Andrew Norton (the only classical liberal in Carlton) has made a career out of keeping an eye on developments in higher education after a spell as the editor of the Policy quarterly at the Centre for Independent Studies. This is a meditation on 25 years in the business. Twenty-five years ago today I started my…

Gary Johns has written a lucid and compelling book to support the resistance to The Voice (The Burden of Culture, Quadrant books.) He points out that the demand goes far beyond fixing obvious problems to something very different – the demand for self-determism for ethnic and racial minorities. Popper sounded an alarm about this movement…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/12/29/energy-crisis-risks-dooming-electric-car/ EXTRACT Western societies are charging into the electrification of transport and heating without actually providing the electricity. This cannot be wished away. In January, the then secretary of state for trade in Britain, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, told Parliament that “we are going to be requiring up to four times as much electricity” to meet demand for…

The Dreamer, Casper Friedrich, 1840

This is the summary report of the activities of the FSU in 2022. Congratulations to Toby Young and his colleagues. BTW Toby has a regular column in The Spectator.

Early in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston Smith watched his fellow citizens react to an announcement that the government was “raising” their chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. Winston remembered the announcement from the previous day, however: the government was reducing the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. He marveled as everyone all celebrated what…

Drove to Melbourne and back a few weeks ago. Haven’t driven interstate for decades; haven’t owned a car for about eight years. Could I still drive? Still not sure because the Hume Highway offers little challenges. Two generous lanes, dual carriageway, all the way. Rest areas aplenty. Not long out of England, many decades ago,…

Here is a pretty detailed rundown of the case presented by Lake and Hobbs’s defence, as well as a summary of the judge’s decision. Worth a look while you have some time on your hands over the holidays.

Cabins along the Loing Canal, Sunlight Effect, Alfred Sisley, 1896