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ABC News
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
South Australia's History Festival to reflect on decisions that shaped the state
From a late-night "conversation" with Don Dunstan to a documentary about the country's oldest German settlement and a pub celebrating 175 years, South Australia's History Festival launches today with nearly 600 events. It is a far cry from more than 20 years ago when it first began as History Week. "It proved so popular that after about three years it became the history festival and it was extended to run for the entire month," History Trust of SA chief executive Greg Mackie said. Greg Mackie is looking forward to this year's festival. ( Supplied: History Trust of SA ) He said this year's iteration would be the last he led after finally achieving his goal to establish a festival "hub" at the heritage-listed Ayers House in Adelaide. Called the House of History, Ayers House will have multiple venues and host 26 free evening talks across 13 evenings during May. "Ayers House lends itself perfectly to this," Mr Mackie told "It's in a sort of saloon setting so people can go to the bar, buy themselves a drink, even a cheese platter, come into the ballroom, sit down and continue to partake while the talks are going on." It will also host performances of An Audience with Don Dunstan, which Mr Mackie described as a "thoroughly enjoyable trip down memory lane" about the late former state premier. Ayers House on North Terrace will feature as a festival hub, with a bar and free evening talks. ( Supplied: Ayers House ) "We probably remember most visually Don Dunstan wearing pink shorts on the steps of parliament," he said. "The production is set in a bar in 1996 in Adelaide. "It's the end of the night and Don Dunstan is there on his own and the venue manager, who is also a singer, is tidying up and they strike up a conversation. The late Don Dunstan wore pink shorts in a statement about appropriate dress for our climate. ( Supplied: Flinders University Library Dunstan collection ) "It's a wonderful take on the life of an extraordinarily accomplished and colourful man whose name defined a decade." The festival's theme, Decisions, reflects how they have defined the state's history — for better or worse. "Like life, history is full of decisions," SA's History Advocate, Keira Lindsey, said. "Some lead on to greatness; others to disaster. "Let's reflect upon the good, bad and ugly of past decision-making and make great decisions about our future." Doco to premiere Down the road at The Mercury cinema, a documentary about Australia's oldest surviving German settlement, Hahndorf, will premiere. Made by local tour operator Sharon Pippis, it features descendants of the town's 1839 founding families, interviews, archive material, and SA history enthusiast Keith Conlon. "The folk that came here were Prussians but they had German ethnicity," Ms Pippis said. Keith Conlon and Sharon Pippis will present on Hahndorf's history. ( Supplied ) Entitled Hahndorf: Echoes of the Past, it also discusses the era's British settlers and features the region's original Indigenous inhabitants, the Peramangk people, who named the area Bukartilla, meaning "place of much water". "They all got along very well here, which is a good news story," Ms Pippis said. "As they do their interviews, the story of Hahndorf is woven through the whole thing, so when people come away from the documentary they are going to know a lot about the Prussian Lutherans, the immigrants that came out, and also other people." Other features of this year's festival include the historic front bar of the Sir John Franklin Hotel in Kapunda, which is celebrating its 175th year, and the city's so-called malls balls, which are captured in author Paul Flavel's talk about the history of Rundle Mall's former department store, John Martin's. The Malls Balls feature in the festival in author Paul Flavel's talk on the history of John Martin's. ( Supplied: History Trust of SA ) There are guided tours around the state's modernist architecture and workshops, including on making traditional cheese and butter. There is also a retrospective about the dramatic 2002 state election, presented by former premiers Rob Kerin and Mike Rann with former political journalist and ABC broadcaster David Bevan in the House of Assembly at Parliament House. "That election was a cliffhanger and Mike Rann ended up forming a minority government with the support of an independent, Peter Lewis," Mr Mackie said. "And there is a WEA [Worker's Educational Association] bakery tour of the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley, which, for my money, would be an amazing thing to do. "There's all sorts of things across the state." South Australia's History Festival runs until May 31.
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First Post
30-04-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Canada elections: How Liberals turned the tide and ‘Trumped' the right
Liberals were much able to consolidate their strongholds, meanwhile wooing swing voters under a maverick prime minister; the Conservatives could not generate the mass appeal required to sabotage the greater liberal ecosystem read more One crucial factor in Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo was his decision to delay the assault until midday due to muddy ground from the previous night's rain, which hindered artillery movement. This delay gave the Prussians time to regroup and join forces with the British, allowing his enemies to inflict a crushing defeat on an emperor once shrouded in the myth of invincibility. Elections are not so different from war—while war requires men and weapons, elections rely on cadres and narratives to achieve victory. Both are still a means to achieve political power, and timing reigns supreme in both. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Canada went to the polls on Monday, where the Liberal Party, led by Mark Carney, secured a narrow victory, winning 169 seats—retaining power despite falling short of a majority. The Conservative Party, led by Pierre Poilievre, won 144 seats, even farther from the magic number of '172' in the 343-member House of Commons. The Liberals will form a minority government and will have to rely on other political parties to pass legislation, while Canada appears to be moving towards greater bipolarity. The smaller parties, including the Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party, have suffered significant losses, while the major parties—the Liberals and Conservatives—have increased their seat tally. The New Democratic Party, often criticised for its perceived pro-Khalistani sentiments, was reduced to just 7 seats, a loss of 17 seats compared to before, and lost its official party status. Moreover, its leader Jagmeet Singh lost his Burnaby Central constituency. Meanwhile, the Bloc Québécois won 22 seats, 11 fewer than in the previous count. But yet the most shocking part of the 2024 elections is how fast the conservatives lost ground. Acknowledgedly, the party won 24 more seats than the last count; despite this gain, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre lost his own seat in Carleton, a notable upset given his long tenure in Parliament and the dream of being Canada's prime minister, despite being the most popular contender for the post just a few months before. It cannot be missed that Poilievre lost the seat he held since 2004 in the same elections he was expected to emerge as prime minister. Who knows if he will get this opportunity again in the near future? He will certainly have to face questions on his leadership. In January 2025, when Justin Trudeau announced that he would resign as both the prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party, it appeared that Poilievre was the prime minister in waiting, and elections were just the formality. But just as with wars, elections are not won or lost till the last second. Last year, Poilievre-led Conservatives sustained a 20-point lead over Liberals for months, but that vanished like sand in wind. According to the rolling three-day Nanos poll released just a week before the elections, the Liberals led with 43.7 per cent public support, while the Conservatives trailed with 36.3 per cent. It was March when Liberals appeared to be gaining an edge over the Conservatives, and by the end of April, Liberals ended up just a few seats short of an absolute majority in the House. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Of course, sitting prime minister Mark Carney certainly deserves credit for rescuing the Liberal Party from a potentially crushing defeat. Despite being a relative newcomer to politics, he was much more able to convince the Canadian electorate to put trust in him. The banker oversaw the Liberals overcoming a significant trust deficit, which was caused by rising living costs, which impacted Trudeau's popularity and the Liberal Party's electoral prospects. Carney's ability to connect with Canadians and articulate a vision for the country's future helped secure a remarkable comeback. Carney was the man that brought difference, ensuring a fourth consecutive Liberal victory. Trudeau's sermons on human rights and virtue mongering won't have helped Canadians trust Liberals, but Carney's background in banking and finance and his narrative surrounding liberal nationalism have had a lasting impact on people's minds, which saved the day for his party. Carney's tough stance against the United States' onerous trade policies—and President Donald Trump's provocative suggestion that Canada become the 51st state—had a decisive impact. This may well have been the moment where Poilievre began to lose ground. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Sometimes, nationalism is much more than what we are; it is what we are not. Also, Canada is a post-industrial developed economy, where liberal narratives already hold firm ground; all Carney had to do was to water them well; he did, and he harvested. Poilievre's centre-right ideas might have been alluring against Trudeau's holier-than-thou idealist leanings but were no counter to the balanced and pro-Canada approach that Carney offered. Somehow, Poiliever waited for the 'muddy ground to dry up'; little did he expect what would come afterwards. The way Liberals regained their support within months, there remains no excuse for the callousness of Conservatives. The Carney-led Liberals portrayed Poilievre as a Trump-in-the-making, and the opposition leader failed to do enough to convince the public otherwise. Although Poilievre distanced himself from Donald Trump's stance on Canada during the election campaign, his policies revolved around anti-elitism, inflation, and freedom echoed much like Trump's —an association that likely lingered in the minds of Canadian voters. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Carney's early statement after the electoral victory was: Canada should 'never forget' lessons of US 'betrayal'. The sentence shows what ensured Liberal's comeback. Further, the Conservatives struggled to gain traction in urban areas, which are traditionally strongholds for the Liberals. Even Conservatives' opposition to radical wokeism could not appeal to the masses but ensured counter-support to the Liberals. Liberals were much able to consolidate their strongholds, meanwhile wooing swing voters under a maverick PM; the Conservatives could not generate the mass appeal required to sabotage the greater liberal ecosystem. Conservatives appear to have remained much in their shells. They failed to diversify their support among non-rural, non-white people. Other than these, Conservative apathy towards climate change issues and growing wealth inequalities ruined their appeal for moderate voters. With some publications, perhaps rightly noticing that the party focused more on 'divisive issues' rather than 'inclusive' ones. However, Pierre Poilievre is just 45, though Mark Carney is also only 60; it would be unjust to analogise his defeat to that of Napoleon at Waterloo, but his wait for the muddy ground to dry up appears to have stolen the day for him. He has an uphill task now to regain the trust of his party in his leadership and to rework where he lost ground. Life is a game of second chances; he might surely get one too. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Meanwhile, Carney has a tough task ahead; he has promises to keep and challenges to counter. Trump is very much there in Washington; transatlantic ties are crumbling, and the economic aspirations of the people have to be fulfilled along with other ideological commitments that his party holds. 2025 Canadian elections have a lesson for Poilievre and a chance for Carney. There is no guarantee that Liberals could re-convince the people this fast next time. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
The Guardian
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Stephen Jessel obituary
'Incandescent with rage', was a recurring self-description by Stephen Jessel, the former BBC foreign correspondent, as he encountered the uncooperative in the far corners of the earth and back at Broadcasting House. This was, however, the cover not the book. Stephen tempered his worldview with a warm heart, a self-deprecating sense of humour and a sly way of turning a critical piece on its head. Just as it seemed the new EuroDisney experience in Marne-la-Vallée near Paris, in 1992, was in for a nightmare review – 'humour without wit', he snarled, 'light without shadow, the present without a past, sound without echo', the soi-disant Mr Grumpy hinted in closing that he might be tempted to admit he had rather enjoyed it. Stephen, who has died aged 81, was one of the finest exponents of From Our Own Correspondent, that weekly showcase of five-minute overseas essays on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, in which the correspondent has a chance to breathe, freed from the shackles of attempted impartiality, live broadcasting and 'Who, what, where, when, why?' FOOC best traces his story, from Paris to Beijing to Brussels and back to Paris in the last quarter of the 20th century. He was a master of appearing to tell the listener one thing, but registering another. Thus, in a dispatch about the French 'Yes' to the Maastricht treaty in September 1992, Stephen recalled how exactly 200 years earlier the revolutionary French had defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy, possibly, he said, because of a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Prussian commander – 'It was never quite clear why, at his death, precious stones from the French Crown were found among his effects. Maybe it was an early form of European Monetary Union.' Stephen added: 'That same day … France abolished the monarchy. The monarch himself was abolished later.' In 1995, the BBC removed Stephen from Paris and from the staff, as was the untimely form then. Gillian Reynolds, doyenne of radio critics, writing in the Daily Telegraph, castigated the BBC for getting rid of him 'for being a bit old (ie 50) and too good at his job'. Born in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, Stephen was the son of Robert Jessel, defence correspondent of the Times, and Penelope (nee Blackwell), of the renowned Oxford publisher-bookshop family, a lecturer in social administration at Plater College, Oxford, and active in national Liberal party politics. Stephen attended the Dragon school in Oxford, then Shrewsbury school, and Balliol College, Oxford (1961-65), where he studied classics. He then went to the Times, where he was a general news reporter then education correspondent. It was there that he met Jane Marshall; they married in 1970. He moved to the BBC in Broadcasting House in 1972 as a radio reporter and presenter of Newsdesk and The World Tonight, and was education correspondent during Margaret Thatcher's 1970-74 spell as education minister. Stephen's first foreign posting was to Paris, in 1977, which he made his home from then on, apart from his professional excursions to Beijing (1981-84), to Brussels for three years and then, after a brief spell in Washington, where he pined for Europe, back to Paris in 1997. His professional years were by no means exclusively observations from a metropolitan height. On the Turkey-Iran border among the dispossessed Kurds, in 1991, he was moved by the youthful inspiration and dedication of the French aid workers of Médecins Sans Frontières, spiritually grounded as he saw it in les événements, the youthful political uprising of more than 20 years earlier. In austere but emergent China in 1982 he saw the now prime minister Thatcher stiff-armed by Deng Xiaoping over the expiring Hong Kong lease (it is said that she fell down the steps of the Great Hall of the People immediately after recognising Stephen among the press). In early 1979, after months of door-stepping Ruholla Khomeini of Iran in the Paris suburb of Neauphle-le-Château, he was a passenger on the Air France flight that returned Khomeini to Tehran and the unfolding Iranian revolution. He covered the Olof Palme assassination in 1986, a dramatic break from the Euro-machinations back at base in Brussels. He was in Zaire for the last days of Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, waking up one morning in a car full of hand grenades. In 1981, the China of the post-Mao era was a testing post for Stephen, Jane and their new daughter, Miranda: a world of watchers, spies, servants, residential compounds, little good food and even scarcer burgundy, yet a national, cultural and economic upheaval he relished reporting. After he left, in 1985, swearing never to return, he broke his promise many times, increasingly impressed at each visit: in 2006 he wrote, 'Kunming, capital of Yunnan, had been a sleepy provincial town of wooden shop houses – lights out at 21:00 – now it had become Hong Kong: designer boutiques, neon, teenagers on their mobile phones.' (Characteristically, he left the listener guessing which one he preferred.) Though Paris was his home, a well-lubricated lunch his arena, perhaps after a Tuileries stroll with his hound, and his love and knowledge of the French language profound, Stephen was no besotted Francophile. He viewed France and the French with affectionate suspicion. Describing a battle within the French linguistic establishment, after the Superior Council of the French Language recommended the abolition of the circumflex accent, Stephen wrote: 'It was as if the Athenaeum were being ravaged by a pillow fight.' Stephen loved travel, and he and Jane kept it up, especially to east Asia, until a traffic accident in Turkey in 2013, after which his health deteriorated. He is survived by Jane and Miranda, by his two grandchildren, Eleanor and Franklin, and by his brother David. Stephen Jessel, journalist, born 9 August 1943; died 7 March 2025
