Are the Nationals an equal Coalition partner?

Are the Nationals an equal Coalition partner?

Give it a couple of weeks, or more precisely, a couple of pay cycles, and the National Party will be back at the Liberal Party’s door, cap in hand, asking to resurrect the Coalition. Nothing sharpens the National Party’s thinking quite like the sudden disappearance of a giant bucket of taxpayer money, and particularly the loss of opposition ministry ...
Sepehr… Baba… Where are you?

Sepehr… Baba… Where are you?

They cut off the internet. In the silence of the night, in a darkness that plunged all of Iran into mourning, people were massacred in their homes, in alleys, and on the streets inside the very places that were meant to protect them. They were killed in silence. It took two full days before the nation was able to show the world what had been done to ...
Could the Japanese economy crash out?

Could the Japanese economy crash out?

Is the Japanese economy about to crash? This once unthinkable prospect is now very much thinkable as concerns grow, and the cost of borrowing rises, in response to the bold but, to many, bewildering economic plans of prime minister Sanae Takaichi. It is a question of huge import, for if the Japanese economy collapses the consequences around the globe ...
The joy of Labour psychodrama

The joy of Labour psychodrama

As the three-word headline, ‘STARMER BLOCKS BURNHAM’ smashed on to our phone screens on Saturday, I felt I could almost hear the gleeful communal roar across the country; the same kind of Mexican wave of delight that passes through a school canteen when a dinner lady drops a big tray of puddings, a heap of custard and crockery. Labour wars always bring ...
One Nation on the rise

One Nation on the rise

The rise in One Nation’s share of the vote is causing a major political realignment. Their rise is coincident with public frustration at the deterioration of internal security. These security failures led us to the massacre at Bondi Beach. We hope, but do not know, if this is where the story ends. The election of the Albanese government has ushered in ...
Ed Miliband is killing Aberdeen

Ed Miliband is killing Aberdeen

‘It’s Scotland’s oil,’ cried the slogan of the SNP in the 1970s when the party first began a serious drive for Scottish independence. Not according to the current Labour government at Westminster, it isn’t. The oil doesn’t belong to Britain, either, but to the Earth – and that is where it will stay if Ed Miliband has his way. The bizarre thing is that ...
What Keir Starmer should say to Xi Jinping

What Keir Starmer should say to Xi Jinping

Keir Starmer is flying to China today with a delegation of business leaders in order to build ties with Beijing. Already the visit is a missed opportunity. Starmer should have made his visit conditional on the release of British citizen Jimmy Lai from jail in Hong Kong. Now that the trip is going ahead regardless, he should use his visit to Beijing to ...
Lublin’s lost Jews are a warning to Europe

Lublin’s lost Jews are a warning to Europe

Going to Lublin in eastern Poland is a bit like visiting Pompeii. The city’s old town – compact, intricate, fetchingly tarnished – is as haunting as Krakow’s and more authentic than the reconstructed Warsaw. But something is missing, and you can feel it. Before the war, the Jewish population of Lublin stood at 43,000. Now, it is just 40. Structures ...

Are the Nationals an equal Coalition partner?

Are the Nationals an equal Coalition partner?
Give it a couple of weeks, or more precisely, a couple of pay cycles, and the National Party will be back at the Liberal Party’s door, cap in hand, asking to resurrect the Coalition. Nothing sharpens the National Party’s thinking quite like the sudden disappearance of a giant bucket of taxpayer money, and particularly the loss of opposition ministry ...

Sepehr… Baba… Where are you?

Sepehr… Baba… Where are you?
They cut off the internet. In the silence of the night, in a darkness that plunged all of Iran into mourning, people were massacred in their homes, in alleys, and on the streets inside the very places that were meant to protect them. They were killed in silence. It took two full days before the nation was able to show the world what had been done to ...

Could the Japanese economy crash out?

Could the Japanese economy crash out?
Is the Japanese economy about to crash? This once unthinkable prospect is now very much thinkable as concerns grow, and the cost of borrowing rises, in response to the bold but, to many, bewildering economic plans of prime minister Sanae Takaichi. It is a question of huge import, for if the Japanese economy collapses the consequences around the globe ...

The joy of Labour psychodrama

The joy of Labour psychodrama
As the three-word headline, ‘STARMER BLOCKS BURNHAM’ smashed on to our phone screens on Saturday, I felt I could almost hear the gleeful communal roar across the country; the same kind of Mexican wave of delight that passes through a school canteen when a dinner lady drops a big tray of puddings, a heap of custard and crockery. Labour wars always bring ...

One Nation on the rise

One Nation on the rise
The rise in One Nation’s share of the vote is causing a major political realignment. Their rise is coincident with public frustration at the deterioration of internal security. These security failures led us to the massacre at Bondi Beach. We hope, but do not know, if this is where the story ends. The election of the Albanese government has ushered in ...

Ed Miliband is killing Aberdeen

Ed Miliband is killing Aberdeen
‘It’s Scotland’s oil,’ cried the slogan of the SNP in the 1970s when the party first began a serious drive for Scottish independence. Not according to the current Labour government at Westminster, it isn’t. The oil doesn’t belong to Britain, either, but to the Earth – and that is where it will stay if Ed Miliband has his way. The bizarre thing is that ...

What Keir Starmer should say to Xi Jinping

What Keir Starmer should say to Xi Jinping
Keir Starmer is flying to China today with a delegation of business leaders in order to build ties with Beijing. Already the visit is a missed opportunity. Starmer should have made his visit conditional on the release of British citizen Jimmy Lai from jail in Hong Kong. Now that the trip is going ahead regardless, he should use his visit to Beijing to ...

Lublin’s lost Jews are a warning to Europe

Lublin’s lost Jews are a warning to Europe
Going to Lublin in eastern Poland is a bit like visiting Pompeii. The city’s old town – compact, intricate, fetchingly tarnished – is as haunting as Krakow’s and more authentic than the reconstructed Warsaw. But something is missing, and you can feel it. Before the war, the Jewish population of Lublin stood at 43,000. Now, it is just 40. Structures ...