The Right and student politics

Peter Wildblood writes: Re. “Pyne’s crusade: campus fight looming over uni services fees” (yesterday). My experience in four universities here and the UK is that whenever the “Right” chose to exercise political clout it had no trouble in doing so. This was the view of an LSE (that hotbed of the socialist Left!) alumnus I spoke to; he was a conservative MP and took the trouble to organise his like-minded students and had no trouble winning the union presidency at the time. How much easier would it be for the “Right” to do so in a much more multi-faculty institution that included medical and engineering students?

The truth is that the “Right” are lazy and/or focused on their studies and that leaves a vacuum for the “Left” to dominate student politics. So Pyne and Abbott found it difficult when  they were students — tough!

Peter Matters writes: Freedom of choice and expression is a cherished part of the Liberal Party’s philosophy. The only exceptions are the freedoms of expression the Liberal Party does not like.

WA changes its tune

Cr Ingrid Strewe writes: Re. “Sovereign risk at last? WA Premier threatens Browse venture” (yesterday). The WA Premier is demanding more GST or higher GST from the poor, as he has lost his state’s AAA credit rating. Isn’t this the state that wanted to secede during the mining boom, a period when the state government forgot that WA had previously been propped up by the eastern states?

How much is the SMH worth?

David Whittingham writes: Re. “SMH, Age hike paper prices” (yesterday). Yes, Fairfax content is that much better. But it’s beginning to stretch a friendship, as I live in an area where there’s no home delivery so no subscription bargains or free website access. I stayed in Sydney last week and scanned a couple of free Telegraphs courtesy of the hotel. It’s a joke, even at $1.20.