Utopia, you are standing in it!

Inconvenient facts like the wind industry’s rampant Eagle slaughter troubles the narrative and requires the mainstream press to do backflips to maintain a positive spin.

Remember, this is an ‘inevitable’ transition to an all wind and sun powered future. So, the slicing and dicing of millions of birds and bats, the destruction of pristine wilderness and whole rural communities is just collateral damage, right?

Over the last few posts, STT has been focused on former Australian Greens leader, Bob Brown, who has managed to ignite a debate centred on just how useless wind power is, and how much chaos and unnecessary carnage it causes. All because Dr Bob is railing against a few wind turbines set to be plonked in his backyard, notwithstanding that he was always ready to spear them into yours.

Although readers, viewers and listeners of Australia’s National Broadcaster, the ABC and the lefty Nine Group (now…

Tasmania’s rugged North is one of Australia’s natural wonders, but not for much longer if Chinese wind developers have their way.

Tasmania’s rare and endangered Wedge Tailed Eagle is already under threat, being slice and diced with impunity by its existing wind farms on the North-West and North-East coasts. Now another monster wind farm is set to extend the carnage across the central highlands.

Epuron might be the nominated developer, but chances are it will flog its project once it gets development approval to Beijing-based Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co, which will almost certainly provide the Chinese made turbines. Epuron has done the same in a number of other places elsewhere.

Alan Jones, gobsmacked by the hundreds of $millions in subsidies that will be pocketed by its Chinese owner over the life of its wind farm, takes a look at the kind of carnage that’s threatened.

Taxpayers will…

This is the third instalment of a series of blogs about how the privilege in parliamentary publication eventually came to be defined in the Parliamentary Papers Act 1840. Part I can be read at Privilege, Libel and the long road to Stockdale v. Hansard, Part I: from Strode’s Case to Article IX; Part II is at Parliamentary Privilege and Libel, Part II: from Wilkes to 1835. This instalment deals with what happened after the Reform Act of 1832.

The publication resolution of 1835

The 1835 decision of the House of Commons that it would routinely publish the reports and returns that were formally presented to it would have a huge impact on the issue of parliamentary privilege. It was of a piece with other gestures of openness on the part of the post-Reform Parliament, most notably the decision to publish division lists, dealt with in this blog by…

The Duke of Northumberland faced a number of key tasks to consolidate his power after Edward VI’s death. Most importantly, he had to isolate and, ideally, capture Mary Tudor to prevent her from gathering support. As soon as Mary was sure of King Edward’s demise, she left her residence at Hunsdon and set out to East Anglia, where she began to rally her supporters. Northumberland set out from London with troops on 14 July to capture Mary.

The Privy Council switched their allegiance and proclaimed Mary queen in London, on July 19. The historical consensus assumes that this was in recognition of overwhelming support of the population for Mary. However, there is no clear evidence for that outside Norfolk and Suffolk, where Northumberland had put down Kett’s Rebellion; hence, where Princess Mary sought refuge.

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

Rather, it seems that Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel—whom…