Abbott’s gaffe has raised quite a stir!
It has exposed the smelly spots in the Coalition. ‘One Nation’ is a prick of irritation.
In fact the shit has hit the fan, and to use another comment heard about the traps, it has all turned round to bit him on the bum.
It’s no use castigating the Press. That is biting the hand that feeds you when it comes to politicians of any colour.
We are all getting in a lather about the identity of the next PM.
The first Commonwealth Parliament met in Melbourne in 1901 with great ceremony, but not without stumbles.
When Lord Hopeton arrived to become the first Governor-General he asked William Lyne as the premier of the foundation state, New South Wales, to be the first Prime Minister. It created a revolt. William Lyne did not support the idea of Federation and was a Protectionist (not an altogether popular stance). Lyne was not able to form a cabinet and Hopeton was forced to look again. There were two men, both of whom had equal claim to be appointed to the positions, Edmund Barton and Alfed Deakin. Hopeton appointed Edmund Barton.
For the next nine years Australia had TEN PMs. 2010 seems like a different kind of Ship of Fools.
J Ramsay Sutherland
Miranda Devine hits the nail on the head of what could well be the nail in the coffin for the Australian Labour Party in today’s federal election: “the faceless men” (News Review, Sydney Morning Herald, 21 August, 2010, page 9).
“Win, lose or draw, the unscrupulous gamble by Labour’s factional and union heavies to remove a democratically elected prime minister eight weeks ago and rush to an election has not been a triumph for Labour or Julia Gillard.”
But it is not just the “faceless men” of Labour … it is all such “men” of any political persuasion that horrify me in their power and ability to ride rough shod over the entire democratic process that we have fought wars to retain.
These power brokers provide the incendiary material for leaders’ speeches, catering for democracy at its lowest possible level. They make it their business to bamboozle readers who have only reached a reading age of eleven by couching their message in words of more than one syllable.