No to a pie with free sauce

Imagine Laurie Oakes on one of these trying to "doorstop" the PM on his morning ride... Is that not a media image to conjure with?

Well this is a turn up for the books, and one that must play at least a small part in deciding who has the moral authority to form government.

Yesterday, as the independents converged on Canberra for formal talks, counting showed the Coalition edging ahead of Labor on the two-party-preferred count.

By 10.30pm last night, with more than 80 per cent counted, the Coalition was ahead by 1909 votes after the AEC removed eight seats from its two-party count on the basis that the major parties did not run first and second.

In a stunning measure of the closeness of the election, the Australian Electoral Commission website had the parties locked at 50.01 per cent for the Coalition to 49.99 per cent for Labor with close to 11 million votes counted.

Its looking more and more like the next resident in the lodge may just be someone who is keen on an early morning bike ride rather than a pie with free sauce

Cheers Comrades

Hmm I wonder why Lynot has been so quiet lately????

Half a million page views at the Sandpit

I know that statistical miles stones are really meaningless but that does not stop you feeling pretty good when you reach them. Well if you keep an eye on the hit counter at the bottom of the page some time today I expect that you will see the counter tick over t0 the magical “500,000″ mark . That is pretty good for a modest blog written as a bit of fun .

Thanks very much to all of those who take the time to read what I and my friends put up  here and a special thanks to all of those who take the time to comment and argue with what is on this web-page. Commentary and argument is the life blood of blogging and long may it keep pumping at the Sandpit.

Cheers Comrades

The mystical prayer of the empty rhetorical question

Find below was a piece that I began just before the Election which sort of slipped off the radar with all of the , err , excitement of the federal poll. Now as I have a sort on ennui about the whole political circus, (being Gurzumped by Socky on Wilkie does not help   )   I though I’d resurrect it before it becomes too dated to run.

One of the things that I have repeatedly considered here at this blog is the issue of climate change and the way that the Warministas have tried to prosecute their case. One device that has been used quite often is to write a piece that poses lots of questions which aims to get the reader to fill in all of the blanks and by the weight of those questions make a reader think that the piece is presenting a conclusive argument. I came across an example of that style from Age “senior writer”  Jo Chandler:

These are real enough threats to warrant the intense scrutiny of many of the sharpest scientific minds of our age. Nonetheless, great uncertainties surround each of these scenarios. What is the evidence, the probability? When and how fast? What capacity might nature have to put itself right? What lever might humanity pull?

[...]

But has a confluence of extreme weather (fire, floods, heatwaves, mud slides) and dogged science – sober, clear consensus statements such as that released yesterday by the Australian Academy of Science – finally outmanoeuvred the engineers of denial? Are we at a tipping point in terms of public comprehension of the climate crisis? In terms of campaign denialism, is the jig up?

The  piece in question does  suggest that the case for human induced climate change is utterly convincing:

Australian scientists are to be congratulated for enunciating clearly, at this critical moment, what is not in doubt – that an increase in greenhouse gases as a result of human industry pushes up temperatures, and that these are now at the highest levels seen in 800,000 years.

Of course what Chandler is ignoring is that human activity may certainly be a factor in the dynamics of climate change but the magnitude of the human factor of any change is the great unknown in any consideration of climate change. But she is fundamentally wrong to claim that temperatures  or CO2 are the highest levels  that they have been in “800,000 years” we simply don’t have enough definitive data to make this claim when the satellite measurement  covers such a short period of time, The instrumental data, is patchy at best and only covers the industrialised west with any sort of detail and it likewise covers a geologically insignificant period we are left with the “climate reconstructions” from the likes of Michael Mann and they have been thoroughly debunked.

So what the Age has presented us with here is a puff piece that purports to do be deep and meaningful and yet it says nothing except that its author is a true believer in the Warminista faith and that she will most happily genuflect  to the profits and oracles of the Green religion using the mystical prayer of the empty rhetorical question.

Cheers Comrades

Signs of a tipping point in the debate with climate sceptics

Jo Chandler

August 17, 2010

Comments 143

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These are real enough threats to warrant the intense scrutiny of many of the sharpest scientific minds of our age. Nonetheless, great uncertainties surround each of these scenarios. What is the evidence, the probability? When and how fast? What capacity might nature have to put itself right? What lever might humanity pull?

Uncertainty and doubt are comforting to people who don’t want to face the climate spectre – the get-out clause. And frankly, who can blame them?

Will ‘Wonky Wilkie’ Wimp It?

All the focus has been on The Three Amigos from the bush as they anguish over whether to make Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott our next PM. But spare a thought for that other poor, neglected independent Andrew Wilkie too - if you must.

The ex-spy turned whistleblower - who accidentally won the seat of Denison in Tasmania with only 20% of the primary vote! -seems to have a severe case of out-of-depthness. His indecision makes Bob Katter look positively Presidential.

Well what else would you expect from someone who went from one extreme to the other by quitting the Liberals to join the Greens before finally deciding he didn’t fit in anywhere so he’ll just become an ‘independent’? How flaky can you get? 

Wilkie says he “does not feel obliged to back either major party” but, nonetheless, takes a wish list of favours to Gillard & Abbott so he can bring home the bacon and be the home town hero of Hobart. Go figure:

His list of 20 concerns includes a $20 million assistance package for Tasmanian forest contractors, the fate of the Royal Hobart Hospital and a betting limit on poker machines.

But Mr Wilkie has been open with the fact that he does not feel obliged to back either major party.

“If neither can persuade me that they can deliver that, then I will take my third option – I’ll support neither, I’ll sit off to the side and I’ll vote on everything on its merits,” he said.

I reckon Wilkie needs to wise up and pretty fast. If he doesn’t make his mind up soon the 3 amigos might just go ahead without him and he won’t get a zac from Julia or Tony. And there’d be no ticker-tape parade for Andrew in downtown Hobart.

Katter, Windsor & Oake-shott-his-mouth-off don’t need Wilkie to form a government. Labor already has 72 seats and with nice little Adam Bandt from the Gay Greens onside, they’ve effectively got 73. The same as the coalition. 

And 73 plus 3 = 76, a majority. Geddit, Andrew?

Wonky Wilkie should get his arse into gear and make it known which side he supports before the 3 bushwhackers do. If he fence-sits for too long and is too afraid to back his own judgement he’ll just lose out. 

And for wimping it like that, he’d deserve to.

Is the end nigh for Brand Labor?

Because I have long been disillusioned by brand Labor it was not at all difficult for me to see the serious flaws with the Gillard, Rudd and co. For true believers the pain at the clear failures of Labor in power must burn like acid, especially for those who have been supporting Labor from some sort of tribal loyalty. The piece in today’s Oz lays out the argument that it is a total lack of success in actually doing any thing properly that has lead the party to the point where it faces almost total political. ruin.

The problem for Labor, deep down in the dumps, may be existential.

One former Rudd government adviser sees a long-term structural challenge for the ALP as it bleeds votes from both its Left and Right flanks. On the Left are supporters who want the maintenance of progressive values, social change and action on climate change. On the Right are swinging voters, the politically disengaged, who are mostly looking for good economic management and the delivery of services.

“The election result shows there’s a crisis of competence in the Labor Party in that it’s neither competent on values or governing,” he says. “The government was unable to meet its commitment on climate change to one group, while for the other group, it failed on home insulation, by wasteful spending and through rising debt, deficits and the cost of living.

“Our most passionate and active supporters on the Left are leaving us for the Greens and GetUp! and the disengaged are voting for the Coalition. There are a group of older people, now in their 60s, who have always voted Labor. They want to stay active and engaged in politics. They appear to be Labor in every way except on Saturday they voted for the Greens. It’s the reverse of a watermelon, because they are Labor red on the outside, green on the inside.”

“Going down the path of Karl Bitar and Mark Arbib, Labor is left standing for what?” asks Iemma. “Valueless, without strong beliefs, nothing. They stand for nothing, believe in nothing, craft election campaigns around nothing. Not surprisingly, those who ache for a Labor Party that stands for big policies go elsewhere.”

I genuinely feel sorry for the true believers who are feeling burned by the way that Brand Labor is imploding and the fact that their once proud party is in need of some very serious reinvention because without that it faces the real possibility that it will just fade away. Maybe not straight away but with a rot that is so pervasive and so deep  maybe  the leader who has enough vision and drive to reform the once great party is not even be among their number yet.

Cheers Comrades

Deep throat toothbrush

This story demonstrates precisely why I have been known to scold my children when they insist on wandering around the house with a toothbrush in their mouths.

A 15-year-old girl showed up in the emergency department at an Auckland hospital after accidentally swallowing her 19-centimetre toothbrush, according to a case study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal today.

“She was running up some steps with (the) toothbrush in her mouth when she suddenly tripped and fell, pushing most of the brush into her oesophagus,” author Dinesh Lal, a gastroenterologist who treated the girl, wrote in the publication.

“She immediately started choking and her younger brother came to help.

“Part of the toothbrush was still in the mouth but with apparently a very strong gag reflex she swallowed this down before it could be pulled out.”

Herald Sun

Its just the sort of story that sends a shiver down my spine!
Cheers Comrades!

Miranda Devine and the Labor way

I must say that I enjoyed Miranda Devine’s column this morning especially as some of the very delusions that she has identified have been very evident in my own humble comment threads. Here are a few that have been expressed about the opposition:

Delusion 6: Abbott is ”unelectable”. After just nine months as Opposition Leader, Abbott has led the Coalition to within a whisker of taking office from a first-term government that was immensely popular for its first two years. He managed to get the most popular votes – 500,000 more. The marvel is that he did it, as his father Dick, a sprightly 86, said on Saturday night, ”with everything against him”.

Yet he exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations, even those of his mentors, Howard and Nick Minchin.

Delusion 7: We have to have an emissions trading scheme or price on carbon. The fact the government barely mentioned climate change in this election says a lot about the attitude of most voters to higher energy prices, lost jobs and slower growth, the price of a policy which would do next to nothing to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

Delusion 8: Minchin is a ”complete fruit loop”, a mad extremist who would turn his party into an unelectable rump. Actually, Minchin is a hero. His resignation from the shadow cabinet last November in the face of Turnbull’s intransigence saved his party from irrelevance and saved the country from the economic folly of going it alone on an ETS.

It set the stage for Abbott’s election to the leadership by a single vote and the instant revival of the Coalition’s fortunes. ”I still wake up at night in a cold sweat thinking there was only one vote in it,” says Minchin.

Miranda Devine

Now that the shape of the new house is pretty clear we can only wonder what new delusions will come to the fore as Labor tries to maintain its death grip on the treasury benches. Frankly as they have less seats than the opposition they should do the honourable thing and admit defeat and begin the long an hard rebuilding of brand Labor, that is so obviously necessary after the excesses, incompetence and stupidity of the Rudd Gillard Government. But my expectation is that Gillard  will try to emulate Tasmanian Labor and  cling to power even when their claim to it lacks any legitimacy.

That is after all the Labor way….
Cheers Comrades

“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”

Drink this poison to take the lodge???

There is a clear difference , right out there on display, between Julia Gillard  and Tony Abbott when it comes to the terms demanded  by the three amigos with regard to getting the keys to the lodge The former seems willing to perform any supplication to these men where as the latter has a bit more dignity and less desperation for power.

I am now tending towards the opinion that Tony Abbott would actually be better off staying in opposition rather than getting into any kind of arrangement with these three nutters. Up here in Queensland we have had a couple of instances where the balance of power has been held by independents and and on each occasion they have acted in the best interests of the state rather than trying to over reach themselves by making outrageous demands upon the government.

I agree with Dennis Shanahan in today’s Oz

Using spurious logic, obscure language and blackmail, three MPs accidentally thrust into the balance of power are claiming a “new paradigm” in politics where none exists as justification for unprecedented treatment and control. More than 90 per cent of Australians voted for Labor, the Coalition or the Greens — the old-paradigm parties.

This isn’t just horse-trading over amendments on a piece of legislation; this is demanding an erratic ransom for government and an ongoing part in that government.

The three incumbent independents are seeking the same treatment as new prime ministers in demanding briefings from Treasury, Finance and Defence and half a dozen other key portfolios — ahead of the final count and before the incoming prime minister and opposition leader themselves receive such a briefing. They are also demanding both sides guarantee a full three-year term, keeping them as the centre of attention and balance of power in the House of Representatives while using their own threat of an immediate election to extract such a guarantee.

Abbott’s refusal last night to pander to the demand of the three independents to break the caretaker convention is right but will be used against him by an increasingly desperate government.

The prospect looms of a minority Labor-Greens coalition government facing just as much obstruction and difficulty in parliament as a Liberal-Nationals Coalition government.

Indeed, a Labor government in formal partnership with the Greens in the House of Representatives facing a Greens-controlled Senate and the most successful opposition leader in Australia’s history would be forced to face votes on troops in Afghanistan, another mining tax and a carbon price.

The demands and claims from the cross benches — the sitting MPs Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter, as well as the incoming Green Adam Bandt and the truly non-aligned Andrew Wilkie — are becoming more obscure and contradictory with every day spent in the limelight. The independents declared for days that their core aim was stable, long-term government but it now appears one of the real options of the three amigos is simply to refuse to support Labor or the Coalition and force another election. So much for stability.

I think we need to go back to the polls to get a more decisive outcome.

How quickly could  such a poll be held I wonder?

The office of prime minister, and the government of this country   is far too important to see Julia Gillard demeaning it by such grovelling behaviour  Perhaps she needs to think for just a minute or two about the lyric of the song that says :

“It is better to  die on your feet than to live on your knees”

Well I for one am sure that the best person to occupy the lodge is Tony  Abbott  but if the price for residence there is his dignity and the dignity of the office, then let Julia have it. Oh I know that Labor will totally fuck the economy and destroy  the standing of our democracy but  they will also so trash their own political brand so much  that they will be out of power for two generations  if not forever.

Cheers Comrades

Human emancipation from feline servitude

It seems that the willing slaves of the feline race have stalked this courageous woman and now seek to publicly shame her because she has struck a blow for human emancipation from feline servitude:

As the article says the woman has committed no crime and if you think of the aphorism that “dogs have masters and cats have slaves” perhaps we should realise that Mary Bale  is in fact striking a blow against the evil of feline oppression, she is seeking to emancipate humanity from a slavery that is just as pernicious as that which blighted humanity when poor souls were stolen from Africa to labour in the plantations of the new world.

Cheers Comrades

Your card has been declined sir….

Just to get away from politics (yes that’s right ) I want to ask readers if they have ever had their credit card declined? I did this morning and it was err, rather embarrassing and very worrying because I knew that I had paid off the entire balance less than a fortnight ago. I was fortunate enough to have the cash for the petrol I had just put in the car but I had all sorts crazy scenarios running through my head as I drove home. Calling my bank gave no joy because I could not actually get through. I persisted only to  eventually find that they were “having issues “…

A nationwide system failure has crippled the ANZ Bank’s Eftpos and credit card services across the country.

The glitch left Australian retailers unable to perform routine electronic point-of-sale transactions for ANZ customers from about 11am.

The failure has also rendered the bank’s credit cards useless.

‘‘ANZ has experienced a system outage that is impacting our ability to process some Eftpos and credit card transactions,’’ ANZ spokesman Stephen Ries told brisbanetimes.com.au.

So it was not my fault or the fraud that I feared it was some systemic failure at the bank.
Its amazing just how dependant we all are on those little bits of plastic in our wallets isn’t it?
Cheers Comrades

Useful idiots have a vote as well, sigh

The other day one of my regular commentators (Sax)  suggested that it was time for another post about climate change, at the time with the election in full swing I though otherwise. However now that we are in the nether world awaiting the declaration of the polls and the result of the subsequent argy bargy with the three gentlemen it is perhaps time to consider not the minutia of the AGW argument but the calibre of those “useful idiots” who so vehemently advocate for the cause. Like the ones protesting against of all things the Royal bank of Scotland.

Climate campaign protesters walking away from the main entrance of the RBS headquarters in Gogarburn Photo: DEADLINE

Alan Cochrane

The term “useful idiots”, most commonly attributed to Lenin to describe Soviet sympathisers in the West, has never been more appropriate this morning than in describing those who give public support to the hooligans causing criminal damage in Edinburgh in the cause, they claim, of averting climate change.

Supporting a malign cause in the mistaken belief that it is a force for good when common sense should suggest the opposite is a common feature of the deluded in our midst and nowhere is this better demonstrated than when the words “climate change” are mentioned. Simply uttering them apparently justifies any action, no matter how daft or how violent.
Yesterday, and in no particular order, saw some nutters – although they prefer the term “activists” – superglue themselves to the car park at Royal Bank of Scotland offices, whilst others climbed onto the roof of Forth Energy’s HQ, and two chained themselves to the front of the building. Windows had been previously smashed at RBS’s head office at Gogarburn, which has seen a Climate Camp – so-called – installed outside for several days now.

An “oil slick”, using molasses, was created outside Cairn Energy’s office in Lothian Road and similar, but much more dangerous, slicks were also poured onto the main A720 and A8 roads. And a Clydesdale Bank branch was spray-painted.

Whilst superglue was also used to stick protestors together on a bridge over the A8 , at the Port of Leith and at other RBS premises near the Gyle Shopping Centre, the mystery to me was why the police bothered to remove them. The nights are fair drawing in and I’m sure our committed friends would have been happy to stick it out as the winds of autumn arrive.

There is no doubt that these sorts of earnest “eco-warriors” are all rather seriously deluded, not to mention the fact that these modern day Luddites are the very definition of hypocrisy. You can lay very good odds that most of these protesters did not walk to the protests, that they are wearing clothing that is made of modern oil derived synthetics, that they live in houses heated with fossil fuelled energy and I think that it is also a pretty good bet that the majority of them are more than happy to get on a jet plane to travel to the sunny places of Europe for indulgent  holidays.

Yet our very own Antipodean “useful idiots” are wildly celebrating the fact that they have convinced enough of our voters to endorse them for the senate so that they will hold the balance of power after next June but the one thing that they don’t  realise is that once they have to deliver outcomes rather than just making pious platitudes to Gaia is the moment that their road begins to get rather more rocky. Its very easy to enthuse the young and naive , to get them to chant the idiotic slogans (or even to believe them) but its oh so much harder to make their policies actually work.

The disconnect between reality and Greens policy is so well demonstrated by the claims made by Bob Brown the other day when questioned about his desire to impose a carbon tax. The Liberals and all sensible people realise that if you levy a tax on energy that it will be the consumers who end up paying that tax through increased energy prices. But we were shown Bob Brown insisting that it would only be “the big polluters” who will pay as if any increase in costs from a new tax would not be passed on. The sad thing is that I think that Brown actually believes his own propaganda.

Sadly so  do the voters who have delivered the balance of power in our senate  to these”useful idiots” but I expect that time will do to the Greens precisely what it did to the Democrats, but I suspect that it won’t take anywhere near as long as it did for that other ill fated minor party.

Cheers Comrades

Measuring against the feather of truth

As we all wait to find out what the final count is in this election you could all probably do well to read the editorial in today’s OZ:

Australia’s first minority government since the 1940s will be a challenge for the political class, which has foolishly taken the stability of the two-party system for granted. It will require a set of skills that has not been readily apparent on either side of politics in recent years: the art of negotiation, compromise and consensus. It requires the wisdom to balance sectional interests against the greater good and short-term survival against the long-term interest.

It would be tempting for the three independents from regional areas to enter a Dutch auction or to allow past bitterness with the Nationals to sway their judgment. They must act purely in the interests of their voters, who have overwhelmingly rejected Labor. All other things being equal, common sense, not to mention the national interest in stable government, would lead them to back Mr Abbott.

There is not much point in getting too excited either way until the count is finished so I am not going to speculate and play what if games , well not to much anyway, but I share the Oz’s hope that the nations best interests will be a deciding factor rather than just base desires to delve into the pork barrel.
Cheers Comrades

Winners & Losers

Here are the 3 biggest winners and 3 biggest losers from last night’s ‘hung like a donkey vote’ election. In order. From the bottom up.

(starting with number #3 and ending with no.#1 the winner of the winners, or the biggest loser of the losers):

Loser number no. #3 

Maxine McKew

She never done nothing except beating John Howard 3 years ago. Where the hell has she been since then?

No parliamentary pension for you Max and I don’t think Leigh Sales is about to let you have your old job at the ABC back.

Not at your age. 

(Is that an apple core in her hand?)

.

Winner number 3#

Adam Ant

First ever Greens candidate elected to the lower house.

Made crap music in the 80s. A one-hit wonder.

Turned Gay and found Bob.

.

Loser# (no.) two (2)

Wilson ‘Iron Bar’ Tuckey

Ruled Western Australian’s mining country for 30 years.

Got the biggest free-kick ever with Labor’s mining tax.

But still managed to lose.

To a National!

.

"My iPhone in my pocket looks like a pack of cigs. He he, that's way cool."

Winner #2 (#number #two)

Wyatt ‘Earp’ Roy (Rogers?)

First kid to be elected to parliament.

Won Liberal Party pre-selection with a very excellent colouring competition entry at local McDonalds store (did not cross the lines and used very bright colours).

Real name Roy Wyatt but Mum thought it would be “real wicked” to switch name around – “It makes him sound like a cowboy”, she said.  

.

Loser number #1 – the biggest loser

Steve Fielding

Refused to do a deal with Labor this time because of that “Living-in-sin Gillard” and “Lesbian Wong”.

Thought he could get elected in his own right because he’s “much more moral than the Sex Party”.

Forgot to take his lunch to the polling booth, went home and didn’t vote.

.

And the biggest winner #one (1) is:

"Just a touch, a touch of paradise."

Big Bob ‘mad as a hatter’ Katter

Renegade ex-Nat nut whose greatest claim to fame is throwing eggs at the Beatles.

Makes Barnaby Joyce sound like Einstein.

Has offered to support Gillard in return for Treasurer’s & Deputy Prime Minister’s job … 

… and $5 million in hush money.

What a great country!

Tony Abbott appears confident he can take the prime ministership saying Labor had lost its legitimacy.

Opposition Tony Abbott speaks at the official Liberal party election night function at the Four Seasons hotel in Sydney. All the drama and tension from around the country as the votes are counted.

I think that Tony Abbott’s confidence is well placed on this occasion and it seems more than just likely that he will get enough support to from government, and as I watched Maxine McKew begin the recriminations for what was a terrible result for Labor I just knew that within Labor’s ranks the blood will flow and flow very freely indeed.

Mr Abbott told a crowd of party faithful at Sydney’s Wentworth Hotel shortly before midnight: “What is clear from tonight is that the Labor Party has definitely lost its majority and what that means is that the government has lost its legitimacy.”

Australia has a historic hung parliament after Julia Gillard’s Labor suffered a vicious backlash from angry Queensland voters in the tightest election result for decades.

A primary vote swing of 9.5 per cent cost the ALP nine seats as the state that handed Kevin Rudd victory three years ago turned on the woman who pushed him from leadership.

Ms Gillard, who started the campaign with a good lead, was facing the prospect of losing power after just 58 days as Australia’s first female prime minister.

[...]

With more than two-thirds of the vote counted, the two-party preferred swing against Labor in Queensland was close to 6 per cent.

Wyatt Roy, 20-year-old LNP candidate in Caboolture-based Longman, became the youngest person ever elected to Federal Parliament with an astounding win over veteran Labor member Jon Sullivan.

Labor casualties in Queensland included Arch Bevis, losing Brisbane after 20 years to Teresa Gambaro, who served in the Howard government.

Former Liberal MP Warren Entsch, who retired in 2007, had a comfortable victory in north Queensland.

Labor also lost the electorates of Dawson and Flynn, where the mining tax continued to be a key issue, as well as Forde and Bonner and the seats of Dickson and Herbert, which had sitting LNP members but were notionally Labor under boundary changes.

Australian Workers Union national secretary and Labor Party powerbroker Paul Howes refused to accept that Kevin Rudd’s dumping had backfired on the party in Queensland, instead blaming dissatisfaction with Premier Anna Bligh.

The punishment continued in NSW, particularly in western Sydney – once Labor’s heartland – where voter anger was palpable with a 6.7 per cent swing against the ALP.

Mr Abbott attempted to calm the crowd warning against “premature triumphalism” and urging measured reflection of the magnitude of the task ahead.

He agreed the caretaker provisions of the Labor Government should continue but said the result showed clearly “”the Coalition is back in business.”

Mr Abbott said a government which previously found it hard to govern effectively with a majority would never govern properly as a minority government.

“It’s pretty clear that the Australian people have responded to the clear policies we took to the election,” he said.

Mr Abbott said he would talk to the Independents over the next few days to ensure the Coalition could form a stable government worthy of the Australian people.

“”It has been a great night for the Australian people,” he said.

Mr Abbott told the crowd he loved its enthusiasm.

“But I have to say to you I feel humbled by the responsibilities that I feel could lie ahead.”

Mr Abbott also paid tribute to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

“”The last eight weeks could not have been easy for her but she has certainly worked hard for her cause.”

But Mr Abbott added the election result was also a comment on the distaste Australians had for the political execution of former prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

The “knock on the door at midnight by the faceless men of Labor” should never be part of the Australian political equation, he said.

Personally I am delighted to have helped Peter Dutton across the line and I am really proud that Queensland has elected the youngest member of parliament in this country’s history with the victory of Waytt Roy in Longman. Of course I acknowledge that its is not yet set in concrete and that there will be some argy bargy with the conservative independents but I just can’t see that Labor has the legitimacy or the numbers to hold the treasury benches.

Its only fair to also acknowledge the fact that the Greens have also done very well in this election but They may well find that having the balance of power in the senate is a two edged sword that will make them have to grow up and learn the art of compromise , if they don’t then they will find that they will share the the fate of the late, and not so lamented Democrats

Cheers Comrades

Update

Blood-letting in the west

I am sure that my regular readers don’t really need me to spell it out.

Now I could go through the process of reiterating the opinions of the lead writers from the various news sites that are so often cited by me here but I think that at this stage such arguments are actually unnecessary

I know precisely the result that I think will be best for the country and I am sure that my regular readers don’t really need me to spell it out. I will anyway, This country can not afford to return the Labor Party to the treasury benches, not because they don’t care about a better stronger Australia because the so obviously do, but because for all of their dedication they have shown that they are incompetent at the fundamentals.

I have spent most of my life as a Labor voter I voted for Gough when it was time, and I was suitably outraged when Fraser won in 1975, I kept the faith during the dark years until the election of Hawkie, I respected Paul Keeting, and I Loathed John Howard when he was first elected but my opinions on politics changed in 2001 when I saw that “The left” were just too naive and that they were just too willing to make unconscionable compromises in an effort to be “politically correct”, still I kept voting Labor though, it was like an addiction that I could not break, In fact it was not until 2007 that I actually voted for the Coalition for the first time only to see an experience the disappointment  of the Rudd government’s reign. I tried to take heart from Rudd’s implied  assurances that he would be a “Labor Conservative” only to be hugely disappointed by what we have all seen over the last three years his was a government that has been entirely driven by their own relentless propaganda and the man’s personal hubris. Julia Gillard has just as much hubris as the man that she politically assassinated and the campaign that she has run over the last five weeks has been a total shambles and there is no doubt that it has been a performance worthy of any amateur Thespian who knows the lines but is incapable of being at all sincere, She has consistently treated the voters as fools delivering her lines of spin with the  mechanical certainty of an automation.

Frankly there are some things that I dislike about the Coalition’s philosophy, the belief in eternal economic growth is one but I do agree with and endorse most of their social values, the notion that individuals should , as far as possible be free to create their own futures and their own success through private enterprise is something that I  think is essential. I likewise believe that social change for its own sake is not something that we should be so keen to embrace without the most cautious and and careful consideration of the consequences.  As  a life long atheist it has always seemed to be people of sincere faith who  have been some of my closest friends. This has lead me to respect that  people of faith can and do make good leaders if they have the humility that goes with their tradition. I think that Tony Abbott has that sort of quiet humility.

So my dear readers I am now going to have  a relaxed breakfast, catch up with my emails , play some online chess with my brother and when the family has got itself ready for the day we shall  all go out and My wife and I will cast our votes, thinking about the future of our country and celebrating the fact that we live in a democracy.

Cheers Comrades