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Keywords: Britain

  • AUSTRALIA

    Uncle George’s war

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 21 June 2024

    Most soldiers don’t like to talk about what they’ve been through, the things they’ve had to see; the things they’ve had to do. Uncle George was more willing to talk as he got older and more willing to be coaxed by a crowd of adoring nieces. But there were some things he'd never say. And the war never went away from him.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Commemorate or forget: Do we care enough about D-Day?

    • Geraldine Doogue
    • 18 June 2024

    I wonder how many Australians were captivated, as was I, by the 80th anniversary D-Day celebrations? They seemed epochal to me: a reminder of something remarkable and a pointer to something possible, namely new resolve to maintain peace in Europe. Not too many Australians, as it turned out, were similarly mesmerised. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    On putting things together

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 31 January 2024
    4 Comments

    What links the debate about the conduct of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the detention of children in a crowded and under-resourced Cairns watch house, and British legislation to send asylum seekers to Rwanda?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    That other coronation

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 01 May 2023
    5 Comments

    As the UK prepares for the coronation of King Charles, ideas about national pride and loyalty to the crown have been revolutionised since Queen Elizabeth's coronation, as attitudes towards the British monarchy continue to  change both at home and abroad. 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Ride horses no more

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 30 March 2023
    4 Comments

    The decision by Australia to buy nuclear submarines from the United States and Great Britain inevitably prioritize security over justice, equality, and fraternity. As the world faces the threat of catastrophic global warming, it is time to ask whether submarines are the answer, or whether they distract us from the far greater challenge posed by nature itself.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Sadness and forgetting: Queen Elizabeth II, monarchy and empire

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 20 September 2022
    7 Comments

    When more nuanced commentary around the passing of Queen Elizabeth II came to the fore, it was hard to avoid the difficult realities of the British monarchy and an institution that has not, through its history, delighted those conquered in its name. With Elizabeth II, it was notable that she let an opportunity to engage the topic of empire in Britain’s collective memory go begging.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Good news from Greece

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 15 April 2020
    17 Comments

    In these troubled times of COVID-19, most news bulletins concentrate on the daunting figures from Italy, Spain, Britain and the USA. Little countries don’t get much of a mention. Greece is a little country.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Language and prejudice

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 22 March 2020
    15 Comments

    I have been bemused to read the result of a recent poll taken in Britain. It suggests that 26 per cent of people feel ‘uncomfortable’ when hearing foreign languages spoken. Me, I feel envious, simply wishing that I was more of a linguist.

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  • RELIGION

    Athletes model anarchic cooperation

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 19 August 2019
    6 Comments

    The story illustrates the way in which sport, like so many other areas of life, has allowed itself to be defined as a business whose sole reason for existence is to make people compete against others. To refuse to compete, even if an athlete falls in front of you, is anti-competitive behaviour that must be penalised.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Boris, Brexit and taking it up to political bull

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 03 June 2019
    2 Comments

    An enduring memory of the 2016 Brexit campaign was the claim by pro-leavers that the EU was extracting some £350 million a week. The claim, ignoring EU subsidies, returns and contributions to Britain, was so outrageously proud and inaccurate, it stuck. Which leads us to a novel citizen's experiment on the issue of lying in politics.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The evils of the weapons industry

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 04 August 2017
    14 Comments

    Defence Minister Christopher Pyne recently called for an expansion of the Australian weapons industry. It would enable Australia to join the United States and Britain as a major exporter of weapons and further Australia’s strategic goals. The move has a logic: if you want weapons it is cheaper to make them than buy them; if you make them it is more profitable to sell them to others than to keep them all for yourself; if you sell them it is best to sell them to your friends.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Theresa May's disingenuous Saudi stance

    • Daniel Read
    • 12 December 2016
    7 Comments

    The British Prime Minister is many things. Depending on which side of the political spectrum you're on, she's either a trailblazing female politician set on reclaiming Britain's independent role in Europe, or just another callous, career orientated Conservative ill-suited to the challenges at hand. One quality she does appear to possess, however, is a degree of honesty, particularly when it comes to Britain's controversial take on human rights and foreign trade. Or does she?

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