So Howard is staying on to fight the next election.

Good. That puts the awful prospect of Costello becoming PM right back (but not entirely out).

Now maybe Labor will see fit to set themselves up as a distinctly different party to the Libs, so that they might have a chance of winning. Heaven knows they won’t win while they remain a mirror image of the Libs. (They would have been in with a real chance if Costello had become PM).

Comeon Beazley, get your party to concentrate on peak oil and other enormous sustainability issues, and present yourself as a real alternative to Howard.

Ludwig,
Agreed, except I doubt if Beazley can do that, Labor needs a new leader, Julia Gillard would make a terrific contrast, progressive young intellegent woman, up against a tired old hasbeen of 68, new policies up against tired old policies from a tired old government.