Australia

Thursday

Alex Massie

Growing up on Struggle-Street

From our UK edition

Tom Switzer knows much more about Australian politics than I ever will, so I commend his post on Kevin Rudd's downfall to you. (For an alternative take see John McTernan here.) What I would say, mind you, is that it's a bad idea for a Prime Minister to abandon his signature issue simply because the going gets a little bit tough. That's what Rudd did on climate change legislation* however and, frankly, even from a distance of many thousands of miles, one can see why his stock would struggle to recover from that debacle. Anyway, let's talk about journalism and political terminology. Reading the accounts of Australia's latest political shenanigans one can't help but be impressed by the flinty prose used by the Aussie press.

Tom Switzer

Fallen idol

From our UK edition

‘A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.’ Perhaps nothing better describes the extraordinary downfall of Kevin Rudd than American presidential adviser Bernard Baruch’s remarks in 1932. Extraordinary, because for three years from 2006 to late 2009, Australia’s prime minister was in the political stratosphere. And yet, today, Rudd was knifed in the most ruthless, swift and effective fashion. And the hit men? Factional warlords of the Australian union movement.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Mods & Trads: Australian Edition

From our UK edition

An interesting piece from the BBC's Nick Bryant, arguing that Australian conservatives have concluded that Cameron failed to win an overall majority because he was insufficiently clear - that is, right-wing. The Liberal leader Tony Abbott appears determined not to make the same mistake [sic*] and is modifying, that is to say abandoning, some of his predecessors modernising touches as Australia prepares for its election next year. If Abbott wins - though at present the polls suggest the electorate doesn't like Abbott's Liberals or Prime Minister Rudd's Labour party and would, in a burst of Aussie Cleggmania hand the Greens 16% of the vote - then we can expect the usual suspects here to use that as an excuse for relitigating Project Cameron. Perhaps they'll have a point.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Who’s Afraid of a Hung Parliament?

From our UK edition

So it seems you have to vote Conservative to accept the party's invitation to join the government of Great Britain? Who knew? Tory warnings of the dire consequences of a hung parliament are understandable but, I suspect, unfortunate. There is little evidence that the electorate believes that a hung parliament will be a disaster, far less than they can be cajoled into thinking that they're letting Britain down if they don't vote Conservative. And that, my friends, is the underlying message sent by the Tories' blitz against a hung parliament. A hung election might not be ideal but it might also be a fitting end to this exhausted, depressing parliament. But it need not be the disaster the Tories claim. The PDF they released today - and the advert - is thin gruel.

Sunday

Daniel Korski

A welcome return of defence diplomacy

From our UK edition

Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox has given an interview to the Sunday Express, where he talks about overcoming a sense of "colonial guilt" bestowed by revisionist historians and the need for a new government to forge defence links with commonwealth nations, such as Australia and New Zealand, but he also cited India and Saudi Arabia. They have a “strong appetite” for closer defence links with the UK, he argues.   Looking at variable defence relationships with countries like India, and non-NATO partners like Australia makes good sense. Nicolas Sarkozy has done the same – and even invited Indian troops to march down the Champs-Élysées last year on Bastille Day.

Sunday

Mark Bathgate

Bring on the serious economic debate

From our UK edition

Why does Britain fall for financial spin so often? The question goes well beyond the great confidence trick of Gordon Brown's ten years in the Treasury. I'm just back from three weeks in Australia. What’s always struck me in the years I’ve gone there is how different the newspapers/news shows/political debates are. They are well informed about macro-economics, and there is much less of the spin/personality culture of the mainstream media in the UK. Canada is exactly the same. Last week, the Canadian budget was published – a very clear and credible path to getting budget back to balance within three years.

Saturday

Patrick Carnegy

A dream made concrete

From our UK edition

You are celebrated as the architect of one of the most famous buildings in the world, now in your late eighties and living quietly in your home outside Copenhagen. One day a beautiful blonde German girl knocks on your door. She is clutching a folder of her photographs of the extraordinary structure on the other side of the world which, following a dispute in 1965 with a new Australian Government, you have never seen completed. For her, that architectural work was love at first sight. For you, her images are a love letter that confirms the enduring greatness of your conception. It is happiness on both sides, and its fruit the publication of this hauntingly beautiful book. Few modern buildings can have been more photographed than the Opera House on Geelong Point in Sydney Harbour.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Headline of the Day | 14 October 2009

From our UK edition

Courtesy of the Australian AP: PM eats biscuit, Twitters about it Good to know that Kevin Rudd enjoyed his visit to a bakery in South Australia. [Hat-tip: Toby Harnden, via Twitter. Obviously. My Twitter feed is here.

Monday

Alex Massie

The Keats of Cricket

From our UK edition

1st May 1930: Australian opening batsmen Bill Woodfull (1897 - 1965, left) and Archie Jackson (1909 - 1933) going out to bat against Worcester at Worcester. Photo: E. F. Corcoran/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images. The other day Patrick Kidd wrote a nice post on cricket and the outbreak of the Second World War, but, speaking of cricketing heartbreak, Saturday was the 100th anniversary of Archie Jackson's birth. Poor Jackson. We'll never know what might have been and, of course, it's that sense of if that lends his story its power. It's not quite right to say that Jackson's premature death was a tragedy since the rules of tragedy demand that the protagonist earns his downfall; Jackson, struck down by tuberculosis and dead at 23, was an innocent victim, dealt a rotten hand by fate.

Saturday

James Campbell

Blair the chameleon?

From our UK edition

A new book on John Howard's government, by the veteran Australian politcal journalist Paul Kelly, has a nice account of the Australian PM's first encounter with Tony Blair: "At one point John Howard, trying to be clever, asked Tony Blair: 'What are you going to do with the Thatcher legacy?' Blair paused, he sat up straight, extended his arms and broke into a huge grin. 'I'm going to take the lot,[ he chortled. Blair laughed but Howard seemed stunned. It wasn't the answer he expected. On his return to the hotel Howard was fuming. 'That man's a bloody chameleon. He doesn't stand for anything,' Howard declared.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Ricky Ponting Deserves Our Cheers, Not Moronic Boos

From our UK edition

Ricky Ponting batting at Edgbaston last week. Photo: Tom Shaw/Getty Images. Three - yes, a whole three -  cheers for Dominic Lawson's article in the Independent today. He is right: booing Ricky Ponting is disgraceful. There may be a cartoonish element to it all and perhaps the Barmy Army will signal this by cheering the Australian skipper to the echo at the Oval when, we assume, he plays his final test innnings in England, but that's still not quite good enough. For the time being, too many England cricket fans - not to be confused with supporters of English cricket - seem to have decided that Ponting is some kind of villain.

Saturday

Alex Massie

What’s the Best Sports City in the World?

From our UK edition

That's the question Dan Drezner asks, riffing on this frankly dubious Toronto Star survey of North American cities. The Star bases its criteria upon winning percentage which is a rum, if typically North American, way of looking at these matters, and comes up with the rather surprising verdict that Indianapolis is the best sports city in North America. Make of that what you may. It wouldn't be enough for me. Anyway, Dan wonders how to take this "global" factoring in all those non-American sports and coming up with a candidate for the title of "Greatest Sporting City in the World". I suspect readers will have their own views on this but, despite the many and obvious claims London might have on this bauble, I think the palm might have to go to...

Thursday

Alex Massie

Australian Summary

From our UK edition

Having come-off second-best in our West Indies game, I'm duty bound to suggest (gently) that I've had the better of Norm in the Australian leg of the series. In large part, of course, this reflects the luxury of being able to select Don Bradman with the first pick, just as Norm benefitted from choosing Gary Sobers first last time. In each case the player picking first has been able to acquire two players for the price of one. That's quite an advantage. Having Bradman in my side permitted me to pick Keith Miller second, to provide balance, and my two favourite Aussie fast bowlers with my third and fourth selections. After that, the bonus was remembering that Bill O'Reilly was eligible for selection, thanks to a solitary test in 1946.

Monday

Alex Massie

Department of Wildlife

From our UK edition

SM, a friend from college days, draws my attention to this gem: Australia's top treasury official is taking five weeks leave to look after endangered wombats. Ken Henry, treasury secretary and animal conservationist, has warned that hairy-nosed wombats are "on death row". But opposition politicians - and even wombat lovers - question if now is the time to be thinking about wombats. Inflation is at a 16-year high, interest rates are up and fuel prices are rising. Mr Henry will also miss a central bank meeting. Mr Henry will be looking after 115 hairy-nosed wombats in an isolated spot in northern Queensland, with no mobile phone coverage and two-and-a-half hours on a rough track from the nearest town.

Monday

Alex Massie

First they take Canberra, then they take…?

From our UK edition

Melanie Philips, I'm afraid, continues to show signs of becoming Britain's answer to David Horowitz. Her latest salvo culminates in this absurdity: Annapolis is America’s Munich — and Israel is the new Czechoslovakia. Previously Philips, unsurprisingly, lamented John Howard's defeat in Australia. For myself, I rather think that 12 years in office is long enough and, absent an entirely hapless opposition, it's important to turf incumbents out of office, regardless of which party they happen to be. (It is not a good sign for Gordon Brown that Labour will have been in power for 13 years when the next election is held). Still, none of that matters.