Happy Australia Day!

Programming note: Tonight, Thursday, I'll be joining Tucker Carlson coast to coast across America live at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific - with a rerun at 12 midnight Eastern. If you are in the vicinity of the receiving apparatus, I hope you'll dial us up.

~It may be Thursday in New Hampshire, but it's Friday Down Under, which means it's already Australia Day. Like every other part of the western inheritance, Australia Day is apparently "controversial", so it has been observed in St Kilda by the vandalization of the statue of Captain Cook (right), which was daubed in paint and the words "NO PRIDE". Native grievances - or, more precisely, white liberal perception of native grievances - managed to ruin, totally, Canada's sesquicentennial. I hope the Lucky Country is luckier than the Senior Dominion in that respect.

Meanwhile, I thought Aussies and non-Aussies alike might enjoy this speech from my last appearance with the IPA Down Under - at their big beano in the heart of Melbourne, five miles or so from that defaced Captain Cook statue. There are a few Oz-centric jokes at the beginning that may be baffling for Americans and Uzbeks and whatnot, but don't worry about it - just let it put you in the festive mood:

Also for this Australia Day, here I am last year talking to the country's second longest-serving Prime Minister (after Sir Robert Menzies) on US-Aussie relations at the dawn of the Trump era:

We'll have a little more Australian content for the holiday weekend. Meanwhile, the many members of The Mark Steyn Club Down Under are welcome to take issue with me and Mr Howard in the comments section. For more on The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and anybody looking for the perfect Australia Day gift is reminded to check out our special Steyn Club Gift Membership.

I'll see you on the telly for "Tucker Carlson Tonight".