PS: I grew up in a poor fatherless family in a poor working-class district. I don't carry a Keating-size chip about it.

The man airbrushed in James McConvill's pangyric is that former resident of Philistia, P J Keating. The unenviable duty of compiling puff pieces about Keating usually falls to Phillip Adams. It now seems stories of Keating will assault us from another direction.

Many of us remember the Keating locust years of double digit unemployment figures and interest rates so high they exceeded the max temperature in Sydney on a winter's day. It is for that reason that Mr Keating is still unable to venture into his backyard without being mauled by the family's miniature poodle.

What has been indelibly etched into our memory is the anaclitic relationship Keating had for travel allowance claim forms, which he always remembered to complete. However, that dedication to detail never carried over to his own tax returns.

We remember his vision for Australia in the modern world. Our economy was to be based on services and tourism. Fancy basing part of our nation's economy on something as fickle as tourism.

Until I read Mr McConvill's article I was unaware that politicians were given cash rewards for attending the opera. Why else would they go?

One of Keating's hamartias was his treatment of our aboriginal brothers and sisters. The expectations built up at the Redfern speech fell flat because he never apologised to them. As a matter of fact he spent about 1461 days in office yet issued no apology. Instead he upbraided Howard for not issuing an apology to Aborigines.

Mr Keating thinks that a change of address is all that is needed to gain membership of the haut monde. He may be tolerated in that very privileged milieu but he is merely seen as an amusing vulgar person. He has a lot in common with a recently retired narcissist from the same party.

"John Howard has demonstrated such statesmanship in his fluctuating liberal leadership fortunes prior to the last 3 elections."

c'est rien que de la merde!

Since when did statesmanship mean deceitful mealy mouthed political opportunism?

Amen to that Rainier. Howard is emblematic of what's rotten about Australian politics.

Notwithstanding the nadir into which Australian politics has descended, our Sisyphean task of searching for an alternative goes on. And what do we find? We have a minor party with a bark hut philosophy; another minor party fixated on a stray cat on Manus Island; and a mix of one issue parties with policies that would see a ban on breaking wind in public to banning wildlife from entering national parks.

It's a miracle our suicide rate isn't higher.

Why don't you run for parliament Rainier and show us how a real statesman behaves.

t.u.s.

Sage "It's a miracle our suicide rate isn't higher."

Really, I know what might push it up

Norway and Sweden, shining examples of the "socialist model" have suicide rates higher than Australia.

So to is New Zealand (Helen Clarkes socialists must not have it quite right - no wonder so many NZers migrate to Aus)

Of course the "Top Ten Suicide Spots for those who prefer to top themselves are (in descending order of incidence per 100,000) -

LITHUANIA
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
BELARUS
LATVIA
UKRAINE
SRI LANKA
SLOVENIA
HUNGARY
ESTONIA
KAZAKHSTAN

source - http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/

Now with the exception of Sri Lanka, which has been gripped by a civil war of sorts for the past 30 years, ALL the others are former Soviet block countries - I guess dealing with capitalist "freedom" takes some getting used to when the jackboot of communist oppression has been choking the generational life blood out of a population for between 60-90 years.

As TUS suggested to Rainier - if you don’t like Liberal politics, stand for public office. Until then you can live with the reality, Mr Howard has greater popular support than anyone from the socialist labor rabble.

Typically, socialists always believe they know what is best for everyone else. It is beyond their comprehension to consider that non-socialists are not as gullible as them and do not support the infantile notions of unionism and the left