Charles Richardson
Psephologist and writer
Charles Richardson has contributed to Crikey since 2002, and was a ministerial adviser in the Kennett government and a former editorial manager at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney.
The recent Germany elections have provided a few lessons that Australia could learn. For example, a coalition should be a post-election decision, not a permanent state of affairs.
It's hard to imagine it at first, but last weekend's carnage in Rio de Janeiro may actually have one positive result. It may give the world a deadline for coming to our senses about drug prohibition.
Maybe Australia's propensity to beat up on small numbers of helpless refugees has nothing to do with the refugees themselves, but is simply the result of any more significant target for nationalist anger.
Despite his progressive positions in many areas, David Cameron is bidding to become the most identifiably upper-class Prime Minister for more than 40 years.
Silvio Berlusconi is not Italy's head of state -- just its head of government. If the country's minister is a crook, the courts need to be given the opportunity to say so.
The big political story in Europe is the release of the European Union report on last year's war between Russia and Georgia. Both sides claim a degree of vindication from it.
The results of the German election indicate Germans are dissatisfied with what they have been offered for so long, and in their calm, orderly way, are saying they would like to try something a bit different.
The tone from Washington has changed this year: there is a note of urgency and real rather than manufactured impatience with Israeli policy, notably on the West Bank settlements.
Germany votes on Sunday, with Christian Democrat chancellor Angela Merkel an unbackable favourite to be returned. But will the liberals distance themselves from the parties of the traditional left?
The fate of Norway's government is likely not a matter of importance unless you happen to be Norwegian. But what the election revealed about the state of its Opposition is of much more general interest.
