And then there were none. That was the thought that occurred last Thursday, in Bryanston, Sandton, when I attended the memorial service for Rupert Lorimer. Until his death in early January, Lorimer was the last living member of the group of six new MPs who, in 1974, were elected to parliament for the Progressive Party, [...]
The rancorous tone of the election campaign here, even before its official start, suggests many readers might prefer to take a spin in a Land Rover driven by Prince Philip than endure three more months of political noise. Expect it to get even louder and nastier. Bill Clinton, at one time a vote-winner of note, [...]
During the holiday season I attended a glitzy event in Cape Town for which the acronym MINO - money is no obstacle - applied in spades. During a lull in festivities, I had what might be termed a "Peter Bruce encounter'', though in circumstances likely more bling than those prevailing in his legendary pubs. An [...]
Despite modest support, she will create at least the possibility of handing the province to the ruling party Staying Power - Many might wonder whether Patricia de Lille, approaching 70, and with nary an ideological wobble, can really reinvent herself for a fourth time. Where on earth could a public discussion on the challenges facing [...]
There is the well-known joke about a foreign tourist lost in the mists of the Irish country side. He asks one of the locals for directions to Dublin. The Irishman replies, “Well sir, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here.” If you localised the characters, doubtless the squadron of South African politically correct [...]
By wisely turning away from the baubles of premiership, the DA leader avoided splitting the party leadership Last week in London I attended a dinner with some starring members of the British political establishment. The entire menu of conversations covered Brexit, and that was a day before Theresa May was ambushed by the European Union [...]
Leaders who create the right conditions to keep millionaires find that all of their residents – not just the wealthy ones – are richer for it Writing about the super-rich in South Africa is hardly the formula to win plaudits from the politically correct or the army of virtue-signalling trolls who inhabit the Twittersphere and [...]
What has our burning topic du jour, ‘expropriation without compensation’ to do with the price of bread? Or, less obviously, with the cost of bread-making machines? Clearly, if the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) fantastical policy prescriptions of wholesale property confiscations, state ownership of banks and the destruction of the private sector came to pass [...]
Like the Roman emperor, those who do the dance of opposites need more than a wall of mirrors to guard against stabbings in the back A few days ago I viewed the ruins of the palace of the emperor Domitian on the Palatine Hill opposite Rome’s famous Colosseum. Our informative guide provided no end of [...]
The fiasco around the rapid ousting of Cape Town mayor Peter Marais 17 years ago also differs from the damaging drawn-out imbroglio The DA is in turmoil. The party leadership attempts to fire its Cape Town mayor, who is both coloured and a populist, though also someone who has migrated across the party political map. [...]
