The bullfinch, a charming bird, has an apologetic song. While others in the hedgerow chatter, chortle and remonstrate, the bullfinch is usually heard in the form of an occasional one-note tweet. It prefers not to draw attention to itself with...
It is a big Australian party, but not quite what an outsider would expect. In a Sydney park, there is an evening concert: carols, local youth groups, the cast of Tap Dogs, a Kylie (but not the Kylie). Wearing little...
When governments speak warm words about consulting the public it is sensible to be wary. The word "choice" will not be far away and, as the Thatcher years proved, the apparently harmless idea of offering consumer choice can be the...
Do you know the feeling when you are so absorbed in what you are writing that you lose all sense of time? Food, sex, sleep cease to be anything more than irritants which briefly divert you from the onward rush...
Between those who march and those who instinctively distrust mass protest, there lies the great supine majority. We like the idea that others are prepared to put up with the cold, the discomfort and the possibility of being cracked over...
What if Bilo made a film about us? Like many successful films, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has inspired a sequel. The more simply named My Brother Borat will shortly be released, and...
It is summer in the southern hemisphere, where I am seeing in the New Year, but now and then a cold, sour blast from the north reminds me of home. One of the on-line messages, left in response to an...
It will either be a very good time to be a Pom visiting Australia over the next few days, or it could be something of a trial. On Boxing Day, the most important cricket match in the country’s history will...
If the delegates currently attending the global climate conference in Mexico need any reminding of the magnitude of their task in the face of human stupidity and hubris, they do not have far to look. At another meeting of a...
For an Englishman interested in taking a side-step out of his regular life, there is no place quite like Australia. After all, a couple of centuries ago, the ancestors of today's Australians took a side-step out of their regular lives (or,...