WE COULD all give a sigh of relief. Now we know Benjamin James Forbes is guilty of sexual assault. [click to continue…]
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An open letter to the new British Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg.
DEAR Mr Clegg (or may I call you Nick, given that you were in primary school when the Liberal Democrats last held the balance of power and I was starting a career in journalism after doing politics, statistics and law at university).
Do not fall into the Tory trap of having a referendum on the electoral system. [click to continue…]
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EVERY year at Budget time, the ACT Government tinkers about a bit. Some money goes here and some is taken from there. It is an accounting exercise and a political exercise and all too often the big picture gets lost. [click to continue…]
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A LITTLE under 28 years ago, I copped a heavy dose of flu – real flu, not just a bad cold. Bone aches, fever, headache as well as the usual nasal congestion. I have not had another dose until earlier this week. I know it was 28 years ago because I looked up an article I wrote after crawling out of my bed. It was headed: Imagine having the flu all of your life. [click to continue…]
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(Occasional series of scanned pre-1992 articles. This was first published 18 August 1982.)
A VERY nasty flu is sweeping Canberra.
Well, it really is three flus. One causes acute pain and discomfort in the gastric area, the second causes aches in the bones, and the third appears to be the tradi¬tional head and chest variety. Some sufferers had all three. [click to continue…]
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THE one time that blindly following US demands might have saved us from folly, rather than lead us into it, we snubbed them. We were suckers for Vietnam, Gulf Wars, Middle East policies which make us targets and a ludicrously one-sided trade deal. Yet, when the US suggests that compulsory filtering of the internet is a dumb idea because it is impracticable, by-passable and gives succour to the totalitarian Chinese regime, we press on regardless. [click to continue…]
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THE result of last month’s election in Tasmania has resulted in a predictable tirade against Tasmania’s (and the ACT’s) Hare-Clark voting system and calls for a single-member, first-past-the-post system. [click to continue…]
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(Occasional series of scanned pre-1992 articles. This was first published 1 September 1985.)
IN MY PARENTS’ house in Beechworth were two very comfortable lounge chairs. They stood — in so far as chairs stand — next to the open-hearth Fire. The rest of the lounge and dining-room were filled with cold wooden chairs. [click to continue…]
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MY Aunt Audrey died more than six years ago and left an unusual will which I only found about this week. [click to continue…]
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EXPECT a fair amount of hand-wringing when the ACT’s road statistics come out at the end of the year. Most likely they will show a large percentage increase because of the crash which killed four people last month. [click to continue…]
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