Come the Revolution – Alex Mitchell
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Scottish writer’s stand on Palestine
There’s sad news about Iain Banks, the Scottish novelist. He has cancer, and only months to live. His brilliantly imaginative novels include The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road, and he can also write in a lighter vein. I liked his satirical post-9/11 thriller Dead Air. There must have been something in the air in…
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Event for Sydney readers: Alex Mitchell with Hall Greenland
Tuesday April 16, 6pm, Better Read Than Dead Bookshop, 265 King Street, Newtown (upstairs room). Alex and Hall Greenland (pictured), author of Red Hot and Greens candidate for Grayndler, will discuss the current ICAC inquiry, the future of the NSW Labor Party and the upcoming federal election.
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Cyprus, the pundits and Geldof
Yesterday the media across Europe were full of the news that Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch finance minister and head of the Eurozone group, had let the cat out of the bag. Cyprus, he had said, showed the way forward in dealing with bailouts, by going after private investors and bank accounts. He had to water down…
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Why the Rudd plot was sunk by farce
Suddenly the Rudd for PM fiasco makes sense. One of the key plotters was Sam Dastyari, the NSW ALP general secretary and one of the party’s most spectacular lightweights. His part in the abortive back-stabbing farce was revealed by Peter Hartcher in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald. As Hartcher doubles as unofficial public relations officer for…
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Pro-Zionists attempt to gag MPs in NSW Upper House
Shaoquett Moselmane, a Labor MP in the NSW Legislative Council, is the first Moslem in the NSW Parliament. The former mayor of Rockdale, Moselmane is one of six candidates in the pre-selection for the seat of Barton which Robert McClelland is vacating at the next federal election. To raise his profile among Moslem pre-selectors in…
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Italian drama is no joke
Italy remains without a viable government a fortnight after the national election. Many in the media have treated the result as just another round of the country’s political circus, of interest only because of such bizarre candidates as convicted fraudster Silvio Berlusconi and populist comedian Beppe Grillo. The result gave Grillo’s Five Star Movement (M5S)…
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Behind the law and order frenzy
John Lawler, chief executive of the Australian Crime Commission, is a seasoned cop who is well acquainted with the political system and how it works. He read the pre-Christmas 2012 reports that Treasurer Wayne Swan proposed to inflict sweeping cuts across government departments and all agencies. He did what you would expect him to do.…
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The Rooty Hill debacle
When Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she was moving to Rooty Hill in Sydney’s western suburbs for a five-day pre-election campaign I checked the mainstream internet sites to discover how many “hits” the story had received from readers. The answer: very few. It didn’t rate in the Top Ten list of any of the sites…
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The Italian job
Dysfunctionality seems to sum up the state of the Western world’s politics and economies, but nowhere is it more spectacularly displayed than in Italy. The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI – the first resignation since Gregory XII in 1415 – was accompanied by an avalanche of Vatican scandal. Scotland’s Cardinal, Archbishop Keith O’Brien, has resigned…
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Media drongos
Every time a federal Labor MP announces he or she will not stand at the next election, the lazy and predictable Canberra Press Gallery rushes into print with the same old names of possible candidates. How often have we been forced to read speculation that former Premier Steve Bracks, former Premier Morris Iemma, former Premier…
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