In which the pond takes a walk on the Spectator wild side ...

(Above:  Rowe gets in a few treats, including the pond's fake Rolex and Gina dining on a beast fresh from an Indian wedding, and more Rowe here).

It's end of week, and all's well and quiet in the herpetarium.

Have we got any intrusion into the privacy of others?

Check.

What about paternalistic big government intrusions into the lives of the poor? A whiff of pure Gradgrindism?

Check.

You see, it's not just enough to write the column, you have to write a news report about the written column. Double your paternalistic bang for your glowering buck ...

And was the beast slouching all over the media elsewhere?

Check. 

Malware's facing something like that dilemma confronting security agencies. They only have to make one mistake, while the terrorists can be out and about, plotting and scheming, and making life hell every day of the week.

But while this was all pleasing, the pond felt like a walk on the wild side. 

No Moorice, no outraged climate denialism. It was either the Bolter ... or wait a second, what about the Poms teaching the colonials down under a thing or two about British civilisation?

Sure enough, there was David Flint, whom the pond hadn't thought about for yonks ... and what do you know, he's a doggie man ...

Now the pond has no idea, absolutely none, why a snap of Prince Chuck should feature in a Flinty story about the suffering of the doggies, but the pond was moved almost to tears, as man of the people Flinty berated the naughty Mike Baird and his naughty neo-Marxist agenda ...

Too many politicians from the major parties seem to be under the influence of the hard left and assorted powerbrokers and lobbyists. They show little empathy for the ‘forgotten people’, ordinary Australians and their property rights, but are ready to smooth the well-lobbied path for communist government entities and oligarchs to acquire strategic assets, mines and agricultural land. And as with the greyhound ban, Liberal and at times even Nationals also readily abandon their base to ally themselves with neo-Marxists on matters social. This is graphically illustrated in that programme to seduce school children into the confused world of gender fluidity, rather than ensuring they do not fall further behind in core subjects, mathematics, writing, reading and history. There are even moves to replicate the federal assault on free speech exemplified in the notorious case against QUT students expelled from a segregated computer laboratory. 
The greyhound ban will not only destroy the lives, jobs and businesses of thousands of honest citizens, but as if NSW were some Marxist republic, Baird stripped them of any right to go to court to recover fair compensation. Already embarrassed over a secret report recommending measures to ensure fair compensation for his many resumptions, including houses seized for West-Connex, Baird is demonstrating an alarming disdain for the ‘forgotten people’. This follows the Turnbull team in their attack on present and future self-funded retirees, all the while leaving untouched the rivers of gold for retired politicians and top public servants.  
The greyhound ban was clearly on the ABC agenda, and as with live cattle exports and the Darwin detention centre, an inexperienced leader rushed to do their bidding. Rather than seek an audience with the Premier, one Liberal says the victims of the ban should have hired a lobbyist. Probably not; the lobbyists are no doubt salivating over the massive fees developers will pay them to open politicians’ doors about the state’s greyhound racing tracks, such as Wentworth Park.

Indeed, indeed, what we need is a little empathy for the forgotten people - here's Flinty dressed for his day at the dogs at Wentworth Park ...

What a dinkum digger he is, as dinkum as a dishlicker's doggie dish.

And luckily the pond could catch up with international affairs ...

Indeed, indeed ... we can all look forward to a brave new world ... and what a lot of memes there have been to celebrate its arrival ...

 

But above all, the pond was most impressed by the editorial for this week's edition, a howl of anguish, a cry of pain, a burst of intolerance designed to show the intolerant left just how intolerance is done ...

The pond particularly enjoyed that clever use of the word 'faggot', which apparently is routinely used in The Spectator for many things, but never a bound bundle of sticks.

It turns out, of course, that linguistic precision might have involved using the word 'faggot' for the sticks used to burn heretics for their filthy vile heresy - what a good clerical usage of the civil and tolerant kind - unless of course, it happened to be a diminutive and contemptuous term for women ...

And so on with the rest of the nonsense ...

Indeed, indeed. Talk about a front for Marxism, while all is well in the world ...

Okay, the pond has learned its lesson well.

If anyone heads off to a rag that routinely complains about how the reptiles of Oz are too soft on all sorts of things, they should expect to encounter the barking mad and the weird ...

What to make of this very old-fashioned Colebatchian rant, scribbled even as the new world order of dictators takes shape?

Yep, they're still back fighting the 1950s, seemingly unaware that there's a new world order woven from Trump supporters' legitimate concerns ...

Well that's more than enough arising from that brief flirtation, though it's a healthy reminder just how much the reptiles of Oz and the Spectator lizards share their contributors and an exotic world view ...

Lesson learned. The pond shouldn't stray too far from Pope, and more Pope here ...