In Patriotism Reclaimed, Tim Soutphommasane described the ways in which patriotism can come to be expressed in things like the taste of VB, the beach, cricket etc as ‘sentimental mush’. I took that as the starting point for an argument about his book, suggesting that it showed a curiously abstract and disembodied idea of what [...]
The world of politics, policy and public life
Monthly Archives: November 2009
CPRS deal?
November 22, 2009 – 5:03 pm
As of Sunday afternoon, it seems a deal between Penny Wong and Ian Macfarlane, or at least the Government’s best-and-final offer, is within sight, with the Government spelling out a timetable to put the deal to Cabinet and Caucus on Monday before formally offering it to the Coalition after that.
The Government’s willingness to cut a [...]
Simon Birmingham talks sense
November 19, 2009 – 1:52 pm
Simon Birmingham is a South Australian Liberal senator and for mine is one of the smartest brains in the Coalition or, for that matter, the Senate, and the sooner the party leadership makes uses of his talents on the frontbench the better.
Last night he rose to speak on the package of CPRS bills and gave [...]
Misleading Parliament: care factor?
November 17, 2009 – 4:49 pm
Malcolm Turnbull, it seems, just can’t help himself. After Question Time yesterday – immediately after - he called a press conference to accuse the Prime Minister of misleading Parliament over whether the Oceanic Viking deal was “preferential treatment”.
You’d think, after THAT business earlier in the year, that Turnbull, or one of his staff, would have [...]
The Heathrow queue for the Eskimos – and the Australians – is getting longer
November 16, 2009 – 2:41 pm
If memory serves (and Google, on this occasion, does not), Paul Keating once said that it was hard to get sentimental about Australia’s relationship with Britain when you had to queue with the Eskimos at Heathrow while EU citizens sailed straight past you.
Gordon Brown’s recent speech on immigration raises many issues, but so far as Australians are [...]
Copyright © 2008 Private Media Pty Ltd, Publishers of Crikey.com.au. All Rights Reserved.
Independent news, blogs and commentary on politics, media and business.
Editor: Jonathan Green.
Publishers: Eric Beecher, Diana Gribble.
Level 7, 22 William St, Melbourne, 3000. Ph: 1800 985 502 Fax: (03) 8623 9975