The Week Unwrapped: Australia, Egypt and the British Virgin Islands

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

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In this week’s episode, we discuss:

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Taxing times

Diplomats moving around the UK's overseas foreign territories rarely make headlines. But the outgoing governor of the British Virgin Islands this week left with a bang when he publicly denounced a “plague” of corruption among the island's ruling elite. With the EU threatening to blacklist the BVI as a tax haven, the UK has deployed a senior British judge to investigate the allegations. So is there trouble brewing in paradise?

Egypt’s wait

Ten years after mass protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square forced Hosni Mubarak from office, sparking protests in several other Middle Eastern capitals, democracy still seems a distant hope for most in the region. Yet the setbacks, some of them serious, have not completely erased the sense of optimism that accompanied the original demonstrations - and many hope that freedom has only been delayed.

Invasion day

For some Australians, the country’s national holiday - Australia Day - is little more than an opportunity to go to the beach and have a barbecue with friends. But for the country’s indigenous community, the annual celebration, which marks the arrival of the British in 1788, represents brutal colonisation, including massacres, the removal of their children and dispossession of their land. Now a campaign to change the date of Australia Day, if not abolish it altogether, is gathering momentum.

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