One of the key trends of 2019 has been increased political polarisation between city and country.
Category: Ideas
What Bernardi means (reprise)
Cory Bernardi leaves politics, with his mission largely fulfilled. The Australian right has been remade, if not exactly in his image, at least in something uncomfortably like it.
Left, right and Brexit
Try yourself out on a 3-dimensional political diagnosis, and think about what this might mean for party realignment in Britain and elsewhere.
Why Poland matters
Polish voters have the opportunity tomorrow either to deliver a check to the worldwide campaign to wind back liberal democracy, or to give it further momentum.
More thoughts about judicial review
The decision about prorogation is not the only controversy Britain's supreme court has engaged in recently. An attempt to rein in the intelligence services raised some similar issues.
China, seventy years on
The Chinese Communist Party today celebrates 70 years of power as perhaps the most successful totalitarian movement of modern times.
The Senate faces its enemies, again
Plans are again afoot within the Australian government to try to cripple the democratic nature of the Senate. But there is an alternative direction that reform could take.
Death of a denialist
The paradox of David Koch, who died last week, is that his political activism ended up empowering forces that were deeply hostile to his libertarian convictions.
From Brisbane to Kashmir
The world may yet pay a dreadful price for having failed to address the issue of Kashmir when it might have been resolved peacefully.
Oh dear, it’s free speech again
Once again, the right of a "controversial" speaker to enter Australia is up for debate. His supporters seem oblivious to the contradictions in their position.
The World is Not Enough 