Anthony Daniels, who often writes under the pen-name Theodore Dalrymple, worked for many years as a doctor and psychiatrist in a prison in Birmingham, England, and in various countries of Africa. He is a regular columnist in both the United Kingdom and the United States, and has published more than 20 books, including Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass…

Australia won’t become a food bowl to the world or Asia, but it can become the delicatessen to Asia if key issues facing farmers are addressed. Rabobank argued this case in its submission to Barnaby Joyce’s inquiry into agricultural competitiveness. Rabobank is a Dutch-based, cooperative bank that operates in 42 countries, with 92 branches in Australia and New Zealand. It runs client councils…

Soaring house prices Sir, Peter Westmore’s article, “Flawed inquiry ignores Chinese investment in real estate” (News Weekly, July 5), briefly mentions supply of land as a factor in soaring house prices, but fails to mention negative gearing. Federal governments have long been using the tax system to subsidise landlords at the expense of tenants and taxpayers in general, for no good reason. With…

THE REAL GREAT ESCAPE: The Story of the First World War’s Most Daring Mass Breakout by Jacqueline Cook (Sydney: Vintage Books) Paperback: 320 pages ISBN: 9780857981141 Price: AUD$34.95   Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel   One of the best-known war movies, The Great Escape (1963), depicts the daring escape of Allied prisoners-of-war from a heavily guarded German POW camp near Sagen, Lower Silesia,…