1+ day, 14+ hour ago   (853+ words) The Spectator Australia Dolly, Kylie & Albo Just when you thought it was safe to view melons simply as grocery items, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese himself has, wittingly or unwittingly, reignited the tawdry Melongate saga. With the death of US superstar…...

1+ day, 14+ hour ago   (522+ words) How exciting. Three weeks ago in these pages, I predicted that if Pauline Hanson sought special leave to appeal to the High Court in her case against Mehreen Faruqi, she would get it – and win. She has now applied for…...

1+ day, 14+ hour ago   (1056+ words) Last week, the federal government’s debt dial clicked over one trillion dollars. It’s a figure we should have avoided. But given that our gormless Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is not predicting a return to budget surplus until the middle of next…...

1+ day, 14+ hour ago   (304+ words) The Spectator Australia The enemy of ‘common sense’ is ‘ideology’. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy says ‘ideology’ means ‘beliefs and values held by an individual or group for other than epistemic reasons’. And that (perhaps unfamiliar) word ‘epistemic’ just means…...

1+ day, 14+ hour ago   (741+ words) The Spectator Australia To the average Australian, Liddle is a typo. And even for most Brits, a surname which is a homophone of a discount supermarket chain would make you low-hanging fruit for workplace wags. Unless, of course, your workplace…...

1+ day, 14+ hour ago   (920+ words) The Spectator Australia The heretics strike back Implied freedom of speech? Yeah, right Raising the profile of a not-for-profit organisation is no easy task. Add to that trying to bring in new members. And then imagine trying to fundraise and…...

1+ day, 23+ hour ago   (749+ words) The Spectator Australia Why the world loved Dolly Parton Dolly Parton was all-American. Born into the dirt-poor Tennessee hills of the Great Smokey Mountains, her upbringing reflected the indigent nature of country life in the South, even as the urban…...

1+ day, 23+ hour ago   (348+ words) We are starting to see a pattern in the announcements that Andy Burnham has made over his first few weeks as Prime Minister. He makes a promise that’s full of belief and righteousness, and then has to follow that up…...

1+ day, 23+ hour ago   (501+ words) The economic storm clouds continue to gather over Britain. A reckoning of some sort is on its way, possibly a spectacular one. How will we react? Perhaps there are clues to be found in ‘I’m Backing Britain’, the short-lived campaign…...

1+ day, 23+ hour ago   (124+ words) Imagine an official Cabinet Office report on British society claiming that nearly all the teenagers in Leeds are fluent in French Then someone read one of her reports. The irony is that Poland’s international image has never been as strong…...