Joseph Poprzeczny

THE concept of ‘gridlock’ was made popular during Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign.We’ll never know which Clinton spin-doctor coined it, but it had a ring of truth, and so helped dislodge George Bush Snr from the White House.

THE 20th century was more intensely ideological than all preceeding centuries, except perhaps those of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation era that gave rise to Christendom’s many dissenting faiths.

Switzerland, which, in the 1890s, many of Australia’s founding fathers admired.Oh, how things have changed.Moreover, before the Great War, Swiss governance practices influenced many leading Labor identities.

INCREASING numbers of State MPs are retiring from Parliament and launching careers as well-paid lobbyists, in the process drawing incomes over and above their handsome six-figure parliamentary pensions.

LAST time Treasurer Eric Ripper became involved with a plan that carried a number of Ps in its initials, PPT – premium property tax – it sparked a bitter campaign by the well-off, forcing him and Premier Geoff Gallop into hasty retreat.

FORMER Perth journalist Cortlan Bennett has won a major international award at a lavish ceremony in the Beverley Hills Hotel in California.

DISCUSSING politics without raising the issue of money is like assessing a wedding but forgetting the ring.The two simply go hand in hand.

THERE’S a bit of navel gazing going on in Labor Party ranks at the moment as the fallout from last year’s federal election loss continues.

WESTERN Australians once only encountered one kind of election promise – that which was made, then honored.Another surfaced some years ago, known as a ‘non-core promise’.