August 14, 2010 – 9:24 pm
David Cameron claimed on Tuesday that he and his wife Samantha are members of ‘the sharp-elbowed middle classes’. This statement was at the same time an attempt to proclaim his ordinariness and a dig at middle-class values. The Prime Minister was in effect saying that he is much like everyone else while deprecating those whom [...]
‘Why,’ asked a Labour friend of mine this week, ‘is Britain still run by people from Oxford and Cambridge? When is it going to stop?’ Her despair was as much about her own party as mine, as well as pretty much every other political grouping in the United Kingdom. David Cameron, check. Nick Clegg, check. Tony [...]
You remember the school yard taunt, don’t you? “Finders keepers, losers weepers!” Well, I think it’s my duty as a sometime teacher of Property Law to warn the public that it’s not quite accurate. This came to my mind because of a story I read in the Herald Sun today: A couple will be charged [...]
Mercurius at Larvatus Prodeo has a post about Tony Abbott’s triathlon attempt in which he criticises Abbott as an “overachiever”: Then there’s the overachievers. The people who are compensating for something. The people trying to fill the existential emptiness and smother those feelings of inferiority with accolades, approval and applause. Mercurius isn’t alone in criticising [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in England, Motherhood, Popular culture
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Tagged Australian culture, Australian diaspora, Australian education, Australian politics, bob hawke, Education, Larvatus Prodeo, overachieving, Tony Abbott
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February 27, 2010 – 2:37 pm
I think I’ve said before that I was raised by scientists. When possible, I try to explain things scientifically to my children. Obviously there’s a limit to their understanding at this point, but when they were scared of thunder and lightning recently, I told my daughter it wasn’t monsters (as she feared) but electricity in [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Children, Religion, Science, Skeptics, Society
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Tagged Australian education, creationism, faith, indigenous issues, Karl Popper, Religion, Science, science education
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January 21, 2010 – 8:36 pm
Via a friend, I came across this interesting piece on political correctness on US university campuses. The author starts out with a salutary tale: In 2007 a student working his way through college was found guilty of racial harassment for reading a book in public. Some of his co-workers had been offended by the book’s [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Academia, Australian internet filter, Free Speech, Human/Civil rights, Literature, Personal liberty, Politics, Society
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Tagged Free Speech, manners, political correctness, regulation, respect agenda, respect ambassadors, universities
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December 21, 2009 – 6:11 am
I’ve just read The Pin Striped Prison by Lisa Pryor (2008, Picador, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney). Pryor was a law student who now works as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald. Pryor is exploring a number of questions: what drives young people to want to become lawyers? Why do many lawyers decide it is [...]
August 15, 2009 – 2:53 am
Shadow Commons leader Alan Duncan has apologised “unreservedly” after he was secretly filmed complaining about MPs’ pay and expenses. The Tory MP was heard to say MPs were being treated badly after the expenses scandal and “have to live on rations”. Mr Duncan said the remarks, made to film maker Heydon Prowse of Don’t Panic [...]
David Cameron has called for a wider crackdown on MP’s allowances as he and Gordon Brown clashed on the issue at prime minister’s questions… The exchanges came after days of damaging allegations over MPs expenses. A growing number of MPs from all parties have agreed to pay back thousands of pounds claimed in expenses after [...]
The other day, I was talking with a kinder Dad who is a fellow lawyer. My daughter piped up, “Mummy is a Big Lawyer and I will be a Little Lawyer when I grow up.” The Dad and I exchanged looks, as I ruefully grimaced. “I’d really rather she didn’t become a lawyer,” I confessed. [...]
