THE MALONEY SCRAPBOOK

SHAKY HANDS AND MOIST EYES GO WITH DECLUTTERING   (Written by Warren Maloney for Friends on 3 June 2024) This morning I began something that should have been tackled a while ago - decluttering the persona of my past lives in Business and Politics. First the Tie drawer(s). No one wears ties any more - Not even to funerals. But ties & in my case, bow-ties, were the essence of my daily image from school through to the 2nd retirement - 50+ years. And they were an easy present to give Warren - the footy club ties or the Rotary ones or that outrageous bow-tie for the next family wedding. This morning I instantly knew the story behind each and had to accept that the stories are still worth telling but the ties do not have to be kept.  But what about the blue one with pink flying pigs that I wore to my good friend's 3rd wedding! Or the very narrow school tie - not worn since the very last day of school - November,  1966.  Or the rainbow bowtie ... or the Clan Mackintosh one ... or ever

  THE CONSCRIPTION IDEA   (Written by Warren Maloney on 2 June 2024 for a Discussion by the Jackson Zoom Group)                                                               The UK Conservatives (or really just the outgoing PM Sunak) have created a Platform of CONSCRIPTION to pursue if they are re-elected in 2024.    In reality the half-baked Sunak model is something like a weekend @ month in the Army for a year OR some type & number of Community Service hours per year (" if you would be so good enough to do them "). But none of it is compulsory! What could possibly go wrong?   This got me thinking about Conscription - Why has it has never worked or been accepted in Australia? Why Countries under no military threat accept it (e.g. Brazil, Cambodia, Greece, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, UAE - see  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_service  )?    The reasons are always multi-layered - so I went back to thinking about Australia.   Conscription Referenda here