Communism, for all its faults…

December 22, 2011

From John Roskam

Here’s what the 19,671 regular readers of Hey liked the most this year:

15,486 of you watched the IPA’s James Paterson demolish the carbon tax on Q&A.
1.03 million watched the famous Nando’s ‘dictator’ ad – but I guess the IPA can’t claim all those million viewers were because of us.
Mark Steyn’s freedom of speech video – if you’re not one of the 35,806 people who has already seen it – click here.

And to see the global superstar Mark Steyn IN PERSON book right now. Melbourne: Monday 27 February, CQ, Queen Street from 5.30pm, book here. Sydney: with Spectator Australia, Wednesday 29 February, details to come. Brisbane: Friday 2 March, Tattersalls Club, Queen Street from 5.30pm, book here.

The famous Dan Hannan versus Gordon Brown showdown in the European Parliament (2,847,636 views) would have made it into the list – except it was in 2009! See Hannan in the flesh in Sydney on Tuesday 21 February, City Tattersalls Club, Pitt Street from 5.30pm. RSVP here. And Melbourne on Friday 24 February, Sofitel, Collins Street from 5.30pm. RSVP here.

And here’s what Hey readers had no interest in this year:

budget cuts in the Tasmanian Health Department (10 views)
Cuba legalising private ownership of cars (24 views – I was surprised – I thought it was pretty interesting actually)
government regulation of buskers on the Gold Coast (28 views)

My personal Hey favourites were:

Paul Keating’s classic letter to New South Wales Opposition Leader John Robertson
Clive James in Standpoint on Australia
Treasury doublespeak from Hey in May – tax increases are now officially budget cuts.

Since when has semi-socialist Norway become the idea Australia should aspire to? Apparently we should copy their sovereign wealth fund idea. Maybe we could also copy their law to arrest people for importing…wait for it…butter. Here and here is what the IPA thinks of sovereign wealth funds.

And it’s fitting that in the last Hey of 2011 I tell you about the most stupid, dishonest, and ignorant thing I’ve read all year. It was in Monday’s Guardian (where else?) on the death of Václav Havel. Read these two sentences and think about them for a moment:

‘Havel’s anti-communist critique contained little if any acknowledgement of the positive achievements of the regimes of eastern Europe in the fields of employment, welfare provision, education and women’s rights. Or the fact that communism, for all its faults, was still a system which put the economic needs of the majority first.’

Excuse me?! …’communism, for all its faults…’ Then again The Guardian is still only 50/50 on the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Here’s one of my all-time favourite Christopher Hitchens articles, from Vanity Fair in February 2004 – on Michael Bloomberg’s Nanny State.

And if you want to know what I really think of Europe read my column from last Friday’s Australian Financial Review.

This is the last Hey for 2011. We’re back in January. Have a Merry Christmas.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week: