Daily Archives: May 15, 2022

The election campaign is under way in Australia, barbs are being exchanged, candidates denigrated and abused, and promises many of which are just fantastic in the literal sense of the word are being made. The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, who is the leader of the Liberal party, is being challenged by the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese. Although Morrison has the edge over Albanese as preferred prime minister, neither is much loved. The leaders are unlikely to be a decisive issue in the election.

What is the deeper mood of the country? That needs to be put into its historical context. Ever since the mid-1970s, Australians have expected political parties to be economically responsible. The public are smart enough to know that its one thing to make promises to spend money on all manner of popular causes, but that it must be paid for somehow. This mindset has served Australia extraordinarily well. It has enjoyed more than a quarter of a century of continuous economic growth, thanks to open markets, free trade and relatively light regulatory regimes. These policies have often been referred to in Australia as economic rationalism.

The pandemic led to an end of this rationalism. Suddenly, it became very popular for the government to impose restrictions on freedom of movement and activity, to close the national border with the rest of the world and for state governments to shut down the borders between the states. To compensate for this Stalinist-style closure of society, the government borrowed and printed unprecedented amounts of money and farmed it out to employees, businesses, and anybody else who said they needed help.

For many, this seemed a reasonable response to a pandemic. Covid spread only slowly in Australia and the level of fatalities was relatively low. The public didnt seem to care how much money was spent as long as they received the compensation they felt they deserved. This has affected the mindset of the country. No one much cares any more about the size of the budget deficit or public debt. What is more, old-fashioned liberal ideas like freedom and taking responsibility for ones own actions have been jettisoned. The state now knows best.

In the short-term, this is a problem for conservative politics. The governing Liberal/National parties in Australia like the Conservative party in the UK have been the champions of individual freedom. But this is out of fashion, which plays into the hands of the opposition Labor party. It believes in collective action and the state taking responsibility for individual wellbeing.

Scott Morrison could make a strong case for his time in office. Australias economy is growing faster than almost every other in the G20, its unemployment rate is at a historic low of 4 per cent and the government has reduced its large budget deficit. A strong economy should be a winner for an incumbent government. But Labor wants to spend more money and the public seem keen on this as an idea. Nobody wants to ask where the money might come from. Inflation hasnt helped matters.

All that money pumped into the Australian economy and the world economy, of course has been the fundamental cause of renewed inflationary pressures. No government is prepared to admit that its excessive spending and the quantitative easing by central banks over the past two years have caused inflation, and the current Australian government is no exception.

The Ukraine war has added to these pressures, although the case could also be made that Morrisons government was prepared to take on autocratic regimes long before it became fashionable to do so in Europe. While Germany was hungrily importing gas from Russia, Australia was fighting off sanctions imposed by the communist regime in China, negotiating new security arrangements with other democracies in the Indo-Pacific region and making deals to transfer advanced military technology with the UK and the US.

More recently, Chinas leaders have persuaded Australias near neighbour the Solomon Islands to conclude a security agreement. This has inevitably led to debate over whether Australias government should have stopped the agreement by pouring more aid into the Solomon Islands. But it is hard for a liberal democracy like Australia to offer the kind of aid China gives to politicians. Still, Australias firm stand against China is strongly supported by the Australian public and it should help the incumbent Liberal/National party government.

A more divisive issue is climate change, which has now destroyed the premierships of four Australian prime ministers. Although Australia has reduced its CO2 emissions by around 20 per cent since 2005 a much better record than Canada, New Zealand and many EU countries there is still a sense that Australia could be doing more. It is a narrative which has taken hold and despite the incumbent government committing to net zero by 2050, a commitment matched by the opposition, the richest suburbs of Australia think the government isnt taking the issue seriously. They are threatening to vote for Labor or left-leaning independents, who may take a few seats which were once considered safe for the Liberal party.

All in all, it will be extremely hard for the incumbent Liberal/National parties government to win, despite its record. Labor is firm favourite to take power. Which just goes to show that no matter how effectively the government governs, its hard to get re-elected if the mood of the country is against it.

Alexander Downer joins Cindy Yu on SpectatorTV

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New Aussie rules: Conservative values have fallen out of fashion - The Spectator

The Essex Serpent Apple TV+The British Academy Television Awards (BBC One) | iPlayerFergal Keane: Living With PTSD (BBC Two) | iPlayerClark Netflix

There comes a time in every actors life when he must unbutton his period drama shirt and smoulder as if his life depends on it. In Apple TV+s new six-parter The Essex Serpent, based on the historical novel by Sarah Perry, adapted by Anna Symon, directed by Clio Barnard, this duty falls to Tom Hiddleston, but he rather fluffs it.

Hiddleston plays a late-19th-century pastor trying to soothe marsh-dwelling locals who believe they are being menaced by a giant mythical sea serpent (think the Loch Ness monster, but with Godzillas temper). Claire Danes plays English widow and naturalist Cora, who, freed of her abusive husband, takes her autistic child and socialist servant (Hayley Squires) to investigate the creature. Once in Essex spoiler alert! Cora is drawn into an anguished love triangle with Hiddlestons man of the cloth and his ailing wife (Clmence Posy).

In 1988, Ken Russells Lair of the White Worm wove a similar tale in the spirit of mythic campery. By contrast, The Essex Serpent is ambitiously gothic, coiling itself around a series of personal, mystical and ideological standoffs: principle versus emotion, faith versus rationalism, superstition versus science. Cora emerges as a proto-feminist with startling tangerine-hued hair (reminiscent of Cate Blanchetts Elizabeth I) and wonderfully dramatic clothes that echo the atmospheric Essex wetlands. These are conveyed in a series of misty aerial shots featuring cawing gulls and slabs of sodden mud. A recurring criticism of period drama is how prissy and vanilla it can be, sanitising rather than illuminating past eras, but visually this is in the red in tooth and claw zone: nature with its entrails out.

Sadly, the serpent keeps getting forgotten, when surely the idea of it the threat, the metaphor should be omnipresent. There is also the problem of chemistry, as in: Danes and Hiddleston dont have any. While Danes is suitably impassioned, Hiddleston clearly didnt get the sexy-religious-dude memo and somehow manages to be simultaneously stiff and soggy. Together, they exude the erotic heat of a bed bath administered with a lukewarm flannel. Its made worse because Frank Dillane, as Coras doctorly admirer, is brilliantly witty and naughty how come he receives a Victorian-era friend-zoning in favour of the drippy pastor? Im all for the way The Essex Serpent basks in gothic allure, but it could have been wilder.

Of all the serious issues raised by Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, among the more minor is that awards ceremonies have been lent a certain frisson. Tuning into BBC Ones post-pandemic British Academy Television Awards at the Royal Festival Hall, hosted by Richard Ayoade, I wondered who might kick off: does brutality lurk untamed behind Olivia Colmans red-carpet smile?

Of course nothing happened. The reliably acid Ayoade briefly referred to the slap, while giving the starry audience less a mauling, more a teasingly non-specific pawing, like a cat toying with a roomful of overdressed celebrity mice: No one works harder than us. Apart from people in other professions.

This years categories were so absurdly strong, it was possible to fume as Cline Buckens missed out on best supporting actress for Showtrial and then cheer as Cathy Tyson won it for Help. Similarly, it was only right that Time won best miniseries, and an absolute outrage that the other contenders Landscapers, Stephen, Its a Sin didnt.

Shock of the night was that Its a Sin won zilch, despite a plethora of nominations (it did win the big award best director at Baftas Television Craft awards in April). Along the way, Channel 4 and the BBC were showered with podium love, and quite right too. These are, after all, perilous times for broadcasting: Nadine Dorries is in charge, a woman who probably thinks dramatic licence is something she should be charging pensioners for.

In the BBC Two documentary Fergal Keane: Living With PTSD, the much-garlanded Irish war correspondent a 30-year veteran of conflict zones including Northern Ireland, South Africa and Rwanda examines how reporters can return unharmed, but only on the outside.

Keane went public some time ago about his PTSD (he was diagnosed in 2008), and the documentary opens with him reporting from Ukraine, then withdrawing, saying he wouldnt be able to cope. From there, he is all brutal honesty as he examines the ego and addiction of war reporting, alongside the idealism and the relentless havoc PTSD wreaks on mental health. Keane suffered nightmares about being trapped beneath bodies, used alcohol to medicate, and turned into a paranoid nightmare his family were forced to tiptoe around. Its shite, he says simply.

Keane brings in other voices, including the therapist who helped him and a former Rwandan child refugee, now living in Paris, whose escape in the back of a truck Keane reported. Towards the end of this fascinating, candid documentary, Keane says matter-of-factly: Its not finished the story of me and PTSD. Indeed, hes shown returning to Ukraine; away from the frontline to report on the refugee crisis, but still, there he is. You wonder if this is his way of forging a PTSD compromise with himself.

If youre yearning for something different, watch Clark on Netflix. Swedish-made, in six parts, it stars Bill Skarsgrd as Clark Olofsson, Swedens favourite gangster and charismatic super-seducer, whose myrad real-life criminal escapades include the Norrmalmstorg bank robbery that inspired the psychological term Stockholm syndrome.

Olofssons life story is bizarre enough: if hes not smuggling drugs in oranges from Beirut, hes seducing the ladies or barking his catchphrase at officialdom: Go shit yourself! Instead of calming all this down, director Jonas kerlund ramps everything up with a frenetic pace, surrealist graphics and gonzo humour. Skarsgrd is superb, playing Olofsson with crazed screwball energy. Im halfway through, and its becoming a little tiring: Ill be needing paracetamol and a nap soon. Still, for those who can hack it, Clark is that rarest of TV phenomena: something that feels genuinely original.

Glow UpBBC ThreeThe brilliant makeup competition returns for a third series, judged by Val Garland and Dominic Skinner. Its not just about smoky eyes. The makeup artists tackle everything from drag to TikTok to screen prosthetics. Inventive and absorbing, BBC Three also has an Irish version.

TehranApple TV+This is the second outing for the tense Israeli global espionage undercover spy thriller, starring Niv Sultan. Glenn Close joins the cast for this series, and considering her thrillingly predatory form throughout Damages, you feel anything could happen.

Commando: Britains Ocean WarriorsBBC TwoA new four-part series follows intensive commando training as Royal Marine recruits endure gruelling ordeals to win themselves a much-coveted green beret. Prepare to be shocked at how young they look: the most junior recruit is 17.

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The week in TV: The Essex Serpent; the Baftas; Fergal Keane: Living With PTSD; Clark - The Guardian

The X-Files has its fair share of great monologues, and those that close Jose Chungs From Outer Space and Max are among the most beloved. The former is a wry narration of how the residents of Klass County went on with their lives following a close encounterthis ranges from starting a cult to becoming an eco warrior. The latter is Agent Scullys heartfelt musings on her birthday present from Agent Mulder (an Apollo 11 commemorative keychain). It might seem like they have little in common. These episodes are almost at opposite ends of The X-Files genre spectrum, after all. However, they are connected by their significant use of the word alone.

In their use of this word, these two monologues appear to contain opposing arguments about the truth of life on earth. The eponymous Chung argues for the innate loneliness of mankind: in our own separate ways on this planet, we are all alone. Meanwhile, in Max Scully reflects on the strength of interpersonal connections, because no one gets there alone (wherever there might be). Im curiouswhy do Agent Scully and Jose Chung believe what they are saying? And should the audience believe it too?

Then there are those who care not about extraterrestrials, searching for meaning in other human beings. Rare or lucky are those who find it. For although we may not be alone in the universe, in our own separate ways on this planet, we are allalone.

Jose Chung, Jose Chungs From Outer Space

Jose Chungs From Outer Space is similar to other Season 3 classics like Pusher and Wetwired; in these cases the victims become isolated from everyone around them, because no one else seems to be experiencing the same reality as them. The plot of Jose Chung necessitates loneliness, because each character has their own version of events that they struggle to make the others believe; the audience might be reminded of the way that Mulder continually fails to make Scully see the world from his perspective. In this context, Chungs pessimistic words seem reasonable. Although Mulder and Scully might search for meaning in other human beings he proposes they will most likely fail.

though weve travelled far together, this last distance must necessarily be travelled alone.

Agent Scully, Memento Mori

That phrasesearching for meaning in other human beingsleads me to think of the MSR, but also of a major overarching theme in The X-Files, which is about searching for people who are lost, and about how the dead continue to affect the living. In other words, grief. Like the events of Jose Chung, grief is often a shared experience that is simultaneously incredibly isolating. During the cancer arc of Season 4, Mulder and Scully experience anticipatory grief. In the opening monologue of Memento Mori we see Scully standing alone, and though most of her words are about Mulder and her gratitude for their partnership, it conveys the overwhelming loneliness of knowing she is going to die. To go a step further, death itself might be the ultimate loneliness. How can you share death? From Mulders perspective, when he cries at Scullys bedside in Redux II she is asleep and doesnt know he is there. This is another example of an internal experience that, short of a psychic connection, cannot be experienced collaboratively. These things considered, it would be easy to believe that we really are all alone.

What can be imagined can be achieved that you must dare to dream, but that theres no substitute for perseverance and hard work, and teamwork, because no one gets there alone.

Agent Scully, Max

In The X-Files, the fact that we are not alone in the universe seems to have exclusively been a problem for humanity. However in Scullys speech at the end of Max, she vouches for the value of collaboration, and the way that people can bring out the best in each other. This is a far more optimistic take than the one Jose Chung had. It is appealing because it might make us hopeful for our own lives, but also because it reflects positively on our heroes that their mission is not hopeless.

These two scenes present to the audience contrasting versions of Agent Mulder. Alone in bed, watching a Big Foot tape withenthusiasm, the Mulder in Jose Chungs From Outer Space is a loser and borderline pervert. In Chungs voiceover he is described as a ticking time bomb of insanity; I would contest Chungs use of the word insanity, however he has not entirely missed the mark by insinuating that Mulders obsession with the truth would endanger his psychological well-being. At the beginning of Season 10 we learn that Mulders depression has isolated him from Scully. In Amor Fati severe trauma on his brain literally forces him to live in a world inside his own head. Jose Chung has correctly observed that Mulders quest into the unknown is a miserable one. It can be lonely, because the thing he seeks (whether he knows it or not) is not an objective external reality that he can share with Scully, but his personal satisfaction and peace. When he goes to meet Samanthas spirit at the end of Closure, thus achieving this goal, he goes alone. Given that Jose Chung is a self-satirising comedy this overly negative version of Mulder is fitting.

Conversely, Tempus Fugit/Max suggests that Mulder has an innate capacity for love and friendship. The two-parter introduces us to a Mulder who is trying his best to make his friend happy on her birthday. Their smiles should be a testament to Chungs short-sightedness. And while Jose Chung ends with Harold Lamb walking off alone, Max ends with Mulder and Scully walking away together. On the other hand, it is important to note that the speech in Max comes from Scullys perspective. In the Tempus Fugit/Max two-parter, Mulder is alone in his theories, surrounded by non-believers, and alone in his grief for Max. I would suggest that Mulders loneliness doesnt come from something embedded in his psyche, as Chung implies, but from the people around him and their inability or refusal to understand him.

When Scully says no one gets there alone what is the there she is referring to? The moon? The Platonic ideal of Justice? The Screen Actors Guild Awards? Gillian Anderson included part of this monologue in her acceptance speech when she won the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Female Actor in a Television Drama Series (this is something that our creator, Chris Carter, has written, in something that Im supposed to perform tomorrow and obviously Im not prepared). She goes on to thank, among others, David Duchovny, and the X-Files crew. Like Scully, she is acknowledging herself as part of a team.

But you saved me! As difficult and as frustrating as its been sometimes, your goddamned strict rationalism and science have saved me a thousand times over! Youve kept me honest youve made me a whole person.

Agent Mulder, Fight the Future

Mulder and Scully are the ultimate team, each others perfect collaborator. In a practical sense, Mulder needs Scullys scientific knowledge to solve cases, and Scully needs Mulder to keep her mind open. But arguably the point of this perfect collaboration is that it goes beyond their practical need for each other; the famous hallway scene of Fight the Future touches on this very thing. Scully has been pushed to the point that she wants to leave the X-Files, and is suggesting that Mulder could and should go on without her. You dont need me, she says [] Ive just held you back. When Mulder contests this, telling Scully that she has made (him) a whole person, I dont think this is about practicality. It is read by fans as a confession of love. I believe that the there that Scully means to get to isnt outer space but something more personal.

The surrounding context of Harold Lamb and Chrissy Giorgio implies that Chungs words are about unrequited love. This matches the pervert/loner Mulder and the work-oriented Scully that Chung depicts. At this point in the canon, the MSR is barely burgeoning, and far from consummated. Nonetheless, Mulder and Scullys relationship in all its formstheir platonic collaboration, if you willis the strongest argument for why Chung is wrong. Still, I dont think that there is love, not exactly.

The keychain makes a return in Season 8s aptly named AloneScully re-gifts it to Doggett, symbolising how his partnership has been necessary both professionally and emotionally: after this past year and everything that weve been through [] I wouldnt be here without you. I think that there is just tomorrow, and its not just that no one gets there alone but no one has to get there alone. We need only look at the journey of this keychain to see why we might disagree with Chung. Maybe in a solipsistic sense we are alone, but that doesnt mean that love and friendship dont exist. And even though it might be fruitless, we still strive to make connections with other people, because we couldnt get through life without them.

It is not unusual for The X-Files to reconcile opposing viewpoints. The famous slogans trust no one and I want to believe appear conflicting. Mulder and Scully themselves are reason and faith in harmony. The show can make us believe that both the scientific and supernatural explanations are true. However, it was wrong of me to present these two speeches as containing mutually exclusive arguments. Its true to an extent that everyone lives inside their own internal worlds, processing emotions like grief, and memories of inexplicable alien encounters, alonethis is an idea that The X-Files returns to frequently. Its also true that people like Mulder and Harold Lamb remain misunderstood by those around them. But I dont think this means that collaboration is hopeless. How can it be? The X-Files would fall apart if it was. It is precisely because life on Earth is so lonely that collaboration is so valuable.

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These Iconic Scenes From The X-Files Ask if We Are Alone in the Universe - 25YearsLaterSite.com