History
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How the UK is developing the characteristics of a failed society
A new book about Birmingham and its role in shaping modern Britain illuminates how the UK moved from the world’s first industrialised nation to financialisation and deindustrialisation to many of the characteristics of a failed society. Continue reading »
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As time goes by: eighty years since the premiere of Casablanca
It was 1942. Across the Atlantic, vast, troubled swathes of Europe were occupied by the Wehrmacht. Millions of its civilians were displaced; millions more would pack up their belongings and flee as World War II continued to unfold. Continue reading »
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Give thanks and rejoice: reflections for ST Therese’s Parish centenary mass
Last weekend’s Faith column in The Sunday Age provided a nostalgic reflection on what might be called ‘Old Time Catholicism’ and ‘Catholic Culture’, which I well remember, looking back on growing up in St James’s Parish Gardenvale, in the 1950’s and 60’s. Continue reading »
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Ukraine: The other side of the story
It appears that wherever one looks or reads there are calls for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine: no other event is called for; in other words, capitulation by Russia. Continue reading »
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The Queen’s coup and the role of King Charles
‘I wanted you to know that I appreciate what you do and admire enormously the way you have performed in your many and varied duties. Please don’t lose heart. What you did last year was right and the courageous thing to do.’ (Prince Charles) Continue reading »
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How did Dag Hammarskjöld die? The CIA and Indonesian connection
More than six decades after his plane crashed it remains the great Cold War mystery: Was UN secretary-general (1953-61) Dag Hammarskjöld killed by sabotage, a technical fault, pilot error or air attack? If he was assassinated who was the mastermind? Continue reading »
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Australia is addicted to fighting other people’s wars
How do we explain that half the Australian community thinks we should go to war with China? After twenty years of conflict in the Middle East, will our addiction to war and our insouciance about its consequences finally catch up with us in an American war over Taiwan? Continue reading »
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A plan for Australia worthy of our wartime heroes
In the desperation of WWII, Australia established a department of post-war reconstruction that drove far reaching change in how the country was governed. After the jolt of the pandemic, a similar department could be an engine room of a new type of government. Continue reading »
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In Ukraine, Australia has forgotten the lessons of Iraq, Afghanistan
When a new Labor government was elected in May of this year there was a degree of optimism that their reform agenda would extend to foreign policy. Those hopes were not to be realised. The last Labor government to show a measure of independence in its foreign policy was the Whitlam government that ruled from Continue reading »
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Startling events at the Australian War Memorial
Small but significant metaphorical explosions have reverberated recently around the building that some Australians know as our most sacred site. Continue reading »
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Ukraine: Western missteps lead to something much worse
When even our media of conscience lose interest in the details of emerging East West crises the results can be tragic. Continue reading »
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Queen Elizabeth II: The palace is winning the propaganda war
Queen Elizabeth II is dead and ‘the Palace’ is working assiduously to shore up her legacy and the institution of Monarchy. Polls show they are winning the hearts and minds in a propaganda war, with the mass media complicit in its hyperbolic, adulatory, blanket coverage. Debates about the Monarchy are cancelled, demonstrators in the UK Continue reading »