Fanning the flames
Net Zero is communism and it wants to overthrow our Parliament
‘F-ck Germany … and f-ck Israel!’ giggled climate mascot Greta Thunberg from behind a lectern draped in a keffiyeh while…
The ABC: a billion dollars of cringe
‘Their whole body is made of glass. How can people react in such a, frankly, demonic fashion? I really stand…
America scorns as Biden pardons his son, Hunter
The left-leaning press are calling President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son ‘heartfelt’, while others see it as a…
Australia Day pub apology
Someone didn’t get the memo that Woke is out and patriotism is in. The election of flag-embracing Donald Trump as…
Social media bans and the control of centralised information
Much remains unclear following the rushed passage of the legislation banning under 16s from social media. Yet one thing is…
Climate chains – rise of the normies
Listen up deniers and right-wing nut-jobs! Our critical energy systems have been under attack for a couple of decades but…
Even climate fanatics are having doubts
Time for another review of the electricity market…? Commonwealth and state ministers have established a new four-person commission, the NEM…
Where are our leaders?
As I watch with dismay and some trepidation the shenanigans going on in our national capital, I cannot but ask,…
Science is settled by politicians
‘We’ve done a lot of damage to real climate science by the demonisation of carbon dioxide.’ This was quoted by…
The manosphere vs the ABC
The ‘manosphere’, as popularised by US conservative podcasters, has made masculinity cool again – and Donald Trump’s election victory legitimised…
Queensland Parliament sets worrying precedent
A most extraordinary occurrence has taken place in the Queensland Legislative Assembly which in all my decades of researching political…
Guillotine orders: a constitutional aberration?
It has been widely reported that the Senate, on November 29, ramrodded 32 bills through the Senate without any meaningful…
Terror on the rise
Last Friday, a prominent Jewish synagogue in Melbourne’s southeast was set on fire in what is now agreed to be…
The return of politics
In fits and starts, the Liberal Party is belatedly making the same transformation that has already occurred in the political…
Striking a blow for men – and against media bias
Mainstream media often blithely dismisses viewpoints or ideas from what it considers unfashionable or undesirable sources. I experienced another example…
Opening the Overton window
Liberal leader Peter Dutton is winning in the polls as he continues to take his cues from the United Australia…
The greatest gift of all
According to lore, Santa’s elves live to be hundreds of years old. In theory, Santa should have no problem communicating…
The adventurous economist
Many Speccie readers will have preconceived ideas about economists. Unexciting, narrow-minded and pedantic perhaps spring to mind. There is a…
Our worst ever government
Memory can be a fickle friend. Vital details, once secure in the mind, tend to disappear down the memory hole…
Sun sets on age of endarkenment
Dare we hope that the world is coming out of Rod Dreher’s age of ‘endarkenment’? We may be experiencing a…
When nature calls
Well, merde, as the French would say, or sh-t, if you’re English. Elevating a bit of toilet humor – enshittification…
Giorgia Meloni’s lessons on values
It has been just on two years now since Giorgia Meloni was swept into office as Italy’s first female prime…
Cop this!
You could have knocked me over with a feather when I learned I had been appointed to organise the Australian…
I’m dreaming of a wet Christmas
The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing, admittedly not in Sydney, but Seoul has been blanketed by the heaviest…
Is Trump exiling his problem women?
Maybe the best really was yet to come: Kimberly Guilfoyle has landed the break-up gift of a lifetime, finding herself…
The Saudi Arabia 2034 World Cup is a new low for Fifa
Saudi Arabia has been confirmed as the host country for the 2034 World Cup tournament. It has been an open secret…
Full list: the MPs scrutinising the Assisted Dying Bill
At the end of November, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults Bill passed its second reading with a majority…
Could Reform and the Tories form an electoral pact?
As if 2024 hadn’t been packed full of elections, eyes are already moving to next year’s local polls – and…
Why is this New Zealand airport clamping down on hugs?
‘Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world,’ Hugh Grant famously offered in the heartwarming opening scene of Love,…
How New Zealand managed to sink a tenth of its naval fleet
New Zealand just lost one tenth of its naval defence fleet. The HMNZS Manawanui – the jewel in the nation’s small military…
How does New Zealand solve a problem like China?
New Zealand’s most important trading partner is also the nation’s biggest security headache, according to a new risk-assessment report produced…
Why are so many young people abandoning New Zealand?
Heading to the UK is a longstanding rite of cultural passage for many Kiwis. People like my youngest son, who…
Macron is the author of his own despair
Take it easy on a long, hot summer
It’s a strange time, the summer holidays in Australia. Some people have riveting memories of Boxing Day tests, of Australian…
The most immodest thing
So they’re having another go at removing the varnish and the accumulated dark oiliness and other accretions from that most…
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…
Such grandeur in the mind
There’s always something breathtaking about the prices great art can fetch but the sale of Leonardo’s ‘Salvator Mundi’ at Christie’s…
The good, the bad, & the just plain wrong
With much of the world’s attention focused on the US political scene during 2024, a book that offers some useful…
Spot the Nobel Laureate in Literature
How many can you spot? For answers, click here
When will Ronald Reagan get the recognition he deserves?
The talented military historian Max Boot has published a well-researched life of Ronald Reagan that is fundamentally wrong. First the…
Thomas Kyd may have delighted Elizabethan audiences, but he still wasn’t a patch on Shakespeare
The biggest blockbuster hit of the Elizabethan theatre was not by William Shakespeare or Christopher Marlowe or Ben Jonson. In…
The rotten core of Credit Suisse
The tale of Credit Suisse ought to be Buddenbrooks on steroids. A staid Swiss lender enters marriage with a racy…
Why does James Baldwin matter so much now?
James Baldwin matters. To veteran Baldwin admirers, his renewed prominence comes as a surprise after decades of indifference. This year,…
Modern-day ghosts: Haunted Tales, by Adam Macqueen, reviewed
I don’t approve of ghosts, from the sublime (I generally just mouth the words ‘Holy Ghost’ in church, as I…
Nostalgia for the bustling high street is misplaced
Every Christmas the proportion of money we spend online escalates. This year probably more than a third of all our…