December 2024
Think you’re cultured? Try this 2024 life and arts quiz
Test your knowledge of what went down this year with 40 questions from the Financial Times.
October 2024
What Tony Abbott taught Liz Truss about handling illegal immigrants
Attempts by the previous British government to thwart people smuggling by deporting illegal immigrants to Rwanda was based on advice by Tony Abbott
September 2024
Why even good politicians are unpopular these days
It’s not just Keir Starmer – political leaders are on the nose around the world, and it’s not all their fault. Decades of peace and affluence have raised expectations.
July 2024
Kardashian, Blair, Tyson: Global elite flock to Ambani mega-wedding
A pantheon of global celebrities, politicians and CEOs are descending on India’s financial capital for the wedding of the son of Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.
Voters didn’t flock to Starmer and he knows it
Labour can claim a big mandate after its landslide victory, but the UK’s new government must also quickly prove itself, after winning just 34 per cent of the vote.
Starmer can help Britain redeem itself
With a towering majority, a well-disciplined team and a ruthless instinct for power, Keir Starmer can restore some of the respect the Tories destroyed.
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 Conservatives imploded. Labour simply filled the vacuum
Labour’s landslide shares some parallels with Tony Blair’s 1997 win but those end with Keir Starmer’s small target strategy and threadbare policy.
Boris Johnson in surprise late move to avert Tory wipeout
Making his first public appearance of the campaign, the former prime minister said Labour would “destroy so much of what we have achieved”.
June 2024
Even Rishi Sunak could lose his seat, according to some polls
Seat-by-seat analysis by Savanta and Electoral Calculus found the Tories are on track to win just 53 seats in next month’s vote, an all-time low for the party.
Trio of big Tory donors drop campaign funding
A private poll by the donors showed Labour was on track for a “Tony Blair-style landslide”, according to two people familiar with its results.
May 2024
Sunak pledges mandatory national service in UK election ploy
Compulsory work for 18-year-olds would provide “opportunities” and “experience”, the prime minister says, as the Tories try to differentiate themselves from Labour.
March 2024
A British friend with important lessons for Australia
The UK is a good strategic partner for us. It is also a public policy laboratory for what works – and what does not.
Australian politicians mob Alastair Campbell
As a way for a veritably antique ex-politico to pay the bills, this sure must beat lobbying.
January 2024
Howard still ducks key Iraq question
Former prime minister John Howard has defended his record on committing Australia to the Iraq war. But we are no closer to fully understanding his reasons.
The welcome demise of big-government Toryism
When Rishi Sunak cut high-speed rail, commentators wrongly saw it as a betrayal of the red wall vision. But the nonsensical red-wall agenda was never needed.
History damns John Howard on Iraq war
Even when released, the cabinet documents relating to the 2003 Iraq war will not reveal the impulses that drove John Howard into a disastrous commitment.
John Pilger, controversial campaigning journalist, dead at 84
John Pilger, who has died aged 84, was a journalist and documentary maker for whom the word uncompromising might have been invented.
November 2023
Who killed neoliberalism?
Neoliberalist theory and practice went so horribly wrong because governments that put their faith in markets forgot one word – competition.
Israel touts Blair as Gaza peacekeeper
Benjamin Netanyahu believes the former British prime minister’s experience as a lead diplomat in the region would be useful.