The indictment of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal by the International Court of Justice has been widely perceived as a bit of a pantomime, a largely symbolic gesture unlikely to change his behaviour in any way. This is a hasty and rather shallow surmise. The ICC's arrest warrant also informs the inner circle of Putin's supporters that they, too, could sooner or later find themselves in the dock. Self-interest applies in Moscow just as it does everywhere else

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John Pesutto, who identifies as the leader of the Victorian Liberals, has moved to expel from the party newly elected MP Moira Deeming for attending, speaking and helping to organise the Let Women Speak rally. If anything of value comes out of this affair, it will be the way in which he has done Premier Daniel Andrews' work for him by drawing wider attention to his utter uselessness as a party leader

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There's irony aplenty in neo-Nazis lending their uninvited support to the Let Women Speak rally in Melbourne, the incident that plunged state Liberal leader John Pesutto into a tizzy of not terribly coherent demands that conservative Moira Deeming be expelled from the party. The fact of the matter is that the original Nazis -- Rohm, Hess and their jackbooted like -- were rather keen on cute boys and hot fascist-on-fascist action

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Will any real information on the disastrous policies of the day, be it it the Voice or climate agendas of state and federal governments, seep into the minds of most voters? A silly question to which the expected and duly delivered response is 'The planet is dying! We must do our bit to save it.' That’s the level of sophistication which swings elections

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If India really were hostile to the free practice of religion, as a Pew survey claims, it would raise legitimate concerns, including unfortunate geopolitical implications. But democratic countries should not allow themselves to be set against each other by spurious allegations feeding on mutual ignorance. Western democracies owe it not only to India, but to their own self-interest, to get the record straight

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Queen Elizabeth was not yet in her grave when the latest Q&A compere poured out his 'choking asphyxiating anger'. High on the ledger of his umbrage, his mum as a child needing to borrow her brother's socks in order to visit Dubbo and see the Queen. Such a sad diatribe has inspired a near-epic poem

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The question is whether the Reserve Bank is focusing on the right variables – bank lending/monetary aggregates – or whether it remains besotted by the most recent CPI figure? If it’s the latter it is bound to get it wrong and raise interest rates too much, just as it got it wrong in reducing them too much

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Democracy's problem is that the skills required to climb the greasy pole of backroom party politics are not those required to hold executive positions in government. Thus do we get the comic conceits of Jim Chalmers' plan to remake capitalism and, far more dangerous, the looming green horrors Chris Bowen is so keen to inflict on one and all

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India's culture warriors tried but failed to make an issue of Pathaan, the hit Bollywood movie whose hero is a Muslim secret agent with a Pakistani girlfriend. Indian audiences are having none of it, seeming to accept the notion that a true Indian patriot can also be Muslim. Behold, the welcome rise of post-sectarian India

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The heroes of our nationhood were not resistance leaders or freedom fighters, but politicians and statesmen, most now forgotten or only half-remembered. Their creation is an achievement worth celebrating

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