Insights from Quadrant

Pyongyang
on the Yarra

That writers suffer for their readers cannot be denied, not after what must have been for James Macpherson the extended and painful ordeal of keeping tongue jammed firmly in cheek while penning this entry at The Spectator‘s Flat White blog:

Authorities have closed children’s playgrounds, cordoning them off with police tape, and yet small children still ride their bikes through parks, laughing playfully, as if it is their God-given right. Covid-denying, anti-vax, Murdoch press reading, far-right conspiracy theorists. All of them.

And their parents too.

Such open defiance of the Supreme Leader cannot be allowed to continue.

That’s why harsh penalties set out in the Public Health and Wellbeing bill must be adopted. If people won’t comply with the Dear Leader’s directions, they should be subject to lengthy jail terms or crippling fines — preferably both — as set out in the new legislation. Sometimes you must be cruel to be kind. Ask any dictator…

Macpherson’s column can be read in full here.

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