David Cameron’s socialism by some other name
Whither Keynes? For the past six to twelve months, the big philosophical imponderable doing the rounds in British political life has been the extent to which the government should intervene in the market in order to stimulate the national economy. [...]
London burning IV: Tory authoritarianism triumphant
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech to the House of Commons in the aftermath of the English riots set the tone for a bizarre crackdown: Responsibility for crime always lies with the criminal. But crime has a context. And we [...]
David Cameron hearts archaic voting systems
Over here in the United Kingdom, the creaking FPTP (First-Past-The-Post) system of voting still operates; voters in general elections are forced to nominate only their most-preferred candidate, a solitary smudge in a box. It’s easy to see how such a [...]
The bullet we dodged – just
The size of the recently-announced spending cuts by the UK government is just flabbergasting. The Guardian’s summary lists all manner of huge cuts – not least, that the public sector workforce is expected to shrink by 490,000 over the next [...]
Democratise or die: the future of the ALP
One of the ironies of the British election, as I noted at the time, was that a campaign and a result which seemed to portend an end to politics as usual brought forth a reactionary result – the coalescence of [...]
Education, elitism and meritocracy
The Economist speculated this week that the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government in the UK might come to be seen as “government by the southern rich for the southern rich”. Skepticlawyer has an interesting post at her eponymous blog, riffing off [...]
David Cameron's Broken Britain
I have an article at the ABC’s The Drum today about the British election and its aftermath, focusing on how much change the eventual deal implies. NB: Previous LP British election coverage here. Update: Interesting piece from Seumas Milne.
Tory-Lib Dem coalition in UK
As ABC news reports, David Cameron as PM, Nick Clegg as deputy PM. Guardian live blog with the latest. It’s the middle of the night, London time, so we’ll probably have to wait for their morning for a lot more [...]
Lib Dems to decide: Labour or Tories? #ukvote #ge210 #dontdoitnick
The Guardian is reporting that Nick Clegg will announce within 24 hours whether the Liberal Democrats will go into Coalition with the Conservatives or support a minority Tory administration or join a “Progressive Alliance” comprising Labour, the SNP, Plaid Cymru [...]
King Lear becomes a kingmaker, Hockey's treachery, and delay is the new denial
By Mark Bahnisch on November 30, 2009
It’s probably time to take stock again of the Liberal leadership spill shenanigans. John Howard has obviously been having a word in a few journos’ ears. Tony Wright penned this piece for The Age yesterday, portraying the Ghost of Wollstonecraft [...]
Posted in Media, Politics, Polls | Tagged bernard keane, Climate change, climate change denialism, commentariat, Conservative Party, cprs, David Cameron, delay, ets, GST, Joe Hockey, John Howard, liberal leadership, Liberal leadership spill, Liberal Party, Malcolm Turnbull, Nielsen Poll, Paul Keating, Polls, possum, press gallery, Rudd government, spill, Tony Wright, Tories, twitter, WorkChoices | 29 Responses