May 2016 Volume LX No 5, No. 525
Peter Ryan’s Gratitude and Decency
The Sins of the Compassionate
Idle Hands and the Devil’s Amusements
Populism Rising
The Revolt of the Outsiders
The Politics of the Abbott Government
Contents
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Peter Ryan and Papua New Guinea SIR: I’m grateful for […]
May 1, 2016
5 mins
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If David Cameron really is an ideological soul-mate of Malcolm Turnbull, he also serves as a warning about the consequences eroded political authority -- a decline attributable in large part to the consequences of striking socially liberal poses without regard to cost
May 7, 2016
8 mins
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Having spent so much of my professional life in the presence of criminals, I continue to find the whole subject of deliberate wrongdoing endlessly fascinating, perhaps because there is no complete answer to it. Man is born a sinner, and sometimes a rotter too. And that is that
May 19, 2016
8 mins
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Everything is up for grabs. No one can predict the outcome of the Republicans’ unplanned and uncontrolled stab at an on-the-run renaissance. Whatever happens, it is almost certain to affect Republicans and the American centre-Right for a generation
May 25, 2016
31 mins
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The populism that inflicted Clive Palmer on Canberra and has now secured Donald Trump's presidential nomination is not driven by cheap bigotries, as those it targets would have us believe. Rather, it is a clash between a dominant, insular elite and everyone else
June 8, 2016
9 mins
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No change of leadership happens overnight, as political parties don’t […]
May 1, 2016
15 mins
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In both the House and the Senate I shall be putting a Turnbull-led Liberal Party last. My vote, of course, is but one of millions. The real issue will be how many other Liberal voters will feel equally outraged when they enter the voting booths?
May 1, 2016
16 mins
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Aristotle tells us that tragedians value probable impossibilities over improbable possibilities. It is possible Mexico, China, Iran and all others Donald Trump proposes to bend to his will will acquiesce in his ambition to “make America great again”. But let us acknowledge it is supremely improbable
May 7, 2016
13 mins
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Close to 10,000 have been killed in Ireland in the last century because of political violence, tens of thousands have been injured and many more bereaved or traumatised. Irish nationalists still honour their “patriot dead”, but the legacy is no longer sacrosanct. The country is growing up
June 25, 2016
9 mins
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According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, 15 per cent of […]
May 1, 2016
23 mins
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You might hope the protection of the vulnerable and victimised would be as natural as breathing and that schools inculcate it as a civic duty. But as is the way with the relentless, tax-payer funded Left, its operatives have wormed deep into the teachers's apple
June 9, 2016
9 mins
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You don’t touch a man’s wallet, you don’t touch his […]
May 1, 2016
13 mins
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More than any other comparable democracy in the English-speaking world, […]
May 1, 2016
8 mins
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Judges are expected to be impartial and objective, accustomed to applying known law to established facts. Yet former High Court judge Michael Kirby writes that "unelected lawmakers", by which he means fellow members of the judicial class, must "perform their creative duties”
June 13, 2016
25 mins
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Any person who attains the office of Prime Minister of […]
May 1, 2016
18 mins
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Edmund Campion and John Henry Newman can stake a large […]
May 1, 2016
25 mins
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The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers […]
May 1, 2016
9 mins
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Scientific study of ethnic origins has only been possible in recent decades, thanks to carbon dating of archaeological finds and, more recently, computer analysis of language change and DNA scans. The emerging picture, as a new book asserts, will unsettle many ethno-romantics
May 21, 2016
7 mins
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The Truth is Longer than a Lie by Kieran Carroll […]
May 1, 2016
6 mins
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His Own Executioner: The Life of Nigel Balchin by Derek […]
May 1, 2016
10 mins
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Frank Lloyd Wright by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer Taschen, 2015, 504 […]
May 1, 2016
12 mins
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There are two European paintings of the first rank in […]
May 1, 2016
31 mins
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Comédie française: Ça a débuté comme ça… by Fabrice Luchini […]
May 1, 2016
11 mins
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The first collections of stories were written up from the television scripts. Later, Mortimer wrote the stories first. Later still, after the death of Leo McKern in 2002, he wrote stories which were never broadcast on television. He knew by then that McKern was irreplaceable
June 11, 2016
11 mins
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Lafcadio Hearn is a writer unusually hard to classify, certainly […]
May 1, 2016
11 mins
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22/11/09 Full presence Today, Anne’s friend Jan came into the […]
May 1, 2016
14 mins
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I first heard about King Hu’s A Touch of Zen […]
May 1, 2016
13 mins
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The Walker The death stare of the cypress floor— […]
May 1, 2016
1 mins
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Yeoval 16-K (for Brab) Three shorts and one long, […]
May 1, 2016
3 mins
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The Choosing Men in overalls on ladders balance brushes […]
May 1, 2016
2 mins
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Snow Families drove across state borders so that children […]
May 1, 2016
1 mins
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Rhyming Saskatchewan In Canada, a fashion show, An urban […]
May 1, 2016
2 mins
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Booragoon Lake (With thanks to Ian Argyle) […]
May 1, 2016
1 mins
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Small Town Affairs When he started dating his brother’s […]
May 1, 2016
2 mins
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Pokie Poem Four in the morning, liver hour break, […]
May 1, 2016
1 mins
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I could have been born in a taxi speeding […]
May 1, 2016
1 mins
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Mountain Books Unwise in retrospect, our short cut from […]
May 1, 2016
2 mins
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Café Senryu i Upmarket café— looks like I’m the […]
May 1, 2016
1 mins