Few would have predicted, until recent times, that the biggest act at the Glastonbury music festival would be a 68-year-old socialist reciting .
Yet Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn鈥檚 June 24 speech at Glastonbury attracted what was likely the largest crowd in the festival鈥檚 history, said.
The Labour party's Jeremy Corbyn took to the main Pyramid stage on the second day of the event to address the largely young crowds. Tens of thousands of people turned up to see the 68 year old, making him one of Glastonbury's most anticipated headliners this year along with Radiohead and the Foo Fighters.
Last year we wondered where the Australian Bernie Sanders would come from. Now we're asking, who will be our Jeremy Corbyn? Could it be Anthony Albanese? Nah, too right wing. What about Scott Ludlum or Sally McManus?
Posing it this way gets the question the wrong way around. The circumstances produce the leaders that answer the call.
In both the US and Britain recession and austerity inflicted pain on working people to a degree not yet felt by most Australians, although it's surely on the way.
Theresa May is now Britain鈥檚 prime minister in name only. Leading a government that may collapse within days, propped up (she hopes) by the homophobes of the Democratic Unionist Party, it is clear her time is nearly up.
So while May is in office but not in power, who has stepped into the vacuum of leadership she has left? Jeremy Corbyn.
It is too early yet to write about the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower on June 14 without being overcome by a mixture of sorrow and anger. This not just could, but should have been avoided.
The residents, including through the Grenfell Action Group, have been raising concerns about the safety of the block and the refurbishment for several years. In October, the London Fire Brigade wrote to Kensington and Chelsea Council expressing concerns about the insulation used at Grenfell. They were all ignored.
The recent British general election delivered very different results in Scotland than those of England and Wales.
While the question of Scottish independence was still a major issue for voters, tactical errors by the Scottish National Party (SNP) and a muted Jeremy Corbyn-effect in Scottish Labour鈥檚 favour led to some unforeseen outcomes.
Here鈥檚 my two cents worth on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull鈥檚 leaked impersonation of US President Donald Trump.
If you are prime minister and you are going to do a private impersonation of Trump you could pick a better occasion than the Parliamentary Mid-Winter Ball which is packed with drunken politicians, journos and political advisers. So it is a mighty stretch to call it a leak.
However, if you are a conservative, hollow-man prime minister, down in the polls, the 鈥渓eak鈥 of a recording of the said impersonation might be a welcome circuit breaker.
Hundreds聽of angry residents stormed council offices on June 16 as they demanded support, housing and answers over the Grenfell Tower disaster amid accusations of 鈥渕ass murder.鈥 They聽gathered outside the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea civic centre and entered the building聽to stage a sit-down protest. Council leaders refused to meet them.
Residents held placards demanding 鈥淛ustice for Grenfell鈥 and chanted 鈥渃ome downstairs鈥 as they presented a list of immediate demands to the council.
The dramatic surge in support for Labour in the June 8 British election was a shot in the arm for progressive people around the world. Jeremy Corbyn 鈥 who had been roundly derided as 鈥渦nelectable鈥 鈥 achieved the biggest swing of any Labour leader in Britain in more than 70 years.
After the recent spate of murders in Manchester, London and Melbourne people are increasingly asking what the past 20 years of the 鈥渨ar on terror鈥 has done besides making the world a more dangerous, divided and fearful place.
In the aftermath of Britain鈥檚 June 8 elections, in which Labour defied expectations to make major gains while the Conservative government of Theresa May lost its majority, the surge of support for Labour鈥檚 socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn and his anti-austerity platform has grown.
After promising for months that she鈥檇 never call an early election, Tory Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap general election in April 鈥 fully expecting to be returned with a thumping Conservative majority.