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 [...]
Tipping points, politics, NotW and the longer view
As the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks prepare to appear before the House of Commons, we may have reached a tipping point where the noise machine’s days are numbered.
Tony Blair: a “tinkling symbol”
I don’t know if anyone else remembers Tony Blair intoning verses from 1 Corinthians at Princess Diana’s funeral. I watched it. I wondered at the time if there was something in the nature of Englishness that made it seem apt [...]
The Left, the independents and “new politics”
There was an interesting micro-debate on Twitter the other night between me, Tad Tietze and Jason Wilson, riffing off Dr_Tad’s scepticism about the “independents are our saviours” meme. That’s expanded on at much greater length at Left Flank. I’d thoroughly [...]
Rundle’s riposte to Keane on citizen apathy
Last week, I published a piece at The Drum refuting Bernard Keane’s claim that the current state of our politics is somehow primarily our fault as citizens. Yesterday, in Crikey, Guy Rundle also responded: Here we come back to Bernard [...]
Julia Gillard, presidential governance and the future of progressive politics
Tigtog has written an interesting and thoughtful post at Hoyden About Town, reflecting on a number of aspects of the way Julia Gillard’s rise to power, and her performance in her short time as PM, has been discussed. Of particular [...]
The Labor leadership legitimacy post we had to have
There is no doubt that the removal last week of a first term Prime Minister, elected through a largely personal campaign (and I defy anyone to assert that the Kevin07 branding paled into insignificance beside Labor’s party image), caused some [...]
Black Saturday: What are state governments good for?
The latest controversy to emerge from the inquiry into the Victorian bushfires revolves around Christine Nixon going off for dinner in the middle of the conflagration. The usual partisan football stuff, you might think. Guy Rundle disagrees. In a powerful [...]
The politics of risk and uncertainty in an election year
Writing in Crikey yesterday, Guy Rundle described the Greek imbroglio as the second wave of the Global Financial Crisis: So let’s try and make it as clear as possible — the second wave of the 2008 GFC has begun, and [...]
On Movember, Tim Soutphommasane and civics
A while back I wrote – in rather skeptical vein – about Tim Soutphommasane’s claim that progressives should be reclaiming patriotism. Guy Rundle has now reviewed Soutphommasane’s book, Reclaiming Patriotism: nation building for Australian progressives, for Crikey (of which more [...]
Links post: Why the Labor leadership change shows our political system is broken
By Mark Bahnisch on June 26, 2010
In my article in The Drum on Kevin Rudd’s political execution, I wrote: … we must now ask ourselves whether politics as usual allows any leader to wrestle with the great moral challenges of our time. Because those challenges are [...]
Posted in Blogging, Culture, Media, Politics, Sociology | Tagged abc, collapse, commentariat, Crikey, crises, David Marr, Guy Rundle, Jeff Sparrow, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Labor leadership, legitimacy, Media, Policy, political class, Quarterly Essay, Sociology, the drum, twiter | 50 Responses