Protesters jump on Lord Mayor Robert Doyle's car
outside the National Gallery of Victoria.
Picture: Andrew Tauber
Herald Sun
I WAS in the National Gallery of Victoria on Thursday talking with people over drinks when I first saw them at the door.
Yes, them - the street-fighting goons of a totalitarian movement
whose spiritual leaders are ministers of the Gillard Government.They were protesters who'd burst through a gallery entrance and were now trying to push through scared security guards defending the entrance to our function room.
What they'd do if they'd got their hands on us I don't know.
To judge by the posters attacking me and Rupert Murdoch, part of the "hate media" vilified by this Government, it might have been uncomfortable.
But Lord Mayor Robert Doyle later told me what they'd done to him outside.
They'd stopped his car, let down its tyres, sat on its roof, hammered on the windows and screamed obscenities at him.
One woman waved an "Eat the Rich" sign at the ample Doyle, with an unnervingly hungry glint in her eye.
Meanwhile, others with megaphones told latecomers to our function - the Institute of Public Affairs' 70th anniversary - it had been called off.
Exactly what evil inside the NGV needed to be stamped out was hard to tell, but I suspect it was the kind of thing Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and his Labor heavies have also tried to stop on Channel 10 and in the Murdoch newspapers.
You know, like talking.
Debating.
Criticising.
Questioning the Left's assumptions.
Yes, I mean the kind of thing this astonishingly authoritarian Government has tried to limit by proposing state control of the media, holding an inquiry into newspaper bias, bullying media executives and trying to make it unlawful to offend even people's political views.
Talking.
The new enemy of the Left.
So what kind of talk were these protesters trying to stop?
Well, at the very moment I saw the mob trying to reach us I was talking to the impressive new Opposition Leader of South Australia, Stephen Marshall, about how to put more workers into jobs.
How to make life easier for people by, say, cutting power bills.
I admit, this is dull stuff for most sane people apart from the bit where I advised Marshall to show his state was open for business by having himself filmed blowing up the first of his state's grotesquely expensive wind towers.
Sadly, Marshall's raised eyebrow tells me he will not start his premiership with such a satisfying bang, despite the international publicity I swear he'd attract.
For the rest of the night, here is what we talked about as fluoro-vested police and dark-suited men guarded the stage and the entrances.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told us to defend freedom, and to remember "much is expected from those to whom so much has been given".
We should also heed the injunction to "love your neighbour as you love yourself", which "is the foundation of our mercy".
Murdoch, my boss, told us to help our citizens make "a better life for themselves and their families" in a "fair and just society" in which "opportunity is open to all - not just those at the top".He attacked "crony capitalism" and anything that gave the impression "benefits are only for the already rich, well-connected and politically powerful".
Shocking talk.
See now why we wicked plotters needed guards to save us from the anger of the rent-a-mob?
See why simply arguing against us was not enough?
Why we had to be threatened, physically stopped and turned away?
Actually, I shouldn't exaggerate this protest.
Every society has people so damaged or megalomaniacal that debate is their enemy.
And these protesters helped us.
As I said in my own speech, they reminded us the enemies of the Open Society had been with us since Plato and are with us still.
Some are now ministers in the Gillard Government.
Many in the crowd, adrenalin still pumping from the push-and-shove, even seemed to feel more keenly that they, too, were foot-soldiers for freedom, and opened their wallets wider to help the IPA battle the Gillard authoritarians.
Indeed, one man who'd been confronted by protesters as he got out of his car was so enraged that he stumped up the biggest donation of the night, $25,000 to see the filming of my show.
Thanks, protesters.
You've helped the IPA.
But, best of all, you've shown us all the naked face of intolerance, and reminded us today's street thugs too easily become the politicians who tomorrow steal our freedom.
Like the ones who this year tried to.
Column by Andrew Bolt - Herald Sun
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