Remarkably, the Voice went down despite big business, big tech, big sport, and big philanthropy

Seventy-five years after the old empire became the new Commonwealth, there’s no more like-minded group than the CANZUK countries. Why not build on that affinity by making all trade between them tariff-free? Why not work towards mutual recognition of trade and professional qualifications?

In simpler times the government ran the country, parliament made the laws, and the courts decided what was illegal. What’s happened over recent decades is a tendency for unelected judges to insert themselves into political decision-making on the assumption that their decisions are superior to those of elected and accountable ministers

With most conservative parties split between populist and establishment wings, […]

With most conservative parties split between populist and establishment wings, […]

Ron Boswell, my former parliamentary colleague, has produced a superb instruction manual for anyone wanting to make a mark on our public life. His prescription is simple enough: have strong principles, be a good listener; be largely indifferent to recognition or reward, and work assiduously for the people you’re pledged to represent

'It’s 80 or 90 years since Western countries have faced such internal and external challenges: with the rich getting richer and the poor getting less poor, but the middle class increasingly squeezed; with economies floundering under high taxes for ever more generous welfare systems and the red tape needed to achieve ESG goals'

Above and beyond quitting the Labor Party, the Tasmanian senator was a very rare species indeed: a politician almost entirely devoid of ego, more than happy to 'stoop to conquer', and never feeling the need to exaggerate his own importance. A parliament with more of his kind would add lustre and honour to our public life. Let’s hope Keith Harvey's readable volume encourages more like him

The fact that nearly every country now wants to forget the pandemic as a kind of collective bad dream, rather than rigorously analyse it lest we make the same mistakes again, shows how governance has generally become worse as it’s become bigger and ever more intrusive.