Patriot Realm

Charles Stuart was born in London, UK, on May 29, 1630 and was the eldest surviving child of Charles I and his French spouse Henrietta Marie. Following the execution of Charles I by order of the British Parliament in 1649, Charles was proclaimed King Charles II. However, the British Isles were governed by the Rump Parliament, of which Oliver Cromwell was a member.

Charles sought to reclaim the kingdom but was defeated by Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Charles escaped to Europe and spent the following nine years in France, Holland, and Spain. In 1653, Cromwell dismissed the Rump Parliament and assumed control of the kingdom, which had previously been renamed as the English Commonwealth, as Lord Protector for life.

30 minutes of truth bombs’ is how one Twitter user described Liberal Democrat John Ruddick’s maiden speech to the New South Wales (NSW) Parliament, last Wednesday 28 June. 

Indeed, Ruddick, who left the Liberal Party in 2021 after public disagreements over the Party’s handling of the pandemic response, said out loud in parliament what many Australians have been saying for some time now – at first privately, around dinner tables, but increasingly more publicly, over workplace water coolers or at the pub, as saying the obvious becomes more socially acceptable. 

It was about 30 years ago when I was living in a tiny town in the Channel Country. It was a Sunday morning and I got a phone call from a hospital about 14 hours away. My daughter was in their care and suffering from a particularly nasty viral infection in her lungs. Could I perhaps come as soon as possible? She had  Meningococcal pneumonia. 

She was a young Nurse. A kind and caring young 18-year-old. In training. 

Alone, so far from home. 

As a Mum. I needed to be with her. 

So I started my journey to do what I had to do: be with my daughter. Because that is what mothers do. 

Up in the far north of Australia, at the pointy end, there are crocodiles. Little crocodiles, bigger crocodiles and bloody monster crocodiles, some reaching near thirty feet in length.  I have seen them at all these sizes, in their environment, from Red Island Point up near the pointy bit of the Cape, down to Cairns, and of course, they are further south too, but my area of interest in those days, long ago, was from the pointy bit of the Cape to just south of Cairns

.Once upon a time, long, long ago, PP worked for a government department, in a job that required PP to visit and remain in indigenous communities for one week, back to the office for one week, then live in another indigenous community for one week, continuously, for well over a decade.