Category: Britain
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – ABC-SBS merger: Turnbull borrows policy from Labor
Keen supporters of the ABC and SBS were up in arms this week when Malcolm Turnbull’s Coalition government revealed its clear intention to merge the nation’s two public broadcasters. Those wishful souls who turned to Bill Shorten’s Labor Party for resistance were sorely disappointed. The truth is that an ABC/SBS merger has been on Labor’s…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – UK Referendum on Europe: stay in EU or sink in North Sea?
If you are starting to believe that the United States has gone completely bonkers, then you’ve been watching the US Republican primaries campaign dominated by looney tunes like Donald Trump, the billionaire New York real estate developer and casino owner, and Canadian-born Senator Ted Kruz from Texas. But don’t be obsessed by what’s happening in…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – David Bowie’s brush with fascism and the occult
For the record, here are some of the views of the late David Bowie. • “Britain is ready for a fascist leader. I think Britain would benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism.” • “There is no politician like me. As I see it, I am the only alternative for premier…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – PM Turnbull’s main danger is not Bill Shorten, it’s Abbott
Remember the grim days when Tony Abbott was Prime Minister? His opponent, Labor Leader Bill Shorten, was miles ahead in the polls as preferred PM. Now that Abbott has been ousted by his own party and Malcolm Turnbull installed as Australia’s 29th PM, the polls have gone into reverse. In this month’s Newspoll, Shorten’s rating…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Murdoch’s shadow looms over Turnbull
Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Australia hesitated after the successful party room coup against Liberal Party prime minister Tony Abbott on September 24. The lumpen columnists who had barracked incessantly for “The Mad Monk” resented the arrival of Malcolm Turnbull and, quite frankly, they were disoriented. Which way should they jump now? Once the message…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Turnbull and Baird cremate Magna Carta
Only a few months ago, federal Attorney-General “Gorgeous” George Brandis, NSW Attorney General Gabrielle Upton, plus a swirl of judges, lawyers and academics, were celebrating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. This month the same bristling crew are extending detention without charge to 28 days for “terrorism” suspects as young as 14. The proposed measure…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Some final words on the Tony Abbott nightmare
Abbott’s sour farewell speech in Canberra confirmed his inappropriateness to be prime minister. Can anyone remotely imagine Bob Menzies, Malcolm Fraser or John Howard telling the nation “We are not the Labor Party” when leaving the prime ministership? But Abbott was still boxing shadows and the anti-Labor fantasies he acquired in his adolescence when he…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – After Abbott’s demise, the heat is now on Bill Shorten
This week began with a mutinous insurrection by Liberal Party MPs against their own leader, Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Ghostly memories of the overthrow of Bob Hawke (1991), John Gorton (1971) and Margaret Thatcher (1990) floated by. By the end of the week Malcolm Turnbull was the new PM, Abbott was cactus after one year…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Abbott’s plunge into the Syrian cauldron
To save his own political skin and to win next month’s khaki by-election in Canning, WA, Prime Minister Tony Abbott is on the brink of ordering the RAAF to bomb Syria. Any bombing raids would be illegal and they are not sanctioned by a UN resolution. The rationale will be that it is a humanitarian…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Lycra-clad Abbott has run out of time and puff
The disintegration of the Abbott government is now being serialised on the nightly news. Every day brings a new instalment of Cabinet disunity, policy stuff-ups, backstabbing and hilarious attempts by Cabinet ministers to talk about how well they’re doing. Question time has stripped Abbott of his braggadocio and any pretence that he is a national…