THE hat is back. The fashion-conscious will grumble that this piece of news is sooooo last week, but they grumble about most things. This week's news, darlings, goes much deeper. It concerns those who have gained hats or lost hats.

Aikawa is a small town on the fringe of the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolis that houses 35 million people. Here the sprawl of factories, apartments and tightly packed housing peters out. Hills covered with thick, green forest and bamboo thickets crowd in, shrilling with cicadas.

It has been smooth sailing between the Labor leaders, but the party should guard against Costello's fate befalling the talented Julia Gillard.

Gagging principals and other critics of policy is simply undemocratic.

SHANE TAYLOR pushes a small shopping trolley of groceries across the car park near the Anglicare Community Care Centre in Mount Druitt. He is a compact figure moving across a freezing industrial landscape. It is a dispiriting sight.