I'm still having terrible problems with dialup. Hopefully we can go onto broadband today. The regulatory regime does need to be changed as the Manuka exchange only supports ADSL at speeds up to 1.5Mb/s. We are in the heart of the capital city and the exchange does not currently support ADSL2+.

I couldn't resist this Pryor cartoon.

Pryor accurately represents my feelings on the issue. The old student Liberal warriors do go on about the principle that students should not be required to join a university "union" or guild; and they tend to say the market should decide about whether universities should be allowed to charge students a mandatory levy for sporting, health, and other facilities. They see the Nelson legislation as merely stopping unions forcing students to pay their own money for services that they don't want or need. User pays should be the new principle.

Personally I was grateful that Flinders University had good free medical services that I could access when I needed them.

Ive always thought that this totemic issue is more about fighting old battles and settling yesterday's scores with the aspiring Labor politicians on the university battlefield.

Since many vibrant clubs on campus are already self-funding would not a better approach be to figure out ways the universities can help give a political education? What is always missing in these discussions is citizenship. But then our political parties are not known for their commitment to democracy are they?

It has always suprised me that we do not have a political cartoon website that is archived by the National Library. Good work is being produced by our cartoonists. The first page I turn to in the Australian Financial Review is the back one to savour the daily Rowe cartoon.