by Paul Thomas | Dec 4, 2015 | Americana
Paul Thomas2015-12-04 Who is this? “His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything...
by Paul Thomas | Nov 14, 2015 | Canon Media Award 2016, Sports
Paul Thomas2015-11-14 And with a single result we were free.The All Blacks’ Rugby World Cup triumph is laden with significance but perhaps its single greatest merit from the New Zealand rugby public ‘s perspective is that it delivers peace of mind: for at least a few...
by Paul Thomas | Oct 31, 2015 | Sports
Paul Thomas2015-10-31 Given that the build-up often verged on the surreal, the All Blacks’ Rugby World Cup quarter-final performance against France was appropriately out of this world. All week the talk had been of bogey teams and hoodoos, coups and smokescreens. Just...
by Paul Thomas | Oct 29, 2015 | Sports
Paul Thomas2015-10-29 In November 2013, when the All Blacks were in London preparing to play England, a Daily Telegraph journalist exploited lax security to sneak into the hotel room where team meetings were held. It was a high-risk gambit – if he’d run into the...
by Paul Thomas | Oct 17, 2015 | Sports
Paul Thomas2015-10-17 Given that New Zealand is the world’s leading exporter of rugby players, it’s perhaps appropriate that the All Blacks were on the receiving end of the most famous performance by a foreign-born player in international rugby history. Prince...
by Paul Thomas | Oct 9, 2015 | The Age of Terror
Paul Thomas2015-10-09 Suddenly we’re back in a Cold War world in which, depending on your taste in metaphors, the Russian bear is on the prowl or the Russian chess master is several moves ahead of his floundering western opponent. Thus Russia’s presence in Syria under...
by Paul Thomas | Oct 3, 2015 | Sports
Paul Thomas2015-10-03 As that unlikely alliance of our parents and the Rolling Stones often pointed out, you can’t always get what you want. In my 2015 wish-list (Sport, January 31), I expressed the hope that no-one would die of heat exhaustion at the Australian...
by Paul Thomas | Sep 25, 2015 | Strange Days Indeed
Paul Thomas2015-09-25 Imagine being British Prime Minister David Cameron’s public relations adviser. Conservative Party headquarters, central London. A foppish young man sits at a desk working on a press release headed “Queen could face firing squad if Corbyn becomes...
by Paul Thomas | Sep 19, 2015 | Sports
Paul Thomas2015-09-19 You could argue – as many have – that test cricket is an absurdity. Men and women in long white trousers play for six hours, pausing for lunch and afternoon tea; men’s games can go for five days, women’s four (with no guarantee of a result at the...
by Paul Thomas | Sep 18, 2015 | Strange Days Indeed
Paul Thomas2015-09-18 A narcissistic blowhard leads the Republican presidential race. A bearded weirdo leads the British Labour Party. Australia goes through prime ministers like a banana republic on fast-forward. What’s going on here? While there’s very little new...