I once compared being leader of the opposition to making bricks without straw. You desire to change things or shift opinion, but objectively lack an essential ingredient to do so. Tony Blair on the comparison said: “When I was leader of the opposition I started the day with ‘what can I say’; now that I [...]
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 [...]
I was reminded sharply on Tuesday night of the rebuke “no one forced you to do this” when I guest anchored the eNCA tv show ‘Let’s Have it Out’. I selected the topic ‘expropriation without compensation –the economic consequences’. Intended as a sort of tv bloodsport, my opponent for the evening was EFF Gauteng chair, [...]
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 [...]
