The podcast of Tony Abbott’s address to the Sydney Institute is now online.

Peter talks about his new book The Last Intellectuals.

On Counterpoint listen to Australian scientist John Abbot recount the case of David Holland and his attempts to get climate data from the British Met Office.

Rafe Champion: "I don’t think that Peter Coleman was even on the list when Robert Manne was voted our Number One public intellectual. However when you have a look at Coleman’s track record over a period of half a century it is very impressive. Robert Manne is not in the same class, certainly not when you contemplate his post-Quadrant career."

It’s a little late, and sad, that the Left, in the guise a silly review by Hilary McPhee, should be ringing the lepers bell for Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s already sold out talk in Melbourne later this month.

Cardinal Pell: “A politician referred my February article on global warming to the Bureau of Meteorology for comment. In a roundabout way they conceded the truth of most of my factual statements, but ducked the issue of Roman warming and claimed that ‘all available hemispheric to global scale analyses’ suggest recent decades have been warmer than in the Middle Ages.  This is misleading.”

Clive Crook: “The case for the prosecution is never heard. Mann is asked if the allegations (well, one of them) are true, and says no. His record is swooned over. Verdict: case dismissed, with apologies that Mann has been put to such trouble.”

Kevin Donnelly: “Those responsible for the booklet, sponsored by the Australian Curriculum Studies Association and the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies, are happy to assert that teaching Islam should be embedded in every school subject.”

It is like going to a Quadrant dinner only times 50 in numbers. It is an unbelievable pleasure to be amongst it, and as an invited speaker as well.