Now I know how the left feel whenever they get someone cancelled. Maybe. Not, I should hasten to add, that I delude myself that I had any hand in the matter, nor, for that matter, would I have wanted the cancellation – or postponement as it really is – to happen. I’
One of the most cutting scenes in Dickens’ Oliver Twist is when the thin, ragged boy tremulously asks for more gruel. The master, “a fat, healthy man” is outraged. As are the board of the workhouse, “eight or ten fat gentlemen” who are almost suffocating in their fake piety. There’
When wartime Australian PM John Curtin announced Australia’s foreign policy reorientation away from Britain and towards America, he did so “More in sorrow than in anger”. What Curtin meant was that it was now obvious that Britain’s war priorities differed from Australia’s. The issue was brought to
It’s said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Australia’s education bureaucrats must be barking mad. For the past few decades, Australia’s international education rankings have steadily fallen. In line with demands by education bureaucrats and teachers’
Jacinda Ardern famously thinks that Australia deporting Kiwi-born crims home to New Zealand is “corrosive”. Australians might think that bleeding-heart bureaucrats and lefty quangos letting foreign-born monsters continue to lurk among us is even worse. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal is the perfect embodiment of O’Sullivan’s
Scott Morrison should convert to Islam. Of course I jest, but just as a thought experiment, it’s a delicious prospect. The left continually vilify Morrison for his religious beliefs (conveniently ignoring the number of Catholics on the Labor benches), while viciously attacking anyone who dares criticise, say, Mehreen Faruqi’
Survey after survey, poll after poll, shows that the majority of Australians want to see the country’s immigration drastically curtailed. The only difference between the polls is the size of the majority. No matter what the left-elite may sniff, this is not “racism”: Australians continue to support migration
In news that should surprise absolutely no one, this year’s Oscars drew record-low audiences. In fact, the only real surprise is that they drew an audience at all. The Oscars have faced plummeting ratings for years, but this year they still fell further by an astonishing 60%. Apparently
Doesn’t China have McDonald’s? I bring this up because of Thomas Friedman’s famous dictum – or wishful thinking – that countries with McDonald’s don’t go to war with each other. Of course, Friedman’s argument is more of a guideline than a rule. India and Pakistan, both
David Seymour ACT leader Victoria’s plan to open up to international students and workers is what ACT has been calling for since August last year and New Zealand should follow suit. The Australian state of Victoria is doing this right with plans underway for international students and essential workers
While Australia has been drawing global attention for its stance against China, the brutal fact is that Australia is a middle-power nation. While China is not and probably never will be a superpower, it is undeniably a great power. In this asymmetric diplomatic and trade war, Australia needs its
“In the language of Orthanc, help means ruin, and saving means slaying” J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. This short speech shows that Tolkien was as clear-eyed as Orwell about the nature of totalitarianism. Saruman the wizard, as Tom Shippey has pointed out, is very much
Dear Editor The Biden-Boris green virus which infects most of the West has become a danger to Australia. PM Morrison has promised one billion dollars for “hydrogen, CCUS (carbon capture usage or storage), batteries and critical minerals” – all to achieve “net zero”. NOT ONE of these green dreams will
In my recent posts, I have relentlessly excoriated the Ardern government for its Quisling stupidity regarding China. Lest BFD readers think I’m singling out New Zealand unfairly, I would point out that Australia has been there, too. Australia has learned the hard way from the same mistakes that New
