The early days of the Cameron governmentThe first phase of David Cameron’s conservative UK government began like clockwork but rocky waters weren’t far ahead. Anthony Seldon discusses the early days, including the PM’s inner circle and the initial model of No 10.
April, 2011
Doubts about Oakeshott’s judgment
Independent member for Lyne, Rob Oakeshott, believes The Australian is contributing to a decline in his electoral popularity, but Richard Farmer isn’t convinced.
Australian Book Review Online Edition launches
Australian Book Review is a monthly magazine featuring lengthy, considered book reviews plus poetry and essays. They have launched their Online Edition, which is an enhanced version accessible to subscribers, writes Angela Meyer.
Review: Trav Nash’s Good Grief (MICF)
If every stand-up routine were as wildly verbose as the kind performed by Trav Nash, the craft would either sky rocket in popularity or collapse like a sick dog in a gutter, writes Luke Buckmaster.
Presenting the Cut and Paste trophy
Pure Poison proudly presents the inaugural Cut and Paste Trophy for Erroneous Attribution. Each week somebody in the media will be rewarded for a comment that is wrong headed, offensive, stupid or simply embarrassingly bad, writes Dave Gaukroger.
Regulations to fight the fat
Calorie labeling on menus and menu boards in chain restaurants, retail food establishments, and vending machines are on the way in the United States, reports Richard Farmer.
Airbus A380 closer to Australia-London non-stop capability
An Airbus A380 is on course to evolving into an airliner capable of carrying a commercially attractive multi-class payload non-stop in both directions between Melbourne or Sydney and London, writes Ben Sandilands.
Bolt on trial: Ron Merkel fires up on Friday arvo, slams Bolt and Herald Sun
Former Federal Court Judge Ron Merkel has delivered a swingeing salvo against columnist Andrew Bolt and the Herald Sun this afternoon, linking Bolt again to the eugenics movement and raising the spectre of the popular scribe’s opinion of the Stolen Generations.
travel Markets, mandarins and figuring out the seasons: a (food) tour of Europe
A year travelling around Europe meany months of glorious food experiences on a budget. Jean McBain recalls picking out the freshest eggplant and melon at Italian markets and battling the supermarkets in Britain.
Daily Proposition: A hearty and portable Vietnamese snack
Banh Mi — a simple construction of a baguette, pate, mayonaise, picked carrots, coriander and grilled pork — is a giant of the Vietnamese culinary scene. It’s a hearty and portable snack, says Mike Stuchberry.
podcast A chat with Tony Martin
Tony Martin chats with Matt Smith about A Quiet Word, the legacy of Get This, The Scrivener’s Fancy, Twitter, his upcoming television projects and funny videos of cats on YouTube.
First election simulation for 2011
With the Newspoll quarterly release this week, we now have enough data to aggregate the pollsters together, break the aggregated sample down into state based components and run our first election simulation for 2011, writes Possum Comitatus.
Wankley Awards: Manly men and their testosterone burgers
Health experts have lined up to pillory the KFC Double Down for encouraging irresponsible eating. But it also marks the latest in a string of ads that try to appeal to masculinity.
Media briefs: A story from scraps … readers get Fooled …
In the wake of a tragic school stabbing this week, The Courier Mail continues the fine tradition of journalistic verballing, managing to turn the non-committal remarks of a bureaucrat into a story. Plus, other media news.
Video of the Day: It’s Julian Assange — dancing
Want to see Julian Assange busting some crazy moves on the dance floor? Forbes has leaked a video pertaining to be precisely that. And we have to say, the silver fox party goer has an unconventional yet weirdly alluring dance style.
Crikey Says: Of brickies, socialites and conjunctivitis
Set against an increasingly hostile political environment, this speech opened with a welcome gesture — Gillard sensibly pointed to the “politics of inclusion”.
Morning Market Report: Best quarterly performance for Dow
The Dow Jones closed down 31 overnight and was up 31 at best. The Dow recorded its best quarterly performance since 1998, up 6.4%. Portugal reported a larger budget deficit than expected, raising the odds of a bailout.
Bolt on trial: ‘I cast no aspersions over their Aboriginality’
Andrew Bolt’s defence QC has mounted a torturous argument to show his high-profile client failed to fall foul of the Racial Discrimination Act in the Federal Court this morning.
Political snippets: More Aussies on the internet than ever
The Australian Bureau of Statistics this morning reported that internet subscribers in Australia climbed to 10.4 million in the six months to December 2010. That’s an increase of nearly 10% in the past six months.
Hunt joins the climate denialist cutters and pasters
Another Coalition frontbencher has been caught out relying on dodgy claims off the internet, along with plenty of others.
The rise of the book trailer
Movie trailers have been around for eons but book trailers are a relatively new concept. Authors might not like them but they’re now an essential part of the publishing industry, writes Rye Barcott.
ABC journos told to penny-pinch on travel
ABC foreign correspondents have been effectively confined to their base cities because the budget for travel has run out. The stricture was contained in a message sent out last week from the head of policy for news, Steve Alward.
