| We should start charging politicians for these lessons! Last week we pointed out the obvious in that cutting spending would reduce debt. Our basic budget lesson for this week? “Tax cuts are not handouts” says Simon Breheny in the IPA’s latest video: |
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| But $60 billion in subsidies for renewables is a handout. As Daniel Wild noted while Victorians and South Australians were shivering through a cold Monday morning this week, wind power was generating a grand total of 0.1% of electricity in Victoria and 0% in South Australia: |
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| To find out what the energy mix is right now, click here. Spotify have not only started removing from playlists music with “hate content” but also music from artists who have engaged in “hateful conduct” in their real lives. Fortunately for Spotify rock stars are generally morally unimpeachable, although feminist activists are now calling for the removal of Eminem, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and the Eagles amongst many others. I hope you haven’t thrown out your record collection! Gillian Triggs might not like freedom of speech but there is one “human right” she does care about – access to the internet. I wonder what else is on Triggs’ list of human rights? Hopefully access to pizza because Jamie Oliver has convinced Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to ban two for one pizza deals. We all knew that the left dominated universities but this is extraordinary – 39% of liberal arts college faculties in the US don’t have don’t have a single Republican on staff! Sir Roger Scruton has just released his latest book, Where We Are which discusses Brexit and argues that the importance of national identity, “is the political question of our time”. Read this excellent 2,800 word review in The American Conservative last week. If you’re a Generation Liberty Member in Brisbane on 21 May come along to “The Great Debate: Capitalism vs Socialism“. And if you’re in Sydney tonight, Dr Bella d’Abrera is delivering a lecture at Campion College on “How Identity Politics is Corrupting our Youth,” details here. |
Featuring Senator James Paterson, Daniel Wild, IPA
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Article of the week:This piece by Gerard Alexander in The New York Times last week absolutely nails why ordinary people resent liberal elites. It argues liberal cultural dominance is a double edged sword that “makes liberals feel more powerful than they are” rendering them oblivious to “how provocative or inflammatory they can be”. |
IPA Staff Pick:Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Andrew Bushnell Tom Wolfe, one of the great American writers, died on Monday. He led the New Journalism, a movement that combined reporting with stylish first-person narrative. This excellent obituary by Kyle Smith in National Review discusses Wolfe’s national identity-shaping books, including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test on the hippy movement, The Right Stuff on early astronauts, and the definitive novel of the 80s, The Bonfire of the Vanities, which is still an indispensable roadmap to US politics. |
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
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