Author: Speedbox

  • Electric Vehicles 2023

    Doesn’t time fly. It was more than a year ago since I last poked my head above the parapet and regaled Cats with stories of the electric vehicle (EV) world. In this edition I won’t bother discussing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles because only six were imported into Australia in 2023. For clarity, I offer up…

  • Simandou and other dark clouds

    We once proclaimed that our wealth was derived by riding ‘on the sheep’s back’. More recently, we have ridden the iron ore train but all good rides come to an end and dark clouds are gathering on the horizon. The threat to our long-term prosperity is becoming clear. Currently, China and Australia are bound together…

  • Israel’s potential response to Hamas

    The events of October 7 were terrible with a brutality and viciousness rarely witnessed.  The subsequent rallies in support of Palestine were littered with antisemitic chanting and the MSM have encouraged Israeli ‘restraint’ whilst showing pictures of Gaza residents, especially children, in hospital.  Incredibly, some of the footage is accompanied by a Hamas spokesperson commenting…

  • Sport – who really pays

    After the Matildas lost their game to England last Wednesday the TV talking heads tried to outdo each other in their calls for more government spending on sport.   It was probably inevitable that, sensing an opportunity to appease the women’s lobby and maybe garner a couple of votes, Albo swung into action and pledged $200…

  • Immutable truths and Ukraine

    In geopolitics, there are a number of immutable truths.  First and foremost, all nations act in their own best interests.  We can all point to assorted examples but the United States exercising its foreign policy can be a brutal display of self-interest.  This is magnified because the USA is (currently) the dominant force on the…

  • Aftermath

    Feel that chill in the air? If you think its frosty in your location, it is frozen solid between Russian President Putin and Wagner chief Prigozhin. And so it is that we are now one week after the “March of Justice” that saw Evgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group stage an uprising. But first, a few MSM…

  • Well, that was a weekend to remember

    In what was probably the most enthralling weekend since the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the collapse of the USSR (1991), events of this weekend again placed the Russian military, politics and intrigue squarely in front of the world. And like the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the USSR, so much could…

  • Harry and Meghan

    From the outset I will acknowledge that most Cats couldn’t care less about the truculent and petulant behaviour of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle.  Conversely, many Cats will acknowledge with gratitude, and perhaps awe, the unswerving devotion to duty and service displayed by the late Queen Elizabeth II.   King Charles has some mighty…

  • Who would you fight for?

    Recently I had a casual exchange with contributor Bruce of Newcastle on the OT.  The guts of our remarks was the number of wars fought by Russia and how this had shaped their national psyche.  Further, that Western attitudes and policy towards Russia will continue to be largely ineffective, if not counterproductive, until the West…

  • Compare the pair

    Millions of words have been written about the creeping encroachment of NATO eastward towards the border of the Russian Federation. Recent media reports suggest the Turkey will soon drop its objections to Finland joining the bloc with only Hungary’s objections yet to be overcome.  One can only imagine the pressure Hungarian politicians will endure as…