Welcome to 2014!
And we welcome you to your next ‘open thread’, which will run until the 2nd February, when our conversation starters, and Casablanca’s Cache, will return.
It seems to be traditional at this time of the year to reflect on what has been, and to look forward to what is to happen.
To be fair, 2013 wasn’t the greatest of years.
They say the only constant is change. We leave 2013 with our third Prime Minister for the year and the election of a Federal Government of a different political persuasion to the one we started with. After the event, it seems that the newly elected Government’s politicians proposed to honour their promises more in the breach than the observance. If Parliament House had a ‘service desk’, it would be doing a roaring trade in exchanging votes this holiday season – if the polls can be believed.
Around the world, Barack Obama commenced his second term in January 2013 before walking into a ‘Government shutdown’ over Obamacare. Late in the year the world lost Nelson Mandela – one of the greatest identities of our era. (As an aside, Mandela was still on the US Government’s ‘terrorism watch list’ in 2008 and had to apply for special permission to enter the USA – yet US Presidents of the era still attended his funeral.)
The media landscape also changed in Australia during the year with the commencement of an Australian version of
The Guardian. According to
an online question and answer session with its editor during November, they are ahead of their expectations of success.
The Daily Mail will join them by launching an Australian website in 2014. Various News and Fairfax publications erected paywalls during 2013 and seemingly aren’t commenting on the success of the ventures. NewsCorp is still ‘out to get’ the ABC – especially since the ABC and
The Guardian teamed up to break the recent story regarding Australia spying on our neighbours.
The Political Sword is also constantly changing. You’ll find details of the level of change that occurred on this site during 2013 in
the previous post. So far the response to the changes has been overwhelmingly positive, and the
TPS Team are extremely grateful for your continuing support.
If you would like to
write a piece in 2014 as a conversation starter for
TPS, we’d love to hear from you.
TPS is always looking for new voices, whether you’ve ever written a blog post before, or not. Send us an outline, or a rough draft, or a complete piece: we will be happy to work with you to bring your ideas to fruition.
The
TPS Team is also looking for some more regular readers and/or commenters to join the team that now ‘manages’
TPS. Many hands make light work for all of us – and most of the present 2013 team have ‘day jobs’.
As you’re probably aware, all pieces submitted to
TPS are reviewed. One way to join the
TPS Team, but take on an easy task that doesn’t take a lot of time, and that doesn’t have to happen often, is
to offer to review – that is, become a
TPS reviewer. Reviewing is a bit like getting to comment, but before we actually publish a piece. (Needless to say, your comments ‘below the line’ are always welcome!)
We are also looking for one or two additional people who might have had
editing experience and who might have time to edit a piece for
TPS every now and again.
If you have any interest in writing for
TPS or helping out as a reviewer or editor,
do email us.
As we are in the middle of a period where cricket, surf reports and families seem to be more important than politics, rather than analyse what politicians said versus what they did – the
TPS Team is interested in how you see 2014 panning out.
Will you have a great New Year’s resolution story (giving up smoking, catching the bus to work, travelling Australia)?
Do you think it will be a better year for the world, country or you personally?
Do you think Australian politicians will develop an understanding of the common meaning of the word ‘promise’? The Political Sword Team wishes all our contributors and readers a wonderful year of discussion and of sharing various points of view.
As always, we look forward to you telling us what you think. 