Understanding the political crisis in Britain
The British political establishment is in its biggest crisis for more than a century. The country that has for many decades been a lynchpin of Western political stability, a pillar of Western imperialism, is now the source of instability that threatens to precipitate a broader political cr...CONTINUE READING
Australia’s poverty disgrace
Two reports published in October make clear the widening gulf between rich and poor: luxury at the one end, barely getting by at the other. Investment bank Credit Suisse’s latest global wealth report revealed that there are nearly 3,000 super rich in Australia – those with wealth of more t...CONTINUE READING
Endless cruelty to refugees must stop
The Morrison government has indicated that it will transfer all refugee children and their families detained on Nauru to Australia for medical treatment by Christmas. But don’t start celebrating. While the announcement by George Brandis, Australia’s ambassador to the UK, was welcomed by ma...CONTINUE READING
John McCain was a warmonger
Out they rolled, one after the other, gushing obituaries for John McCain, six-term US senator for Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who died from cancer on 25 August. Former president George W. Bush described McCain as “a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the...CONTINUE READING
Turnbull, Morrison and the crisis in the Liberal Party
The right wing insurgency in the Liberal Party brought down Malcolm Turnbull. But it has failed to elevate its number one candidate, former home affairs minister Peter Dutton, to the prime minister’s office. The 45-40 party room vote to elect former treasurer Scott Morrison has, for now, q...CONTINUE READING
Peter Dutton, right wing horror show
Malcolm Turnbull may have won the vote in the party room, but he’s finished. He has lost all authority among his colleagues. It is now only a matter of time before a fresh party room meeting votes to remove him. Peter Dutton is in the box seat to become prime minister. This prospect is jus...CONTINUE READING
Government priorities, not immigrants, are to blame for city congestion
The announcement on 7 August that Australia’s population has hit 25 million was greeted in many quarters with a loud wailing and gnashing of teeth. There are, we are told, too many immigrants. The obsession with immigration has long been the calling card of hard-core racists, who never saw...CONTINUE READING
Banks ripping off everyone
Australia’s big financial institutions are a money-gouging oligopoly enriching senior management, board directors and shareholders while bleeding customers dry. A new report from the Productivity Commission, submitted to the government in June but only now released to the public, spells ou...CONTINUE READING
Turnbull government comes a cropper on Super Saturday
Malcolm Turnbull has boasted for months about his government’s success in pushing through a right wing economic agenda, shovelling money into the hands of the well-off at the expense of the working class. Big tax cuts for big business were to be the next cab off the rank. The media have be...CONTINUE READING