This was originally given as a paper to the Danube Institute in Budapest E&OE —— Just over six months on, it’s clear that the Voice vote in Australia was both encouraging and discouraging. Encouraging, in that it was the first time anywhere in the world that an issue of identity politics was put to the…
ADDRESS TO JOINT QUADRANT & DANUBE INSTITUTE EVENING: THE POPULIST MOMENT 8 April 2024 The Fullerton Hotel, Sydney E&OE —— Now, whether it’s steadily growing support for minor parties and independents here, now routinely a third of the electorate; the presidential re-run now on offer in the US; the likely obliteration of the British Tory…
The National Symposium for Classical Education Phoenix, Arizona E&OE —— Years ago, I was still playing rugby football, in Oxford England, and there were line-out calls, requiring the recognition of particular letters. If the captain called a word starting with the letter “t”, the ball went to the front of the line-out. But if he called a word…
Originally published in The Australian Ron Boswell (with Joanne Newberry), Not Pretty, but Pretty Effective, Connor Court Publishing, 2023, ISBN: 9781922815859, 319pp Many former MPs write memoirs but few are as readable or as instructive as these reflections from former National Party Senator Ron Boswell, who retired in 2014 after 32 years in harness. For…
26 February 2024 New Delhi, India E&OE For a long time, some outsiders said of India: “it’s a country of great potential – and always will be”. To those sceptics, I declare that modern India remains a country of vast potential but is already a country of great achievement. It’s already the world’s fifth largest…
Remarks to the Legatum Institute, London E&OE Check Against Delivery —— This paper, from AUKUS to CAUKUS, recommending the inclusion of Canada, in the seamless defence research and procurement side of AUKUS, makes enormous sense because it would strengthen the democracies at a critical time. When the British defence minister recently warned that the world…
Originally published in The Times E&OE The prospect of major war is more real than at any time since 1939. We all wish it were otherwise but we urgently need to face up to this. The Russian dictator is starting to win in Ukraine and won’t stop there. The Middle East could explode at any…
Remarks to the Centre for Policy Studies in London E&OE At the start of 2020, for most people in most places, life had never been more free, more fair, more safe, and more rich. It might not have been the broad sunlit uplands of the end of history, but it was the best of times…
Originally published in The National Post Taking place in one of the world’s fossil-fuel hubs, a city sultanate so prodigal in its energy use that it boasts indoor ski slopes in the desert furnace, the just-concluded climate jamboree in Dubai could hardly avoid a note of climate realism. Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin…
REMARKS TO JOINT DANUBE INSTITUTE / HERITAGE FOUNDATION HERITAGE FOUNDATION, WASHINGTON DC E&OE Nostalgia for a golden age and lamenting the decline from it is characteristic of conservatives; and that’s not all bad, provided it spurs us to lift our game rather than fold our tents. In the glory days of Reagan and Thatcher, our…
