Global Mail shenanigans

Ken Gover writes: Re. “Fear and loathing at The Global Mail: what went so wrong?” (Tuesday). Websites that are hard to navigate. Left wing journos on hundreds of grand a year. People with major health issues losing their jobs. This is amazing stuff. I might stop watching Days of our Lives. The Orwell reference was spot on. Evelyn Waugh would have found a rich source of comedy material for a sequel to Scoop.

Nova Peris

John Richardson writes: Re. “Crikey says: Australia Day, indeed” (yesterday). So, Crikey contends that we should be concerned about the “health” of our democracy, on the basis that there are only five members of the federal House of Representatives who come from a non-European background.

The suggestion that our democratic institutions can only truly represent the interests of our society if their demographic make-up reflects that of the broader populace is nothing if not entirely spurious.

What “tokens” would Crikey propose be used to engineer this utopian state of affairs: gender, racial background, age, religion, residence, political views, taste, education, vocation, marital status, wealth, height, favourite colour or band, hobbies or maybe just good old-fashioned bad habits?

The suggestion that Australians should be concerned about the fact that there are only three indigenous members in federal Parliament is no different to suggesting that the introduction of arbitrary employment quotas based on gender has merit.

Surely it’s not difficult to appreciate that it’s in everyone’s interests to have the best available people representing our interests, rather than an engineered potpourri capable of delivering only mediocrity?

Dick Smith

Jason King writes: Re. “Advertising board doesn’t love Dick: Smith fights ‘censorship’” (yesterday). Does the self-centredness of Dick Smith know any bounds? First he names his brand after himself. And now complains about lefties, censorship and a quite reasonable decision by the CAD. It’s clear that Dick loves Dick which, for the rest of us, means he is a Dick with vains.

US presidents

Barney Langford writes: Re. “Richard Farmer’s chunky bits” (yesterday). Richard Farmer may know his Australian politics but he’s not so solid on American presidents. Thomas Madison never saluted the American voters. It’s THOMAS Jefferson or JAMES Madison. Inflation is steady at the moment but conflation appears to be on the rise.