Would it be fair (if a little harsh) to say that right about now the only mandate Julia Gillard has is her boyfriend? The Libs anti Carbon Tax smearing, while petty, seems to be well enough serving the purpose of reminding the public how they were lied to, and despite the most noble of reasons this is what's going to stick. Here in SA our Premier Mike Rann's career never recovered from the Michelle Chantelois affair.. not because of whether or not anything happened but because our Premier's evasive responses only served to reinforce a perception of deceit. Julia has a similar albatross round her neck.
And now, with the High Court "stuff-up", Labor are stuck with an immigration policy that isn't legally valid. Julia's attempted castigation of the decision isn't gaining public support. The supremacists that hide behind the "Stop the boats" rhetoric must surely be exalting in schadenfreud at how their clearcut, decisive platform seems much less dodgy than the schemozzle that the Gillard Government (as they've taken to calling themselves of late) are left to sort out. Ironic, really, since the Libs created the mess in the first place.
It's understandable that many in the Labor Caucus are doing the math for yet another leadership change. As for the Libs, it looks like the proverbial Drover's Dog could lead them to electoral victory. Tony only won leadership by one vote.. time for Malcolm to have another crack?
And where's Kevin? What's the bet his phone's near to meltdown?
Cleeses Parrott.
Been thinking about just the sort of issues Richard has been raising. I think Gillard was presented with a poison chalice due to Rudd's eccentricities, but agree Labor's inability or unwillingness to come to some sort of mature terms within itself as to asylum seekers and with the sociology of "development"/ "growth", backgrounded against ecological versus commercial imperatives re economics, has it in deep trouble.
Its leadership is drawn from too narrow a base, not from the community anymore, but from members of an informal white collar public service/ apparatchik culture, far removed from working class values and day to day realities and self- blinded to how society and people really operate, lest what is recognised disturbs the calm waters of neolib ideology and power relations and demands some sort of action that will offend the corporate powers that be, as with recent coal seam gas mining decisions favouring miners seems to indicate as to the wider trend.
In short, what has people in western countries frustrated is the managerialist approach and the idea that there should be no aspiration and no impulse to a better and more efficient society. Instead civilisation remains a permanently ordained rat-race, which suits big business, with government merely around to "manage the decline" of the egalitarian welfare state whose "commons" are hived off by bankers speculators and developers,with some thing on the side for the political bagmen.
Rann Labor has ventured down the path of "New Labor", the path described above where politicians abandon the idea of representing community interest or of employing politics and the economy to acheive a better world and instead just act as guard dogs for corporations. Rann Labor is typical in this trend right across the western world and its modus operandi makes it almost indistinguishable from its Olson liberal predecessor. In the absence of any likelihood in politics of substantial change, political parties find it easy to go along with wealthy and powerful interests, as Rann has with property developers in SA and other state governments, with the timber industry, big mining and property, banks etc.
With the aid of spin, some bizarre schemes have been sold to the public over recent times, ranging from the idiot Afghan war to freeways and tunnels that lead nowhere in Brisbane and Sydney, to the drooling silliness of the border security" threat" and expensive resultant "solutions". Nor would I like to get Richard and Marilyn going on defence and defence spending, without some cotton wool for my ears first.
Now until about 2007, people bought politicians excuses, but once the scales fell away, Bush, Blair and Howard left in short time and centrist governments put back, with bold programs to alleviate what ever was holding up the march of society.
But they shied away when the time came, from instigating the new policies, under pressure from vested interests. Rann became seen as a tool for property developers and Gillard and Obama at bigger levels, have all found that in reality they had been kneecapped by the wealthy vested interests and it was easier to go with the flow and maybe even pick up a few kick backs along the way, in contrast.
The political system has always been weak and with the Death of Nation, National Project (Donald Horne) and Community, as Thatcher sort of put it, the impetus to hold the private sector to its obligations has been broken, rather we are now already their servants.
Now now Richard
Now now, we can do without all that anti-albatrossism Richard. You'd think I'd get used to it by now, but it's hard, even when you're dead.
Anyway Claude just loves an albatross around his neck, and especially in his mouth - some felines do have that sensitive touch.
Love and pecks
Audrey
Julia is looking more and more like John Howard
Julia's attack on the High Court for its determination that she does not like in striking down the Malaysian refugee swap resembles John howard's behaviour after the Mabo and Wik decisions.
In my opinion, one of the reasons for Labour's poor showing in the last Federal election was the axing of Kevin Rudd as Labour could not campaign on the achievements of a PM that it had deposed and in the next election those who voted labour because it was more humane on refugees now have no reason to do so. Julia Gillard's refugee policy is even worse than that of the Howard government.
It was Puglia that did for Rann
The carbon tax will pass, it has the numbers.
In fact most of the ALP platform is very good, they just picked a racist loser to lead them into hell.