Originally published in The Telegraph With more than 16,000 arrivals by small boat across the Channel so far this year, and 100,000 in the past five years, it’s no wonder that the Prime Minister has made stopping the boats one of the Government’s five priorities. While Britain’s predicament differs somewhat, I suspect there might be…
Originally published in the Spectator With inflation rampant, growth stagnant, government disintegrating, and nothing working – so I’d read, all due to Brexit, naturally – it was a wonder to fly into Heathrow, breeze through customs, and smartly get to a smoothly-functioning, clean and new London hotel via train and tube. What had happened to…
ADDRESS TO THE RECOVERING CONSERVATISM CONFERENCEHOSTED BY THE DANUBE INSTITUTEREFORM CLUB, LONDON E&OE What’s gone wrong with centre-right politics: is it our leaders, or our beliefs; or has the world changed? It’s a bit of each, as I will try to show, but there’s no reason it can’t be fixed. Consider the Reagan, Thatcher, and…
Originally published in the Spectator Australia Most Australians know very little about Morocco because it’s one of those places that rarely makes the news. Not much goes wrong there. In fact, much is going right. It’s peaceful, politically stable, and surprisingly prosperous. And for a Muslim country, it’s been remarkably protective of its Jewish community,…
Originally published as the afterword in ‘Dignity and Prosperity: The Future of Liberal Australia’, edited by David Stevens (Connor Court, 2023) As opposition leader, I often said that the longer the Rudd-Gillard government lasted the better the Howard government would look. But to the authors of these essays, it’s not just the former Labor government…
THE HYATT HOTEL, CANBERRAE&OE While life membership is a way for a political party to say thank you, to those who’ve served it, really, this party should less be thanking me, than I should be thanking you. But for the Liberal Party, I would never have been a member of parliament; never have been a…
This funeral, is less a sad farewell to a great friend; and more, a joyous tribute to a great hero. It’s the celebration of a wonderful life; a once-in-a-generation gathering, of the people of faith; to re-dedicate ourselves to the ideals, George Pell lived for; and to draw strength, from each other, for the struggles…
23 January 2023 E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… Originally published in The Telegraph It is easy to be so consumed by day-to-day international events that you miss a major development. Some days ago, one such development occurred. The treaty, signed at the Tower of London, allowing British forces to be stationed in Japan, and vice-versa, marks a new phase…
Originally published in The Australian The best way to honour the dead is less to elaborate on their human decency than to take seriously the causes that mattered to them. Of course, it was hard to find a better man than the late Senator Jim Molan who was utterly dedicated to his family and to…
The passing of George Pell leaves a large, eclectic and global circle of friends and admirers bereft of a mentor. The Church has lost a servant and a teacher who came much closer than most to the imitation of Christ. And Australia has lost its greatest religious leader, at least since the redoubtable Archbishop Danny…
