For years and years, every time politicians or commentators were asked about adopting a Republic in preference to a Monarchy, they replied: “Let’s not talk about Republicanism now. It’s such awfully bad manners. We should wait until the Queen has died and then we can have that discussion.”
Well, folks, the Queen is dead. She died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on 8 September, 2022. The new hereditary monarch, her eldest son Charles, was by her side. Lady Camilla was in the next room. Prince William who will be King one day was there too. Or so we are told.
Former banker Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was on his way to make sure that Charles and Camilla swore the traditional oath to be “Defenders of the Faith”, i.e. of Protestantism, the Church of England.
When he took over as archbishop, Welby ended the habit of his predecessor(Rowan Williams, now Baron Williams of Oystermouth) of railing against the greed and profits of the banks , saying: “You’d be an idiot to stand in judgment on the banks”, and praised the savage greed of Rothschild’s, telling Britain’s Financial Times: “To have existed for well over 200 years does seem to indicate that you are doing more-or-less usefully right.”
Other details of the queen’s final hours are vague and not worthy of recording because they are scripted by PR people at Buck House, and mostly lies.
A very British coup
Britain, bankrupt, poverty-stricken and falling apart, is now ruled by the unelected, undemocratic and highly secretive Privy Council.
The PC is one of the wonders of British-style government. Nobody knows where it sits, when it sits or what it does, and yet it has sweeping powers to rule the country. All it needs is the backing of four sources of authority – 1) the Prime Minister, 2) the Monarch, 3) the British Army, and 4) the Secret Intelligence Services (SIS), MI5 and MI6.
If truth be told, these four bodies have been running Britain since Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s loutish behaviour, womanising and drunken parties at No 10 (Partygate) ruled him unfit for office. He threatened the future of the Tory government, the Tory Party and Britain itself. Not only was Boris an international joke, so was Britain.
In normal circumstances, the Opposition party would take over and Westminster would settle down again. But current Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer was unable to restore order. Enter the Privy Council.
Labour’s shadow ministers have already signalled that they accept the Liz Truss-led Tory Government. Does that mean that the demand for an immediate General Election has been dropped? Sounds like it!
Prime Minister Truss’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Minister is the Rt Hon Therese Coffey, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, the first woman to hold that role. Coffey is also on the Privy Council (where else!) and Parliament’s National Security Council where the heads of MI5 and MI6 give reports and answer questions. The meetings are closed to the press and public, and minutes are filed as “TOP SECRET” and “NEVER TO BE OPENED”.
Ms Truss and Ms Coffey would make perfect tea ladies at a minor private school in the Home Counties. They are from the very bottom of the Tory Party barrel. Can they save Britain from division and ultimate social and financial destruction? No.
The deafening roars of organised support currently dominating the media – along with endless tributes to the British queen – will give way to howls of anger and recrimination in six months’ time. Watch this space!
Why reporters Canberra Press Gallery reporters and Murdoch’s columnist don’t ever apologise
Most stories that originate in Canberra’s Press Gallery and the Murdoch-controlled media are tagged “EXCLUSIVE” – but they are wrong!
The second thing to note is that the authors of these “thought bubbles” never offer a correction, explanation, retraction or apology when they commit howlers.
To read or hear their reports is to know that we are living in quite separate universes. They live in the “Canberra bubble” and the rest of us live in the “real world”.
The ink-slingers in Canberra say with bristling certainty that a Cabinet minister is going to be demoted or sacked, but when she/he is promoted they say nothing. Nada. There is no admission that an error had been made. They simply sail on regardless.
Don’t you find a certain arrogance in this conduct? I do. It’s no wonder that circulation, viewing and listening is falling. All sectors of the mainstream media – newspapers, radio and television – are facing a slump.
As with most generalities, there are notable exceptions, but they are few and far between. Many people simply lose heart and hope. They give up buying newspapers, listening to the radio or watching television. Can you blame them?
People decide to find their own sources of current affairs and information from IT sources using their laptops. In no time at all they start receiving influential and professional commentaries as well as press releases from their favourite sites.
Many smart people shift their entire businesses onto their laptops and conduct sales, contracts and payments by playing the keyboard. What better way to stay in touch with your customers, family and friends?
Will Albo follow the example of his hero Gough Whitlam?
On 21 October, 2014, Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam AC, QC, in a condolence motion in Canberra’s House of Representatives. Albanese said: “Gough Whitlam leaves a great legacy to the nation. He taught us to be brave—brave about our reform ambitions, brave in the face of our critics and unstintingly brave in the pursuit of the greatest ambition any of us could ever pursue: justice and opportunity for all.”
Whitlam, Australia’s 21st Prime Minister, died in Sydney aged 98. His partner/wife, Margaret Whitlam, née Dovey, pre-deceased him: mother of their four children, she died in 2012.
In 1974 Whitlam wrote to Australian war correspondent Wilfred Burchett offering him a passport and a passage home to Australia to be with his family, friends and workmates. Here is the letter he wrote to Burchett. Will Albanese do the same for another Australian journalist – Julian Assange?
John Pilger slams the media
In a scathing critique of media reports of Western imperialism’s war in Ukraine, Australian writer and documentary film-maker John Pilger said in a recent address to the Trondheim World Festival in Norway: “We live in a Media Society where brainwashing is insidious and relentless, and perception is filtered according to the needs and lies of State and corporate power.
“The United States dominates the Western world’s media. All but one of the top ten media companies are based in North America. The internet and social media – Google, Twitter, Facebook – are mostly American-owned and controlled.
“In my lifetime, the United States has overthrown or attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, mostly democracies. It has interfered in democratic elections in 30 countries. It has dropped bombs on the people of 30 countries, most of them poor and defenceless. It has attempted to murder the leaders of 50 countries. It has fought to suppress liberation movements in 20 countries.
“The extent and scale of this carnage is largely unreported, unrecognised, and those responsible continue to dominate Anglo-American political life.”
How long before the American-Australian-British Governments, all signatories to AUKUS, a trilateral pact of war, decide to charge Pilger with sedition, take away his passport and lock him up for a few centuries? They’ve already rubber-stamped the torture and incarceration of Julian Assange so why stop now?