Articles by Michael Taylor

Editor’s notes: This article is deliberately cautious about forecasting. It distinguishes polling results, race ratings and campaign behaviour rather than treating them as interchangeable evidence. All figures and dates are based on reporting available as […]

Much has been written recently about Nigel Farage and the Brexit referendum, but while the headlines have focused on the familiar arguments, some rather important questions remain unanswered. Who paid for the campaign? Where did […]

Three weeks before Americans go to the polls, the midterm elections are beginning to take shape. Early voting is under way in some states, campaign spending is intensifying, and a growing number of competitive races […]

From “Protection” to Segregation Continued from Part 3 The relationship between colonisers and Aboriginal people had increasingly come to be understood through the language of social evolution. The theory offered a convenient justification for European […]

From Racial Prejudice to “Scientific” Proof Continued from Part 2 The use of “survival of the fittest” occurred during a period when Aboriginal people were hunted like animals, thousands died from introduced diseases, and many […]

Darwin, Spencer and the “Survival of the Fittest” Continued from Part 1 In 1859, a book was published that would profoundly influence the way Europeans thought about life, humanity and, eventually, race: Charles Darwin’s On […]

The Racist Heritage of Colonial Australia There has been much discussion in Australia about racism and the way it continues to manifest itself in our political and social landscape. Yet racism is hardly a recent […]

I’ve noticed something increasingly common across social media in response when someone posts criticism of Anthony Albanese.  “Just let him get on with his job.” It sounds reasonable enough. Until you stop and think about […]

Continued from What Went Wrong? (Part 5) Part 6: Have We Moved Forward? There was a time when I genuinely believed we were moving forward. I remember the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and the […]