Politics

Political manoeuvres

The right-wing agenda backed by Rupert Murdoch’s media machine in Australia is changing the face of public discourse, writes Geoff Kitney. Australia recently marked the birthday of one of its most extraordinary…


Battling for Australia’s hearts and minds

A referendum will take place next week on whether or not to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders a formal place in their Constitution, more than 200 years after Britain’s ‘First Fleet’…


Brexit: when rhetoric finally faced facts

Trade experts warned from the outset that Boris Johnson was putting his ambition ahead of the reality of Britain’s ability to negotiate deals, writes Geoff Kitney. When Boris Johnson set out to…


Only a mug makes predictions in Scottish politics

Labour exults in Nicola Sturgeon’s departure, likewise the Tories. Labour has moved into second place according to the polls, but is still a distant second, Murray Ritchie writes. It was all very…


Australia stopped the boats but the UK may flounder

The BBC may have reinstated sports pundit Gary Lineker, but the debate on the United Kingdom government’s tough new refugee policy will go on and on, writes Geoff Kitney. In today’s democracies,…


Rishi Sunak’s Tory nightmare   

The United Kingdom is doing its best to show itself coming apart at the seams. Are things really so bad? They could well be, writes Murray Ritchie. Consider: inflation, the frightening cost…


It’s all Brexit’s fault!

With Liz Truss gone, Britain’s chaotic Conservative government is looking for its third prime minister this year and the sixth since Brexit, writes Murray Ritchie. Opposition parties scream for a general election…



New Australian PM promises to end climate wars

Anthony Albanese, Australia’s 31st prime minister, is offering a different kind of politics, starting with inclusion not division, writes Geoff Kitney in Canberra The elephant in the room that Australia’s political leaders…