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Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts

Labor ruins 125-year-old Anzac tradition

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This isn’t just a budget trim, it exposes Labor for having no interest in defending the nation’s soul.

Clad in their distinctive uniforms, these Salvation Army officers, known colloquially as Sally Men, provided hot brews – tea, coffee, biscuits, and often a listening ear to soldiers far from home. It was during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 that their role truly embedded itself in the Anzac legend. Amid the mud, blood, and ceaseless artillery, the Sally Man was a beacon of humanity, reminding our troops that someone back home cared.

This tradition, stretching back to the Boer War era around 1900, has endured through two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and countless peacekeeping missions. It’s not hyperbole to say it’s woven into the fabric of Australian identity, much like the slouch hat or the rising sun badge.

Fast forward to 2025, and the Albanese government’s latest federal budget has quietly axed funding for the Salvation Army’s military support programs, including the frontline Sally Man initiatives. Buried in the fine print of defence allocations, this estimated $1.5 million annual cut will force the Salvos to scale back their presence in barracks, on exercises, and during deployments.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Labor ruins 125-year-old Anzac tradition.

Remembering Robert Redford, the man who lit up my youth

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Redford as The Great Waldo Pepper, a daredevil aviator chasing glory in the skies after the Great War.

This week, Robert Redford, that golden-haired icon of American cinema, quietly slipped away at age 89, the same age my grandfather passed a few years ago.

Redford passed peacefully at his Sundance retreat in the Utah mountains. The man who embodied the rugged individualism of the West, played the heist, and soared through the skies on screen, now rests among the peaks he so fiercely protected. It’s a fitting end for a life that was anything but ordinary, a life that provided the soundtrack and scenery to my coming of age.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

The golden era of Hollywood has lost one of its most dearly loved stars. Robert Redford slipped away at 89. As Michael de Percy writes, ‘Redford passed peacefully at his Sundance retreat in the Utah mountains. The man who embodied the rugged individualism of the West, played the heist, and soared through the skies on screen, now rests among the peaks he so fiercely protected. It’s a fitting end for a life that was anything but ordinary, a life that provided the soundtrack and scenery to my coming of age.’

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy reveals a romantic streak in his otherwise ruthless political persona – although Redford’s politics and Michael’s would be polar opposites. As an actor and director, Redford made great films although, as Christopher Tookey points out in his appreciation, he didn’t fancy himself a great actor. Too many well-known people of the 60s and 70s are popping their clogs this year, but let’s make one thing clear as many of us mourn our lost youth through them: they died, not passed, or passed away. Why is it, in an age where social media brutalises the public discourse, everyone now says dead people ‘pass away’, not ‘die’?

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Remembering Robert Redford, the man who lit up my youth.

Charlie Kirk's Assassination #NoMore Double Standards

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It's time to start the #NoMore movement. No more double standards. No more two-tier policing.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk in the United States this week has sent shock waves around the world. Why did a young man ruin his life by taking the life of another? 

One of the things that I think we need to seriously look at now is our education system and how our education system, which has moved further and further to the left, is now arguing progressive points of view. 

We heard Black Lives Matter and the Me Too movement and we saw the extremes that these went to. 

Rather than riots in the United States, what we've seen as a result of Charlie Kirk's assassination have been prayer vigils. 

So for the conservative movement, a tragedy, but at the same time, we really need to start looking at what causes university students to behave this way. And I blame our education system. I think our education system has made it okay, much like the two-tier policing we've witnessed in the United Kingdom, and we're starting to see that in Australia as well. 

Two-tier policing, where leftist progressive causes are okay and conservative causes are not, represents the double standard that we're now starting to see in social and political commentary. It was okay for some to make light or even make fun of or rejoice and celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk. 

We saw this in particular with the incoming president of the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom. Repeatedly we hear that freedom of speech is sacrosanct. However, this only applies to the left. Anything that's said by the right is determined to be hate speech. 

Now there are extremes and I'm not arguing for extremes on either side but we need to have a much more centrist approach to this and this has been part of the great conversation and the great contest of ideas that is a hallmark of liberal democracy. 

The problem with moving too far to the left is that we're leaving behind liberal democracy and we're getting ever closer to socialism. 

Two-tier policing is a result of the double standard that is being applied. And we see this in particular with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. 

In the United Kingdom, you can lose your position for misgendering somebody, but for laughing about the assassination of somebody else. These are people in positions of responsibility. If this had happened in the private sector, there would have been outcry. 

However, when it happens in the education system, it's okay because the system looks after itself. 

Our education system has been overtaken by progressive ideas, but not just progressive ideas, but extreme leftist ideas. And this needs to change. 

It's time to start the #NoMore movement. No more assassinations. No more double standards. No more two-tier policing. No more putting up with criminal activity. It's time that our country got back on track.

Gallipoli Scholarship gives Anzac kids a fighting chance

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The audience was brought to tears on numerous occasions. Not through laughter, but pride and humility.

In an era where military service is seen by some as anti-peace and anti-humane, I was struck by the positive nature of the Gallipoli Club and the recipients of the Gallipoli Scholarship Foundation. To hear from two recipients of the scholarship, both direct descendants of working-class Anzacs, was a poignant reminder not to discount Australian youth when it comes to matters of national pride. We often assume our youth do not have the same patriotic fervour but having taught more than 20,000 young Australians over the years, and after listening to the Gallipoli Scholars, you will be pleased to know that patriotism is not dead but rather hiding in a closet.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Gallipoli Scholarship gives Anzac kids a fighting chance.

Royal Enfield Intercontinental GT 650 bar end update

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The new bar ends work a treat. Much nicer than the chunky grey originals.

I purchased the bar end caps from Cafe Racer Club and tried to fit them to my Royal Enfield Intercontinental GT 650 yesterday.

The original bar end caps.

As others had found, the bar end weights, designed to minimise vibration in the handlebars, do not allow bar end insert mirros to be fitted, or after market end caps.

Left: Original end cap and bar end weight. Right: Cafe Racer Club bar end cap and insert.  

Others have found that removing the bar end weights is relatively easy. Not for me. In the end, we used a slide hammer to get them out.

The new bar ends are much narrower.

Once removed, the Cafe Racer Club end bar caps were fitted, and it works a treat.

The Cafe Racer Club bar ends are the tapered version. They are much narrower than the originals.

With the bar end mirrors and the end caps, I have noticed no noticeable difference to handling or vibration in the bars.

The original bar ends are quite chunky.

I think it looks great and it has shaved a bit off the width of the bars which has proven handy for getting through my gate.

Royal Enfield Intercontinental GT 650 bar end mirrors problem solved!

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Royal Enfield 2025 Intercontinental GT 650 bar end mirrors problem solved!

When my brand new Royal Enfield 2025 Intercontinental GT 650 turned up, the bar end mirrors were slipping all over the place. The message from the workshop was that I would need to adjust them. They also didn't have any blanks to fill the holes left from the stock mirrors.

You can buy the blanking caps for the stock mirrors from Cafe Racer Club.

I bought these mirror blanking screws from Cafe Racer Club and fitted them with some 222 Loctite Screw Lock. Tip for new players: Use a piece of cloth or cardboard so the screwdriver doesn't scratch the paint off the driving slot on the blanking plug.

My GT 650 arrives.

I'd purchased the Royal Enfield branded mirrors but they just didn't seem to fit. Then I watched a YouTube video where the original bar end inserts were replaced when fitting some chrome Stadium mirrors. To get the bar end inserts out seems to be a two-person job. If you peel back the grips slightly, you will see a hole on top and bottom of the bar. These holes fit little lugs in the bar end insert to hold it in place. You have to depress the lugs in each hole simultaneously to remove the insert.

I intend to replace the original inserts when my new Cafe Rider Club bar ends arrive.

On the end of the original insert is a keyway that matches the original bar end caps. Some people file these flat but I wanted to keep the old parts. I also wanted my mirrors to stay in place. I found the metal and plastic sleeves provided in the bar end mirror kit were superfluous.

The sleeves are superfluous on the GT 650 and the original cap screw is too long.

But if you take the original bar end caps off, you can bolt the mirrors straight into the bars, leaving a small gap between the throttle and the mirror. I also put the mirror flush with the end of the bars (not the bar end lug). The mirrors will stay put.

I left a gap for the throttle.

Next, I re-fitted the original bar end caps by using a shorter cap screw (and with a full thread). This means the original end caps fit flush with the lugs on the original bar end insert.

The screw is a M6 x 16mm, 1.0 pitch, socket head cap screw. Works a treat! I will update this once I work out how to fit the Cafe Racer Club tapered bar end finishers.

My café racer removed the stink of propaganda

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My Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 helped remove the stench of Hamas propaganda. 

In an era where the nanny state wants to bubble-wrap us, where electric vehicles hum like drones and autonomous cars threaten to erase human agency, the Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 café racer stands as a symbol of unapologetic Anglo individualism. After taking redundancy from my 20-year academic career, I did the most un-Woke thing possible: I bought a motorcycle. As a flâneur of politics and open roads, I’ve always believed true freedom lies not in policy papers but in the raw thrill of machinery that harkens back to an age of adventure.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Our political correspondent, Michael de Percy, has gone out and bought himself a motorbike in an act of defiance against political correctness. He writes, ‘While Australia seemed to crumble on the Bridge last Sunday, I celebrated my Anglo heritage in a part of NSW untouched by what I see as misguided activism.’

My latest in The Spectator Australia, My café racer removed the stink of propaganda.

Climate change strikes Canberra

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Cold winters in the Canberra region? Quelle surprise!

Like a GBU-57 bunker buster, global warming turned into global boiling and then suddenly turned into weather so cold it burst pipes in Canberra schools. Using the expression that has now been put into text by our esteemed Editor-in-Chief, it must be CLIIIIIIMATE CHAAAAAAAANGE!!!

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Are you cold? Apparently burst icy pipes in Canberra are a sign of the global warming apocalypse. Don’t question it.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Lastly, Michael de Percy has an annoyance du jour. Canberra and its surrounding regions lately have been experiencing their severest cold weather for a while (but has it reached the regular minus 9s of my early 80s uni days at the ANU?), But no, the official explanation in the Stalinist Republic of the Molonglo is man-made climate change, and that rightly annoys Dr de Percy.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Climate change strikes Canberra.

Vandalising the Vietnam war memorial an act of sacrilege

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 9 RAR soldiers during their farewell parade from South Vietnam in November 1969 [Public Domain]

My letter to the editor was published in the Canberra Times today.

Today (Tuesday, March 12) I saw the photos of the vandalism of the Vietnam War Memorial in Canberra and I am livid.

How dare they. Get out of my country.

If it was not for those who served in the Australian military and the thousands of Americans who died defending Australia the freedoms the perpetrators abuse would not exist.

If they think Australia's responses to the Malayan Emergency, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War were wrong then go and live in North Korea and enjoy the paradise they must imagine exists there.

The police have to prosecute those responsible. They have crossed a line.

No leniency should be shown.

Michael de Percy, Gunning, NSW 

It’s time the ABC was privatised

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Coronation Procession at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla. Photo: Katie Chan [CC BY-SA 4.0]

In my view, the ABC no longer provides news and current affairs content that is relevant to mainstream Australians. This means that mainstream Australian taxpayers are funding the Woke, biased content that constantly streams from the so-called public broadcaster. Yet the ABC’s news and current affairs service only represents a narrow, left-wing audience. It is time the people who actually watch or listen to the ABC paid for it. It is time for the ABC’s news and current affairs service to be privatised.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator Australia's Flat White, "It’s time the ABC was privatised".

Australia's Korean War 70 years on

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At the DMZ, April 2023

As we approach the 70th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement (July 27, 1953), it is timely to reflect on Australia’s contribution to securing what is effectively the frontier of democracy.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Australia's Korean War 70 years on.

Memes: The Road to Collectivism

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As politics becomes increasingly polarised, policymakers are no longer focused on giving voters what they want, but on making voters want what they are given. Rather than presenting policies as rational choices for individual voters, policies increasingly ignore the intelligence of individuals in support of a collectivist agenda.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Memes: The Road to Collectivism:

Divide et Impera: Culture wars and the end of pluralism

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"Me trying to live my life" Tuba Meme

Pluralism – or the ‘doctrine of multiplicity’ - tends to go hand-in-hand with liberal democracy. Based on the concept of ‘freedom of assembly and association’, individuals are generally free to protest peacefully or be part of non-violent groups and to organise around common interests and promote their views publicly. This has not always been the case.

Leading Flat White, Michael de Percy believes that the ‘divide and conquer’ mentality dominating the Culture Wars is on the verge of winning. ‘Pluralism – or the “doctrine of multiplicity” – tends to go hand-in-hand with liberal democracy. Based on the concept of ‘freedom of assembly and association’, individuals are generally free to protest peacefully or be part of non-violent groups and to organise around common interests and promote their views publicly. This has not always been the case.’ He goes on to add, ‘How times have changed…’

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Divide et Impera: The end of pluralism.

What does Australia Day mean to me?

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Nothing says Australia Day like Aussie flags made in China, sold by Germans, with Mardi Gras beer. 

Tomorrow, I'm gonna wave my Aussie flag, made in China, sold by Germans, while drinking my cans of Mardi Gras-badged Little Creatures Pale Ale, because I bloody can because that's what Australia Day means to me.

This came about after Telstra's CEO decided to abandon the Australia Day holiday and certify their wokeness. As a customer, I am not impressed.

So I put in a complaint to Telstra via the Telstra App. Surprisingly, the helpdesk was on to it toot sweet! Perhaps they have had enough of woke bosses, too?



Decolonising ends up where, exactly?

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Brittania Rules the Waves. Nicholas Habbe, 1876 [CC0]

Before the Christmas holidays, one of my mates jokingly said something about ‘soon you’ll be writing about the left’s war on Christmas’. I hadn’t thought about it until I noticed all of Australia’s universities, apart from two, had ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘wishing you a happy festive season’ as their Christmas messages on LinkedIn. A commenter suggested to one of our oldest universities, ‘it’s OK to say Merry Christmas, you know’. I’m all for celebrating and respecting the various religious holidays but why is it so difficult to say ‘Merry Christmas’? Christmas, it seems, like much of the great tapestry of Western civilisation, is routinely demonised. It stems from an emerging academic trend known as ‘decolonising’ and it represents a misguided attempt to undo history and the foundations of the Western tradition. But to what end, exactly?

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Decolonising ends up where, exactly?

A Grassroots Revival of Conservative Politics

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Dr Michael de Percy presenting at the Public Policy Network 2020 Conference.

John Howard and Peter Costello are right to remind the federal government that we are 'robbing the future to pay for [the] present'. With Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ warning about Australia’s ageing population setting up the scene for an 'important announcement' (which will probably mean the stage 3 tax cuts will be removed and taxes will be increased), the time is ripe for the Coalition to put forward what they do best – reforms. Coinciding the reforms required within the party (as set out in the recent review of the party) with a policy platform based on conservative values will provide a clear distinction between Labor and the government-in-waiting. But that alone will not be enough. What is needed is a grassroots revival of conservative politics in Australia.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, A Grassroots Revival of Conservative Politics:

Striking down the law to get at the devil

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Robert Bolt's 'A Man for All Seasons'. Photo: Patrick Huber [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0] 

It began when the lawns atop Parliament House were fenced off. The whole point of the design of Parliament House was to enable the physical and symbolic act of the people walking over the Parliament as a reminder that our elected representatives are beneath the people. Parliamentary sovereignty in Australia means that the people are sovereign. Since, however, Australia has been on a crash course to diminish the sovereignty of the people as technocrats incrementally grab more power. And we are letting it happen.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, The sovereignty of technocrats and rule of lawyers. The editorial read:
Australians are getting the distinct feeling that they are no longer governed over by law – but rather by lawyers, technocrats, the media, and celebrities. It’s not only the bizarre ritual of ‘trial by mob’ making a comeback in the #MeToo era – it is everything. Our institutions have lost touch with what were once binding ideas and now society has been cast adrift, left to the mercy of headlines and hashtags.

Would you fight the next war in a conventional submarine?

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CSS Hunley - a woke submarine for our times. Photo: Wally Gobetz [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

Do armchair warriors really believe our submariners should fight in obsolete diesel-electric submarines in defence of our nation? Making the performative French President happy should never come at the expense of our defence force personnel.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Ignore the French, the next war requires nuclear subs.

The Korean War: The Long March to Liberty

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Nuclear Missile Deterrents, Korean War Museum [Michael de Percy CC BY-ND 4.0]

I visited the Korean War Memorial on 22 September 2022. I have never seen a B-52 in the flesh. I will let these photos speak for themselves for now.















The Australian War Memorial is not a political football

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Gunning Chapter of the RSL, ANZAC Day 2022. Photo by Eliza Markert [CC BY-ND 4.0] 

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, The Australian War Memorial is not a political football.

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