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Say Au Revoir To Free Speech…But In Your Own Accent

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25 October 2018
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President Obama wants people to “remember who started” America’s economic recovery. If I were him, I wouldn’t be reminding people how bad my stimulus package turned out to be:

Organisers claim up to 160,000 people protested across Australia on Tuesday as part of the ACTU’s #ChangeTheRules campaign. If you think that’s a big number, consider the 650,000 Australians who are looking for work right now. As IPA Research Fellow Kurt Wallace said, “The ACTU’s demands to slap more rules on Australia’s IR regime would make it even harder for Australians to get a job and experience the dignity of work.”

Watch the IPA’s video from 2017 about the IR reforms governments should be pursuing.

Another big demonstration happened in the UK on Saturday where allegedly half a million joined The People’s Vote march to overturn the Brexit vote of 17.5 million people. You have to watch Andrew Neil, Chairman of The Spectator, expose the hypocrisy of Tony Blair’s former Press Secretary Alastair Campbell for praising The People’s March while ignoring an even bigger protest while in government.

A survey funded by the UK’s Department for International Development released this week found the best way to help education in developing countries – and you won’t be surprised the answer isn’t to continue throwing money at foreign aid. It’s investing in low cost private sector schools. Peter Gregory wrote about this phenomenon in the IPA Review in 2012.

Is this the most ludicrous free speech law ever floated? French politician Laetitia Avia, along with other members of Emmanuel Macron’s party, is proposing a bill to outlaw the mockery of accents. This is absolutely terrible news for Mayor Quimby’s nephew.

The Gentleman’s Smoked Chicken Caesar Roll is no longer available at Waitrose supermarkets in the UK following a single online complaint of its sexist name. I want to know why the complainer overlooked the name’s endorsement of cigarettes and Roman dictators!

There are still tickets available to the IPA’s events with the great Dan Hannan, co-hosted by the Menzies Research Centre. Register here for the event in Perth on 30 October, and here for Melbourne on 31 October.

 

Featuring Morgan Begg, IPA and Kurt Wallace, IPA

“It’s so typical of where Hollywood’s at now, once upon a time Hollywood was a proud exhibition of the heroism and the virtues of Western Civilisation, the Anglo-American sphere of the world. And that’s all fallen away now to the point where they are not only ashamed of the West but they are actively accommodating the tyrannical regimes in China and elsewhere.”

– Morgan Begg, IPA

Article of the week:

The US midterms are approaching fast and the Democrats seem to have only one issue to talk about: How much they hate Trump. David Gelernter in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday explains why this is – and what it reveals about the left’s attitude to mainstream America.

IPA Staff Pick:

Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: John Roskam

This is a brilliant 14 minute video produced by American free market organisation Free The People on the story of Denver Riggleman and his wife Christine from Virginia in the US who make whiskey and fight government red tape.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week:

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James Bolt

James Bolt

James Bolt is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs