Lessons from history

At a time most commentators are declaring the old left–right dichotomy dead, Mike Seccombe provides evidence to the contrary. Last week he described the dismemberment of Fairfax (“What the future holds for Fairfax”, May 13-19) and the previous week the Coalition’s funding attack on tertiary education (“The war on universities”, May 6-12). This same period has seen increasingly xenophobic dog-whistling for “traditional values” and other forms of contraction from the government, including Peter Dutton’s applause for Fairfax's disintegration. Surrounding this has been the rise of such crude expressions of conservatism as Trump, Erdoğan, Orbán and Le Pen, who are not much different from the authoritarian personalities of the World

War II era. These people share intolerance of diversity and social dynamism, along with a preoccupation with wealth and other means to power. Plus ça change.

– John Hayward, Weegena, Tas