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Social norms can persist well past their use-by date because they can be so hard to change. Nobody wants to move first, lest they be considered the weirdo. Read more

New Zealand is vulnerable to the same threats to their freedoms Australia is struggling with – and arguably the risk has already arrived. The worst assault across the ditch comes initially out of US and UK universities where a hybrid utopian movement of the most dangerous aspects of postmodernism and collectivism has been rebooted in the form of social justice, intersectionality and identity politics. Read more

It took a little while after the Christchurch earthquakes to wrap our heads around that a lot of the city would never be as it was. We had to adjust to the new normal. Read more

Every now and then, a new word pops up to encapsulate the mood of the time – and the best neologisms make you think “Gee, I should have thought of that.” ‘Westlessness’ is such a word. It was the motto of this year’s Munich Security Conference, the world’s largest conference on international security policy. Read more

The government this week extended the COVID-19 (coronavirus) travel ban barring foreign nationals from arriving in New Zealand from mainland China and suggesting self-quarantine for Kiwis returning. The continued ban feels like the right decision for a highly contagious disease with mortality rates that appear to be around twenty times higher than the seasonal flu. Read more

Last week, the Thuringian parliament in Erfurt elected Thomas Kemmerich state premier. This was not only remarkable because his liberal Free Democrats have only five members in a parliament of 90. Read more

A wise man once said nothing is as old as yesterday’s newspaper. That would render Brexit, which went into effect last Friday, a piece of ancient history. Read more