Peter A Clarke

The Age has a full page interview in today’s Age and an exclusive splash in the Herald Sun.  It is a clever enough piece in that it skirts sub judice restrictions.  Theophanous is now hinting at police impropriety (not illegality) and bias (again not illegal).  The reported comments in the Age on Friday was far more strident.   Today’s story seems to serve to smooth the sharp edges to Theophanous’ character.  That he makes admissions about not being a saint and hints about what might be discovered in his texts suggests that might pose a problem for him.

All of this is disturbing.  Read the rest of this entry »

I love the Lexington section in the Economist.  A vehicle for analysis of a person or topic not on the immediate news horizon but clearly relevant.  It is at its most useful when acting as a mini biography of an important but not reported upon personage.  Sometimes it analyses some aspect of the political landscape, often the state of the parties, their operatives or the electorate.  Usually first rate stuff .

The latest offering, Law v common sense, is just plain awful.  The same old trite lines about litigation ruining everything and causing gridlock.  The thread of the story is a series of  admittedly scandalous examples of appalling abuses of civil litigation process. The article does have a point in commenting on the exponential growth of the number and size of statutes and regulations.

What the article (but not the associated comments on the web) forgets is: Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the 59th anniversary of George Orwell’s (Erice Blair) death. He has always been my hero. That said he was hardly the pure sanctified oracle which is current view of him. It took a scarifing experience in the Spanish Civil War for him to develop his famous skeptisism of totalitarianism, humbuggery and intellectual sloth. Like Abraham Lincoln he has been turned into something a secular saint. That is a pity. Lincoln’s political path Read the rest of this entry »

Even with the sub judice rule applying the Theophanus case throws up some interesting stories in the press.  The Age reports in Secret search of Theophanous’ office that the police secretly searched Theophanus’ office.  The opening paragraphs set the scene and highlight the issue: Read the rest of this entry »