July
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Keir Starmer can drive Britain to reform-led growth
Britain’s new PM must lock in growth quickly if he is to secure Labour’s huge win. With a planning system from hell and a 17,000-page tax code, there is plenty of scope for reform.
- The AFR View
- Opinion
- World elections
The productivity hack that really does boost careers
Physical stamina is an oddly overlooked superpower in working life. But although it will take you a long way, it won’t always be enough to achieve enduring success.
- Pilita Clark
August 2023
- Opinion
- Workplace
Why taking holidays can be a political minefield
Vacations are rarely straightforward for political and business leaders, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take them.
- Pilita Clark
July 2023
- Opinion
- Climate policy
The climate crisis requires a wartime footing
Only by invoking the spirit of joint endeavour against a common enemy can we make the radical changes we need to get to net zero.
- Camilla Cavendish
- Opinion
- Political leadership
Facts of life are conservative, but younger voters are lurching left
The problem for the Liberal Party is that, since the end of the Howard-Costello era, it has done very little to address the structural causes for the discontent of young Australians.
- Tom Switzer
April 2023
Nigel Lawson, architect of Thatcher’s economic reforms, dies at 91
Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989, he championed lower personal taxes, wider share ownership and free market economics.
- Muvija M and William Schomberg
February 2023
- Opinion
- Federal election
What can Australia carve out of a three-way AUKUS tussle?
Government language on the submarine project is as much about an industrial tie-up as a strategic one. But what is that going to be worth?
- Laura Tingle
October 2022
- Opinion
- UK leadership
From Westminster to Canberra, zombie ideas are out
The Truss horror show happened because conservatives stick with ideas that are not working for voters, even when ideology says they should be.
- Laura Tingle
- Opinion
- Populism
Is nostalgia killing conservatism?
The libertarian policies of Liz Truss look weirdly out of step. Until you consider the failings of both centrists and right-wing populists in Europe.
- Ross Douthat
August 2022
- Opinion
- The AFR View
30 years on, Gorbachev leaves a complicated global legacy
The world divided between democracy and authoritarianism that we thought, or hoped, Mikhail Gorbachev helped to end three decades ago is now back with a vengeance.
- The AFR View
- Analysis
- Inflation
Truss, Sunak shy away from Britain’s economic woes
With runaway inflation, worker shortages and a wide range of other problems, the British economy is in trouble. The candidates to take over from Boris Johnson, however, seem oblivious to this.
- Mark Landler
July 2022
- Opinion
- UK
Tories must decide between Thatcher and Reagan
Race leader Rishi Sunak must persuade Conservatives that Margaret Thatcher would not have pursued Ronald Reagan’s free-spending ways at a time like this.
- Nicole Torres
- Opinion
- Income tax
Sugar high of tax cuts will not fix UK economic woes
Loosening fiscal policy could stoke inflation and force the Bank of England to push interest rates higher.
- The Lex Column
- Opinion
- UK politics
Boris Johnson’s rise and fall are like no other
Australia’s politics operates in very different ways from Britain’s. But the UK still has a quiet prominence in Australia’s political, civil and cultural life.
- Andrew Clark
- Opinion
- UK
Boris exit must be a reset for the right
The global right has been seduced by the fool’s gold of populist leaders. The British PM’s resignation is a chance to focus on long-term economic revival with a clear ideological purpose.
- Shamit Saggar
- Opinion
- UK leadership
Fatally wounded, Boris Johnson refuses to accept political death sentence
The political assassination has been as slow and incompetent as that of Rasputin: somehow the UK’s mercurial prime minister manages to hold on.
- Martin Ivens
June 2022
- Opinion
- Globalisation
Western liberals must learn from the Merkel years
The gas dependence on Russia, the turn against nuclear power, the inadequate defence spending: parts of her record as German chancellor have aged as well as milk.
- Janan Ganesh
How many hours of sleep you really need (and it’s not eight)
A major new study has found you should be aiming for exactly seven hours’ sleep, from your thirties to old age.
- Flic Everett
- Opinion
- Royal family
Queen Elizabeth II, 70 years of duty without drama
The discreet monarch has presided over decades of change while remaining largely an enigma.
- Henry Mance
March 2022
How high achievers thrive on just a few hours sleep
New research may explain how exceptional people those high on ambition and optimism thrive on just a few hours a night.
- David Cox