Only fifty-six weeks till the New South Wales state election on March 26, 2011 and the inevitable removal of a rancid Labor government for whom acting in accordance with the wishes of its voters is far less important than scheming its own self-preservation.

The latest (and hopefully last for a while) product of the Sussex Street Sausage Machine to be thrown to the lions as State premier is Kristina Kerscher Keneally. (Please do not dwell on those initials - that's actually her maiden name in the middle.)

I can't believe that it more than five years since the last time I blogged about the brilliant Charlie Brooker. Anyway, here is his two-minute primer on news reporting, from his BBC 4 TV show "Newswipe", that has been deservedly doing the rounds on Youtube this week. (Occasional coarse language warning, less than you'd generally expect from Mr Brooker actually)

For twelve days, December 7 to 18, Copenhagen is the Naivete Capital of the Universe. Some of the street activities during COP15 are either naive, puerile, or just plain counter-productive. When Tuvalu's brave stand for its own survival is reduced to a series of dumbed-down chants I wonder if many of the protestors have merely ventured to Denmark for a party. There's serious discussions being held inside the conference halls which needs to be held to account and kept on track.

In 1987 Midnight Oil released one of the greatest songs about Australia ever recorded. A song forever associated, through its chorus, with the campaign for indigenous land rights, the official music video a work of art in itself which is, frame by frame, etched into my brain and that of many other Australians of grandchild-bearing age.