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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud, the podcast where a few writers each week from the magazine read out their

articles. This week, we hear from Douglas Murray, and he asks why anyone would want to be a

government advisor in light of what's happened to Tony Abbott. And then we hear from historian Francis

Pike about Thailand's modern colligula. And at the very end, Philip Hensher reads out his review

of Alex Ross's new book about Wagner. First, Douglas Murray.

Poor Tony Abbott. It would seem being Prime Minister of Australia doesn't bring you to the

attention of the British media. To come into its

sites, you must be put forward for a role as UK Trade Advisor. Then they will discover your

existence and aim to destroy whatever reputation they didn't know you had with the usual

modern British charge sheet. This time the charge was led

by Kay Burley. The latest advertisements for her Sky television show boast that Burley is always

formidable, rigorous, fair, honest and searching, among much else.

Perhaps Burley hadn't seen the advert. Certainly, she displayed no such qualities when she

discovered the existence of Tony Abbott. She immediately asserted, didn't prove, just asserted, that Abbott is a homophobe, a misogynist, a climate change denier, and wishes to kill the elderly.

She then spent the next couple of days pursuing this line of attack in a fair and honest manner, obviously, until Abbott's appointment was confirmed

late last Friday evening. By that stage, the rest of the anti-Torri media had joined the game.

Pressure on PM to drop misogynist trade adviser, said the front page of one left-wing paper.

A day later, the appointment having been confirmed, the same paper ran the headline,

PM appoints misogynist Abbott as Trade Advisor.

If I were an averagely incurious young person, this is the sort of thing that would worry me.

The UK government knowingly promotes women haters. Who are these monsters?

...