The Right isn’t dead just yet

Alf Liebhold writes: Re. “Rundle: imploding Right in its Winter Palace turns against the people” (yesterday). Rundle at his best is momentous, colossal, epitomising erudition, intelligence and subtly penetrating hilarious humour. I laughed so much that my wife rushed in to make sure I was OK! A moment well worth the annual Crikey subscription.

Ronny Cook writes: While Rundle (and many others) proclaim, in effect, the death of the Right in Australia, the polls tell us that at any time over 40% of the population would prefer to have the Coalition in power. While I may wonder what worldview would find the behaviour of the current bunch of nincompoops reasonable, it appears that at least two out of five people, perhaps buying the Coalition’s tales about Labor’s iniquity and incompetence, would still prefer to have them than the alternative. We may like to think that the death of the Right is at hand, but the numbers say otherwise. Even in the Queensland election, almost half of those elected were from the Coalition. The swing was large, but the raw numbers were, in the end, roughly even. Perhaps the question we should be asking is what it takes to convince that 40%? On the other hand, they may be thinking the exact thing about those who favour the Left.

Abbott dead wrong on encryption

Gary Woodman writes: Re. “Abbott targets Muslims and backflips on free speech in terrorism statement” (Monday). We see the PM in another futile attempt to shoot the messenger by blaming Edward Snowden for encouraging the use of encryption. Does he really believe this rubbish, or is he just lying again? Amongst people who care, and who are aware, it’s well recognised that the increasing popularity of encryption is a result of efforts by Tony Abbott and his fellow conspirators in the mass surveillance state.