expand_moreexpand_lessexpand_moreexpand_less
|
 |
Catriona JacksonBrisbane Times |
Much of our focus this week has been on what happens when democracy, or the leaders we elect, let us down. It is easy to forget when times are good...
On re-election in May 2025, Anthony Albanese pledged to run a “disciplined and orderly” government – hardly ‘the light on the hill’, but it...
On re-election in May 2025, Anthony Albanese pledged to run a “disciplined and orderly” government – hardly ‘the light on the hill’, but it...
I will leave it to others to talk about what Keir Starmer did right and wrong in his two years as UK Prime Minister. But two things struck me as we...
I will leave it to others to talk about what Keir Starmer did right and wrong in his two years as UK Prime Minister. But two things struck me as we...
A little while after Pauline Hanson graduated from Ipswich City Council politics to take the Queensland seat of Oxley, I ran into her in a Canberra...
Fear and panic aren’t just bad in themselves; they often lead to stasis. And that’s bad for more than the obvious set of reasons. Demagogues and...
Sometimes you just have to wait. I’m not a very patient person, but I have learned two things about patience and persistence: the hard, really...
Either a poll is seen as a thin, ‘follow the leader’ set of numbers guiding cynical politicians to destinations they had already identified, or as...
Like many I was revolted by the video of Itamar Ben-Gvir taunting and humiliating courageous international citizens determined to get supplies to...
Two seemingly unconnected things happened this week, one at the Cannes film festival on the French Riviera, the other in the US District Court in...
The obsession with whether governments have broken campaign promises is shrinking political ambition and discouraging the kind of leadership needed to...
Pearls and Irritations is digging deeper into issues and, thanks to new partnerships, bringing you perspectives from leading thinkers both in our...
There were lots of ‘big’ stories this week, in the wider world and in P&I. The assassination attempt at the White House dinner, the...
It has been a week where a number of world ‘leaders’ have exceeded even the lowest of expectations. Clearly the lion in this fight is Donald Trump...
Everybody’s doing it: Albanese, Starmer, and Trump. National addresses on serious matters in troubled times. For his part Trump meandered through 21...
Something is happening in the United States. It’s not just the rise of a tyrannical, anti-democratic, narcissist President. It’s a people’s...
Around our dinner table we volunteer our ‘best bits’ for the day. My eldest daughter started it with her boys, and it has now become an evening...
I have never been cynical about politics. At my 1980s high school, I confused many by having then Prime Minister Bob Hawke plastered across my A4...
I tried very hard to comply with former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s call to boycott The US President’s State of the Union address this past...
I gasped in disbelief when I heard our Prime Minster invoke his beloved mother, when blocking the return of family members of ISIS fighters to...
We’ve had a huge response this week to the news that John is stepping back from daily involvement in running Pearls and Irritations in order to...
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
