Category: Uncategorized

CHARLES Dickens the journalist would have written Bleak House a bit differently from Dickens the novelist. He might have written: “A dispute over a large Yorkshire landowner’s estate collapsed in a London court yesterday when lawyers announced there was not enough money left in the estate to pay their fees. Continue reading “Bleak outlook for informed polling”

LIKE democracy, freedom of speech has a paradox. Democracy’s paradox is obvious: what if they vote for dictatorship? The paradox of freedom of speech is similar, but less obvious. What if someone, in the exercise of their freedom of speech, buys such a large portion of the means of publication that they drown out the freedom of speech of others? Continue reading “Paradox of democracy and free speech”

THE numbers tell the story. I know numbers are a big turn off, but bear with me because the story is important, and precisely because numbers are a turn-off, the clubs have been able to dismiss problem gambling as a minor matter not affecting many people. Continue reading “Numbers tell grim pokies story”

IS IT defamatory to say of someone that they are a Baptist? A ding-dong over a blogger’s post about an anti-pornography campaigner raised this question this week causing a stir in the social and traditional media. Continue reading “Baptism by ire, but is it defamatory?”

JEROME K Jerome wrote in 1889: “I love work. It fascinates me. I could sit and watch it for hours.” Pollster Gary Morgan could have said the same thing. He has been watching work for decades. Continue reading “Watching work — fascinating and vital”

YOU need just the right amount of inequality in a society. Too much results in resentment, crime and even revolution. Too little results in destruction of wealth-generating prosperity.
Tax, of course, is the main way to change equality. Continue reading “Costello super changes now showing flaws”

I, CRISPIN Richard Hull, hereby resolve that in 2012 I will eat more green vegetables; never drink more than four standard drinks in a day; do at least 45 minutes of exercise a day and not watch any rubbish on television or waste any time playing Sudoku. Continue reading “I’ll shout you a New Year’s resolution”

IT WAS a violent attack with a Swiss Army knife. It was contrary to major cultural and moral precepts of my upbringing which I have kept for nearly all my adult life. Nonetheless, I did it. Continue reading “Knife attack blunts commandments on books”

CRACKS are beginning to appear in the mutual acceptance of the Coalition’s big corporate funding and Labor’s big union funding. Federally, in the wake of last week’s report of the joint parliamentary committee on electoral matters reported on electoral funding, Labor and the Greens have the numbers to make it much harder for the corporate dollar to find its way into Coalition coffers. Continue reading “Big-bucks funding being tested”

FEW issues are so uniting as politicians’ pay. MPs on both sides unite in favour of pay rises and voters of all persuasions unite against. The most recent Remuneration Tribunal ruling, as its happens, came as the Labor Party agreed on a conscience vote for gay marriage and as Liberal Party MP Peter Slipper deserted his party to take up the lucrative position of Speaker. Continue reading “Worry about MPs’ pay being too low”