<<Hi Marilyn,
Must admit I was intrigued by...your fairly forceful denunciation of the PM...>>

POP!

That was the sound of Alan’s bubble bursting when told that his real live action hero (whom he has been fanboy like spruiking on OLO and following on facebook) was just a figment of his imagination.

LOL

The issue, despite Alan's fetish with Jones, is what level of criticism of a female is legitimate.

Roxon, for example, the first law officer of the land, has disgraced herself with Slipper and his emails [which reminded me of Joyce's images about women actually, the mussels etc] by first being aware of the emails since May, interfering with the Ashby law case, and by supporting Gillard's sexism crusade against sexism while supporting Slipper in his position as Speaker.

On another thread Alan also raised the case of 3 other prominent women who had been the subject of sexism by Jones [according to Alan]; those 4 were Hanson-Young, Moore, and Nixon.

There are cogent reasons for cricising each of these 3 people which I also explained on the other thread.

In the case of Gillard, apart from any of her many current destructive government policies, there still remains the issue of her activities at Slater and Gordon in respect of completing an application for association and witnessing the execution of a Power of Attorney.

I have not heard anyone offer any convincing rebuttal of the claims against Gillard in this respect except to say she denies it.

Just like Thompson denies his charges.

I said to Alan that he pretends it is Jone's sexism which he objects to when in fact it is the substance of his criticism; the fact that Jones uses a vitriolic and flamboyant manner does not detract from that substance.

I respect Pilger's take, it is an invitation to refuse the placing of the PM on too high a pedestal, which can only bad for her and for us. Wiser to remember that she is, like most people and politicians most of all, a curious mixture of bad, indifferent and good.
I think it will take more time to ultimately make a sound judgement on her- who are we to judge yet, anyway.
Can she be any worse than her political rivals?
I think the speech on Slipper and Abbott was sincere and right, but share the unease with others as to how which she and most other politicians slip to expediency on issues that sometimes require an ethical input.
People say she's worldly and devious; well, so were Hawke and Howard and she is, after all, fighting for her political life against powerful forces and we expect our politicians not to be fools.

cohenite,

"Just like Thompson (sic) denies his charges."

I believe the "claims" against Thomson are the product of an investigation that was found to be flawed by KPMG, as in (from ABC report):

"The report by accounting firm KPMG says Fair Work Australia was not experienced in the conduct of investigations, was deficient in its planning, management and execution of the investigation, and there were no qualified or experienced investigators involved."

Should give a non-partisan observer pause for thought.

I agree Poirot; based on the KPMG findings about FWA, FWA should be replaced when Abbott gets into government.

Regarding Thomson; is there any doubt his credit card was used at brothels?

Give a credit card number over the phone and they will be happy to take your money.