to develop shark…
US Dollar hegemony
In 1970, at a meeting in Washington DC, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asked then chairman of the…
Hamas is being supported by TikTok diplomacy
On May 20, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Ahmad Khan KC (a British national), called for the arrest of…
Lowering ourselves to Rising
Melbourne’s CBD is a grim place, so why anyone would want to make it even grimmer is a mystery. Yet…
Turning Japanese a good sub alternative
Australia’s submarine program staggers along, rather like an aged pensioner who wants to keep working. The latest pedestrian bollard into…
Multiculturalism was always a bad idea
The brand of multiculturalism that has been manifested in Australia for the past five decades died this year. Its outward…
Albo goes MIA in these darkling times
‘If I’m Prime Minister,’ Anthony Albanese said in April 2022, ‘I’ll accept responsibility, not always seek to blame someone else.’…
They paved paradise and put up an empty carpark
I have had to go into the Melbourne CBD on a few occasions recently. The most efficient way for me…
Sunak the Foolhardy?
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pulled the plug. He’s gone to the King to ask for an election to…
Business/Robbery, etc
Butt out! This is the message to all those learned judges (particularly in the Federal Court, but equally on other…
From the Pyrenees to the Sea, will Catalonia be free?
This week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez formally recognised a Palestinian state. His Deputy Yolanda Díaz went further effectively de-recognising…
Diane Abbott confirms she will stand for Labour
Oh dear. It seems that Diane Abbott has outmanoeuvred Keir Starmer once again. Week one of Labour’s much-vaunted election campaign…
What the end of sole ANC rule means for South Africa
Election day on 29 May was a tumultuous, wonderful day for South Africa. 30 years of corruption and ruin under…
Gary Lineker and the problem with celebrity boycotts
One of the country’s most cherished footballers, and one of its most irritating right-on social media commentators, Gary Lineker, has…
Sunday shows round-up: Diane Abbott bullied by ‘overgrown schoolboys’
Questions over whether Diane Abbott had been banned from standing as a Labour candidate were a distraction for Keir Starmer’s…
Why New Zealand is cracking down on immigration
The government of New Zealand this week tightened the country’s working visa rules in order to stem historically high numbers…
Why is New Zealand’s deputy PM rowing with Chumbawamba?
In their musical heyday, the English anarchist punk band Chumbawamba enjoyed a reputation for having an irreverent attitude towards those…
New Zealand’s imperial judiciary
If you cast your eyes across the Tasman right now, you can see the beginnings of an imperial judiciary, the…
Subversion within New Zealand
Recently querying why New Zealand governments make annual January pilgrimages to the Maori Pa at Ratana, to celebrate the birth…
Why is it so hard to be a Christian in public life?
An imperfectly articulated plot
It seemed, on the face of it, a bizarre idea: opera at the Margaret Court arena. And Opera Australia was…
This distorting mirror of cruelty
Every so often a bit of streamer television comes along and makes you grateful for what the form can achieve…
In defence of Jonathan Yeo
If the basic job of a work of art is to be interesting, as I think it is, then Jonathan…
The once-in-a-generation genius of Alice Munro
In the early 2000s, a young Canadian writer who shall remain nameless found herself in the backseat of a car…
China’s role in Soviet policy-making
Why should we want to read yet another thumping great book about the collapse of the Soviet empire? Sergey Radchenko…
A tragedy waiting to happen: Tiananmen Square, by Lai Wen, reviewed
Lai Wen’s captivating book about growing up in China and witnessing the horrific massacre in Tiananmen Square reads like a…
The wry humour of Franz Kafka
How do you see Franz Kafka? That is, how do you picture him in your mind’s eye? If you are…
Heroines of antiquity – from Minoan Crete to Boudica’s Britain
She must have been a powerful swimmer. Her name was Hydna and she grew up in the port town of…
Visitants from the past: The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley, reviewed
If you could resuscitate a hunk from history, who would you choose? The secretive Whitehall ministry in Kaliane Bradley’s striking…
My summer of love with God’s gift
When the author and podcaster Viv Groskop first visited Ukraine, she travelled there from Moscow, on a long train that…
The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown
Elizabeth I died at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603 at the age of 69 after a reign of 45…
Will the photo of your lost loved one be replaced by a chatty robot?
They didn’t call Diogenes ‘the Cynic’ for nothing. He lived to shock the (ancient Greek) world. When I’m dead, he…