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OZ VOTES 2
Early numbers from Queensland ain’t good; Labor’s Robert Ray believes we may be only 25 minutes from a Labor victory call. For views from what at this point might be the winning side, check the live lefty blogging from Tim Dunlop.
UPDATE. Dani Ecuyer’s share in Wentworth (where the government’s Malcolm Turnbull has improved his vote): 1.0%.
UPDATE II. This week’s column: a loser’s guide to the election, for supporters of both parties. Labor types may feel it irrelevant. Julia Gillard now calling it for Labor. Wild screams in the tally room following latest figures from Bennelong (Maxine McKew ahead on primary votes); Kerry O’Brien looking delighted.
UPDATE III. Seven reports John Howard may concede by 9.00pm.
UPDATE IV. Comments registrations are open! Sign on for post-election commentary chaos.
UPDATE V. Kerry O’Brien: “With 60% of the vote counted, the swing to the ABC is ...” Good call, Kerry. In other accurate announcements, airhead Adelaide candidate Nicole Cornes tells David Koch: “You probably know more than I do.” True, no matter who she was speaking to. Three per cent swing to Cornes, by the way.
UPDATE VI. 22-seat Labor majority predicted by Seven. Nine graphic: “Kevin Rudd wins election!”
UPDATE VII. The reception for Maxine McKew showed just how personal is Labor’s loathing of John Howard. A little graceless, it was.
UPDATE VIII. Greens leader Bob Brown just mentioned the need to direct our economy “away from burning forests”. In point of fact, the burning forest sector of our economy is rather small. Brown also predicts a Labor flip on that Tasmanian pulp mill, supported during the election campaign by Rudd and Peter Garrett. Saint: “I am thinking about how I dislike the Greens more each time I hear Bob Brown speak.”
UPDATE IX. It would be interesting to know what Mark Latham is thinking tonight, given his hatred of Howard is just about equal to his hatred of Rudd.
UPDATE X. Excellent concession speech from Mal Brough, including a plea that Kevin Rudd persist with intervention in troubled Aboriginal communities.
Jackie Kelly talking about humility, re all the people who come out to help. Striking difference.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 05:25 AM • permalinkAsh - well, we fixed our mortgage interest rate 3 months ago. That’s how we’re calling it.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 05:27 AM • permalinkLabor commenter on 7 is saying just scraping over the line is ‘a landslide’!
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 05:28 AM • permalinkBidding on Kevin07 T-Shirts on ebay is rocketing along - up from $0.01 a couple of days ago to $16 this evening. Link
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 05:30 AM • permalink7 is virtually calling Bennelong for McKew. Gillard has called it for the ALP.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 05:30 AM • permalinkBeazley not calling it yet, seems very nervous about WA.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 05:31 AM • permalinkUpside: All that talk of the mighty greens didn’t eventuate...except in Tassy...but they are weird.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 05:31 AM • permalink#14 - Do they get a vote for each head in Tassie? :)
#15 - Across Australia 13,645,073 electors enrolled to vote. Probably 90% or so vote.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 05:33 AM • permalinkAcross Australia 13,645,073 electors enrolled to vote. according to the AEC.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 05:34 AM • permalinkGeez but Beattie is an arse - he needs to throttle back a bit if he’s going to get invited back. I suspect his recent retirement had a lot to do with avoiding the bloodletting at state level that’s coming in the next few years.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 05:34 AM • permalinkThe upside of a Federal loss, (I hope) is that the states will start to fall come the revolution, I mean, the next state elections.
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 11 24 at 05:36 AM • permalinkGrimmy - computer analysis is done based on trends in voting, so-called “swings”. If the votes consistently show the same swing in a seat, they can call it prematurely.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 05:36 AM • permalink#22, well, that would be nice, but the most incompetent state government, NSW, isn’t up for re-election until 2011. That’s a long time.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 05:39 AM • permalinkCounting is underway in WA - Brand (Beazley’s old seat) trending Liberal but less than 0.5% counted.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 05:39 AM • permalinkAnd unfortunately in Qld the opposition is so completely and utterly incompetent that Labor may well get back yet again. Ho hum.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 05:46 AM • permalink#29 - Way to demonstrate your intelligence there.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 05:47 AM • permalinkABC News Radio is pretty much handing the election to Labor.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 11 24 at 05:47 AM • permalinkThat was a troll? I thought it was a bot.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 05:47 AM • permalink#36 Can’t see that happening now, I think Rudd’s safe.
Though I’d like to see some witty, erudite trolls. Too much to ask? Bring back Miranda Divide.
And Lunchboy.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 05:49 AM • permalinkCome on Ash, you know very well gazzaaaa’s got no money.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 05:52 AM • permalinkThe young only know what they have read in history. Which is not to be believed.
Many older voters believe the forgotten past of Labor history.
If Labor wins I will do what I did last time and ignore Labor until they go away again. Then the Libs will return until we have a new cycle of the forgotten past.Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 11 24 at 05:56 AM • permalinkLooks like Howard about to concede in Bennelong. Panel on 7 already conducting autopsy.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 05:57 AM • permalinkLingiari has the Libs on 49.4% of the primary vote but is giving the 2PP to Labor: WTF?
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 05:57 AM • permalinkWho let all those howling fucking gibbons into the tally room?
I took one look at that gurning halfwit Beattie and immediately switched over to Aunty.At least I know which way the ABC bias leans.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2007 11 24 at 06:00 AM • permalink7 declares"It’s a Ruddslide!”
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:01 AM • permalink#48: Flowers will bloom, children will laugh and frolic in the streets....kinda like how Chris Shiel first proposed back here
For those who missed it:
Think of those kids drawing boards, where you just lift the plastic and everything disappears.
Scene opens with a selection of what’s already written all over the dark looking board, juxtaposed with old Howard’s face, looking out the corner of his eyes - non-core, never-ever gst, Peter Reith on the phone with dogs and goons, no apology, wretched asylum seekers, no Kyoto, children overboard (not), war, collapsing infrastructure, Hollingsworth scandal, Kirribili House, Telstra in hock, soaring international debt, soaring casualisation, soaring taxation levels, banks and global drug companies gorging themselves, little Aussie children dying like dogs in the street etc etc etc ... and the camera shows the 8 dark years being gradually erased, as the plastic sheet is lifted at the forthcoming election, and underneath what is gradually revealed is a picture of the young Mark Latham, not looking out of the corner of his eyes, but reading to children, shaking hands with workers, laughing with teachers and nurses, all set in a fresh, young, green, bright, co-operative morning in Australia ...
Yes, he really did say that.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:02 AM • permalink’Gurning halfwit’! LOL!
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:02 AM • permalinkWell, as far as I am concerned, it’s congratulations where it’s due.
Don’t forget, there is a generation of voters aged 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19 and 18 who have not suffered under Labor as a voter.
The next three years will be interesting.
The best thing the conservatives could do at this point is not challenge the Bogus Thirteen, but get on with being a decent opposition.
Democracy is a shit, but it’s far better than the alternatives!
#51 - Where did you find the Senate results?
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:03 AM • permalinkWell, I went along and put in my Lib vote in WA, nothing more I can do; pity.
Well, at least as Bolt put said on his blog, Rudd had to drag the party (at least superficially) so far to the right that its almost like a Coalition victory. And if he backflips on that then three years from now we’ll make sure they all come back to bite him in spades.
I assume the idea of a one-party state turns gaza+ on. I can’t understand the appeal, myself, but I understand Hugo Chavez is popular with quite a few leftists at the moment.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:05 AM • permalink#51 and 56 - Found it on ABC.
Margo’s candidate in the ACT missed out. Link
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:06 AM • permalinkOn 7, Hockey points out Rudd’s debt to the Unions and Pilbersek arcs up, saying Rudd’s won ‘fair and square’. But with a Labor win, Monday morning the unions will be in Rudd’s office telling him to drop his pants.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:07 AM • permalinkOK this is where I show my desperate ignorance but ABC international here in Indonesia is showing “seats won”; Lab 81, Lib 55, Other 2, undecided 12.
Well that’s that then surely, even if the Libs win all the undecided seats they’ll still not have enough to win.
Why have they not conceded? Why is there any doubt that the Labs have won?
Am I missing something?
Posted by Harry Flashman on 2007 11 24 at 06:07 AM • permalinkPhew....Gary got back in. As an ACT voter, that’s as much as I could do.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:08 AM • permalinkHarry, I assume some of the “decided” seats are actually calculated results, since there’s at least two entire states where the counting is not even 50% yet.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:10 AM • permalinkAs a public servant I will probably benefit from this result but not everybody who voted for Labor in this election is in a similar position. They still haven’t figured out that they may turn out to be losers in the long run. Just like in Whitlam’s “It’s Time” time some people have to learn the hard way.
Harry, many of the seats are evenly split but the media analysts have already called them for Labor.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:11 AM • permalink#68. Yes gazzaaa, do tell us of this glorious inquiry into the Iraq War, should be very interesting, particularly since the single person to get up in Australia parliament and declare that Iraq definitely had weapons of mass destruction was a certain Kevin Rudd.
Jesus Christ, if you are indicative of the maturity and intelligence of an ALP voter I despair for the nation.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:14 AM • permalink69 Crossie - I definitely concur that it seems experience will have to be the teacher.
Posted by Simon Darkshade on 2007 11 24 at 06:15 AM • permalink#68:
The dark curtain is about to be lifted and things are going to get real ugly for the
Libsthe left as they realise who Rudd actually is.Fixed.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:16 AM • permalinkI’m certainly not a rusted-on conservative, but I’d have to say that as much as I would consider voting for a worthwhile non-Liberal party (Liberty & Democracy party anyone?) I think it’s pretty obvious this election has been a triumph of vacuosity and spin over substance.
Being very much financially independent, I will not personally be affected, but I do pity those “battlers” who feel snake oil salesman Rudd will somehow miraculously pay off their mortgages. They may just find out what Labor, Labor everywhere is in reality all about.
As they say - the rest is history.Greens get a Senator in SA and Xenophon gets up, too. Looks like BoP in the Senate will be Green…
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:18 AM • permalinkHahaha, I’m set. Public Servant....and we know there’s no damn way Rudd will cut the public service, despite what he says.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:22 AM • permalink# 82 - mareesS, a lot of people got their answer tonight, there will be a lot of employment changes coming up as employers “let go” employees to reduce their IR risk.
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 11 24 at 06:22 AM • permalink6,600 people nationwide voted for Phatty Phil’s Climate Change Coalition.
In comparison, 342,000 people voted informally.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:22 AM • permalinkRudd is about to do throughout Australia what he did in Qld when Goss got in in 1989. It’s going to be bloody ugly and, Gazaaa, many Labor supporters and voters are going to get swept up in the pogroms as they did in Qld. I should know - I was working in the state government then and there were many, many hurt and confused Labor supporters who couldn’t figure out why what they’d dreamt of for so long turned out to be a nightmare. But Rudd and Goss didn’t care about fucking over a few dozen public service grunts here and a few dozen grunts there to screw over unit managers tainted with the conservative brush by dissolving entire work units and declaring scores of positions vacant. I felt genuinely sorry for - and still do - for some of the Labor supporters I knew who were shafted by their own side because they’d worked under a conservative boss.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:24 AM • permalink#92 - Filled out their paper incorrectly, returned it blank, numbered the boxes all wrong.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:25 AM • permalinkBe gentle with gaza of the many a’s. I think this is the first federal election he was old enough to vote for, so he’s understandably a little excited, the poor darling.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:25 AM • permalinkGrimmy, an informal vote is to waste your vote by not filling it in correctly, either deliberately or otherwise.
Meanwhile, here McKew pretending she’s PM.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:28 AM • permalinkFrench TV is calling the defeat of the Libs inevitable. Link
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:28 AM • permalinkI feel quite sad for Howard, this isn’t a fitting way for him to go with it looking likely that he’ll lose his seat in Bennelong. He’s been the best thing to happen to Australia for a long time.
Still, in the spirit of Tim’s Daily Telegraph article, I can now blame Rudd et al for everything that has gone wrong. Starting with these damn mosquitoe bites, why can’t he do something about them??
Posted by brucey bonus on 2007 11 24 at 06:29 AM • permalinkAh well - this is the Labor government we had to have.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 11 24 at 06:29 AM • permalink"Maxine McKew for Australia of the year.”
Gazzaaaaa - do you moonlight as an editor at Webdiary?
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:29 AM • permalinkHaving anticipated a Federal Labor win, we changed the direction of our business earlier this year. It’s going to be dark days ahead for the business community, the economy and employees. Kyoto will send Australia back into multibillion dollar debt, the unions’ ‘investment’ will need to be paid back one hundred fold.
I suppose the good news is interest rates may fall half a percent and it will be on the backs of 150,000 jobs lost.
-- Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:33 AM • permalink#68 You haven’t even begun to hurt
What, are we quoting Buffy now?
Posted by carpefraise on 2007 11 24 at 06:34 AM • permalink<i>I always thought it was a marginal and volatile seat. Is Ray making the script up as he goes along?</i>
Bennelong was a blue-ribbon seat, but it was a victim of redistribution and lost a lot of its Liberal voting areas to surrounding seats, as a result, it went down to a 2% marginal.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:34 AM • permalink112 - Thankfully Cornes looks like she won’t get up in Boothby.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:34 AM • permalinkAnalysing the results..... twas NSW and QLD that did it, ironically two states with the most fucked ALP governments. Well, c’est la vie.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:36 AM • permalinkTissa, Big Jim - I might go for that second gin and tonic. Thanks, Mr Howard for 11 years of sensible government in Canberra.
gazzaaa - you show great promise. I predict you will be an idiot lefty to your grave. Live and be well.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 11 24 at 06:39 AM • permalinkGaaazaaa, there’s no harm in being a grinning winner but surely you should be hanging out with your mates at a time like this.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:40 AM • permalinkBarnaby Joyce making a dickhead of himself on 7 - well, an even bigger dickhead - trying to say 3 cornered contests don’t make a difference. What Qld needs is a new unified conservative party.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:44 AM • permalink130 - we’ve been discussing our very own carbon credit scam for some time.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:46 AM • permalinkHere’s a silver lining for you: Kerry Nettle defeated!
Mwahahahah....that’s nearly worth a PM Rudd.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:46 AM • permalink#120 Tissa Cheers, salut, etc.
# 113 Nora
And I was only talking about the work choices aspect - ie, when you hire someone thinking it is a win-win proposition: they get a job and you get something done, versus, you get a liability where someone believes you owe them their next, say, two years future earnings because you made the mistake of believing their overblown interview schtick and then discovered they were useless.
When you factor in craven global warming capitulation, then the mind boggles…Howard about to come out and concede in 10 mins - I suspect he’ll be as remarkable as when giving his defeat speech back in the ‘80s.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:47 AM • permalinkCongratulations Rudd and Labor. Finally some heart in government beyond people’s hip pockets.
Things I am looking forward to:
1. John Howard’s concession speech.
2. Reading Miranda Divine and Tim Blair’s columns.
3. Having an Australian foreign policy rather than a sycophantically following the US.
4. A fairer go for the more unfortunate people in Australia.The Maxine thing was very weird. She was clearly tanked. Started talking about how her Mum taught at government schools - for heaven’s sake, McKew went to a snobby private school! Who cares what her Mum did?
No doubt Rudd endorsed this move - his first blunder as Prime Minister. Not a great start.
Posted by Alex of Canberra on 2007 11 24 at 06:49 AM • permalink"Having an Australian foreign policy rather than a sycophantically following the US. “
I think you’ll find very little change on the foreign policy front.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:50 AM • permalinkWe survived gough and hawke/keating the small business brokers, we will get over this lot in time as well.
Anyone want to run a sweep on when the red headed bitch knifes kevni and takes over?
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 11 24 at 06:50 AM • permalink131 - Thanks very much, Nicholas, although I can hardly claim it as my own!
This, on the other hand, is an original. I hadn’t thought about it until I read Penguin’s comment at 126. Did I know something back then?Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 11 24 at 06:51 AM • permalinkRe: 141 - To clarify, I don’t grant your idiotic premise that the FP of Australia is sycophantic but - if you are expecting change - I don’t think you’ll see much.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 06:52 AM • permalinkagile and gazzaaaa are going to be bitterly disappointed in the K’Rudd government.
1972 Redux. Learn from history laddies.
-- Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:52 AM • permalinkHaving an Australian foreign policy rather than a sycophantically following the US.
Hahahahahaha! I can assure you, next year you’ll see Kevin Rudd joining Hillary Clinton on an invasion of any country that pisses her off.
Fun times.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 06:53 AM • permalinkPlibersek on 7 trying to deny Rudd’s bastardry in Qld as Goss’s chief of staff but not doing a good job…
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 06:53 AM • permalinkHahahahahaha! I can assure you, next year you’ll see Kevin Rudd joining Hillary Clinton on an invasion of any country that pisses her off.
I thought you couldn’t be President of the US of A for more than two terms????
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 11 24 at 06:55 AM • permalinkBig change in foreign policy? I seem to recall Bob Hawke ringing President Bush senior to offer Australia’s support in some external problem or another.
I can’t see Rudd following Whitlam’s example - except, of course, three years in power and then…Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 11 24 at 07:00 AM • permalinkDecided to switch channels to watch Star Wars instead.
Holy crap, Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father!!!
Posted by brucey bonus on 2007 11 24 at 07:00 AM • permalink153 - Indeed - and Joe Hockey has just floated a possible future scenario for Brough that makes me smile - as leader of a rejuvenated Qld Liberal Party.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 07:01 AM • permalinkOh well - not too unexpected really. I’ve only just tuned in - i went to a movie with friends rather than watched. I had a bad feeling about this one.
But congrats to the Labor side and good luck.
I can certainly live with a change of government - personally i don’t think any country is well served by one siide staying in power endlessly.
But as a loyal coalition chap I might avoid the airwaves for a few days. Gloating is something i can’t abide. And i’ve got a feeling there’s about 11 years worth coming our way.
157 - crap! You’re kidding! I never saw that coming!
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 07:03 AM • permalinkHoward has just phoned Rudd to concede.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 07:05 AM • permalinkBill Shorten smiling on TV right now, having ridden to victory on a mine disaster.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 07:07 AM • permalinkBill Shorten smiling on TV right now, having ridden to victory on a mine disaster.
And soon the disaster will be yours and mine.
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 11 24 at 07:09 AM • permalink#165 Oddly enough the left are very good at hating themselves.
Lefties are typically misanthropes.
However look for K’Rudd’s first term of disasters being blamed on Howard.
In Qld Goss spent two terms blaming Joh for their incompetance.
-- Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 07:09 AM • permalink#133
we’ve been discussing our very own carbon credit scam for some time.
Carbon credit scams are sooooo yesterday. I’ve just put the finishing touches on my Argon credits trading scam; send your money in in brown envelopes containing large amounts of cash, to the dark alley behind my house.
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 11 24 at 07:11 AM • permalinkbrucey - have you heard about Batman and Bruce Wayne?
BTW, I mentioned somewhere in one of the threads today that I saw Rescue Dawn. Here’s the Wikipedia article on Dieter Dengler; he survived, and so will we.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 11 24 at 07:13 AM • permalinkMal Brough’s concession speech should go down as a textbook example of grace in loss.
#150 - Too right!
But now its time to find out if, having their first nightmare averted (losing a fifth election) the Australian left will run smack into their second nightmare: the possibility that Kevin Rudd plans to follow through on his promises.
And if Kerry Nettle loses her Senate position I am going to backflip for joy until I break my neck.
And if Kerry Nettle loses her Senate position I am going to backflip for joy until I break my neck.
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 07:19 AM • permalinkStill only a couple of hundred votes in it in Sturt. Will come down to postals, I reckon.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 11 24 at 07:19 AM • permalinkThanks, gaz. My party didn’t come home winners today, but at least I picked you right.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 11 24 at 07:21 AM • permalinkElection victory for Rudd and not a decent troll in sight. For shame!
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 11 24 at 07:23 AM • permalinkWell said EL Cid. A fine twist on the old Commie thing about capitalism failing under the weight of its own internal contradictions. There is no doubt that you are right, but I am now too deep into the wake for progress and right thinking in the magnificent Commonwealth of Australia to think it fully through.
For anyone inclined to think “Ah well at least it will be fun watching the lefties getting a kicking in the media now and the Labour mob getting all the blame for a change”, dream on that’s not how it works.
I thought the same, naively, after Blair defeated the Tories in 1997. I thought, oh well now we’ll hear all the stories about how there’s too much taxation and how government wates money and how the unions are too powerful and how we need to run sound finances and how we need to crack down on crime and have tougher immigration controls. You know just the opposite of what the BBC were saying when Mrs T and the Tories were running the UK, I mean fair’s fair right?
Apparently that’s not how it works, when a right wing government is in charge the BBC attacks it for its right wing policies but when a left wing government is in charge the BBC attacks it because its policies still aren’t left wing enough!
The editor of the anchor news programme “Newsnight” actually admitted as much after the 1997 election in a memo he sent to his staff telling them that as Labour had won a landslide the reporters shouldn’t be seen to be challenging Labour’s policies but merely challenging their failure to implement these policies, gottit? You know just the way the Beeb merely challenged Maggie after her landslides for not implementing strong enough Tory policies, I mean they did, didn’t they.
Just watch, it will be the same with Rudd, they won’t be challenging him to be tougher on the unions or illegal immigration but because he hasn’t told George Bush to bog off yet, that’s how the media operate, the criticism of governments of whatever stripe only come from one direction; the Left.
Posted by Harry Flashman on 2007 11 24 at 07:29 AM • permalinkAw, gaazzaa - I said you should be with your friends but I guess you can count them on one hand. Your right hand.
-- Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 24 at 07:30 AM • permalink# 68, gazzaaaaa
I’m sorry for the way things appear to have turned out. But I’m not surprised. Labor sympathisers have for many years been running both education and the media and their efforts have borne fruit. They have created a whole generation, and more, of people who believe whatever their ‘betters’ tell them and act on their feelings rather than on the basis of rational thought.
I hope, for your sake, that you’re already in work because the ALP has only ever looked after people who are already in work, especially those who have enough seniority to hang on to their jobs (on the last on, first off principle) when things get tough. Having lived through the utopianism of Whitlam and Hawke, and the sheer grossness of Keating, and having reason to believe that Rudd is no saviour but more an ambitious opportunist who doesn’t mind bending rules whenever such bending will be to his advantage, I don’t expect things to get better. Not at all.
I expect Labor to do for their voters, especially their rusted-on voters, what they have always done; ignore them till voting time, and, usually, ignore them even then. I expect employers who are old enough to remember the bad old days to stop hiring for as long as it takes to determine what the potential costs of taking on a new employee might be and do a thorough risk/benefit analysis.
We were small-business employers during the Hawke/Keating years and we will never, ever, expose ourselves to those risks again. If we ever go back into business it will be just us, me and my husband. All we need to do is make an income. Right? And we can do that with just the two of us. We don’t have to expand and risk being treated as a goldmine by lazy, thieving, incompetent, useless employees who, on the point of being sacked, join the union and get them to do all the harassing.
You appear to think that this is the dawn of heaven on earth. It’s not. It’s the beginning of interesting times, in the Chinese sense.
If you ever get around to it, do ask Rudd about the house he didn’t live in and the airconditioner he had on there, to the annoyance of all his neighbours, for 24/24.
In the meantime I do think that being in opposition will be good for Costello. It didn’t hurt Howard. Who knows? Maybe Abbott will come out on top. I’d rather him as leader. And I’m not even Catholic.
Y’all down there are made from tough stock. Just as some of us here are...we can weather the storms because we don’t depend on government for our happiness. Tough times build character & evidently we all have young’uns that need some character. It’d be nice if there was an easier way, but what can ya do.
I’m looking forward to the columns that’ll appear when they do start to eat their own, as El Cid so kindly put it. If we get the same kind of results here next year, we’ll all watch the show together, bitching with the best of ‘em!
Thank you so much, Mr Howard, for all your efforts. We, due to your work, now live in prosperity. You leave with grace and integrity. Thank you Mr Howard, I believe that you and your team have made my family and myself more self assured. Sir, though I am hesitant to note this, you do leave with more creditability than some of your noted predecessors. To your family, may God smile with good fortune upon you and yourself.
Thank you.
You haven’t even begun to hurt. Wait until the parliamentary inquiries into AWB, our entry into the Iraq war, the deportation of Haneef just for starters. The dark curtain is about to be lifted and things are going to get real ugly for the Libs.
This is what I treasure about Leftards. They screetch about persecution and oppression, yet suffer none. But give them a whiff of power, and the purges begin.
Totalitarian scum. Choke on your own vomit, gazz, you Stalinist prick.
Hillary Clinton has promised the same thing, Dave S.
To the Left, it’s not about governing, it’s about revenge.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 11 24 at 01:21 PM • permalinkHey, blogmire, I just dropped in for some graceless gloating. So your lousy poster boy’s gone, and with him his puny, dog-whistling, fear-mongering agenda. Good riddance.
Bloghead, you’ve led your flyblown flock to poisoned wells. You craven suckers have taken an 11 year ride on the coattails of one man and for what? Good luck with dredging for a leader in that dried-up well of cheap talent bequeathed to future generations of liberal supporters by His Rodency. Your obedient boosterism on behalf of Johnnie’s miserable hide have left you with nothing but Peter and Malcolm. Ha! I am rolling around on the floor laughing out loud, as they say here in cyberspace.
Do try to keep a sense of humour as all your filthy work is rolled back, wound up, repealed, rescinded, exposed, renounced, shredded and binned. I look forward to year upon year, term after term of cheap laughs at your irrelevant expense.
Posted by Miranda Divide on 2007 11 24 at 08:38 PM • permalinkAs
graciousnasty in victory as she is in defeat. Ladies & gents, Miranda Divide.Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 11 25 at 10:57 AM • permalink
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Wait for WA- there’s 2 and possibly 3 seats to be lost there.