RIP "A Fair Go" Passed away un-noticed about 20 years ago.

Birth Notice
"I'm OK Stuff You" Exact date of birth unknown.

An Ex conservative voter>

I agree with Tony as well. John Howard seems to have studied at the Bjelke Petersen school of sociopolitical theory. And does stunningly well at it.

I tend to disagree with the idea that the machinery will continue to run without Howard at the controls. Like his own recent comment that the royal family would lose traction without the queen, I don't think the whole shebang would survive without him.

Whoever inherits Howard's throne, of either side, will take advantage of the absence of checks and balances which is not good, but I don't believe any of the current crop could control as well as Howard.

The Leighs of this world should probably consider their support for Howard's system in light of inevitable change of government. Without the traditional safeguards a lefty govt would be as accountable and even handed as this one is. Would Howard supporters be as enthusiastic about that?

Howard has done more damage to Australia that a lot of people realise,but never fear the chickens will come home to roost

I Agree with you Leigh

Kevin seems to be someone frustrated about not being leader but does nothing to pursue leadership. Instead he sits, as one who can’t (lead), quietly feeding from the public trough, moaning and belittling the activities of those who can (lead).

Kevin “Quietly networking in universities and think-tanks, distributing grants blah blah”

ah “conspiracy theories”, the last bastion when faced with a lack of the credible.

It is all a right wing conspiracy, those damned electors have chosen not to accept the left wing tripe which the socialist have served up through their history of entryism into universities and other arenas of what theoretically should have been the politically neutral environment of academia.

Oh and Kevin, your assertion to “fascism”.

Yep more evidence of a dysfunctional perception engendered through frustration at the decisions of the general electorate.

Jo5h6n “Howard has done more damage to Australia that a lot of people realise”

Leaving people alone to make their own mistakes is a lot better than governments leading us into becoming a Banana Republic (Keating).

What the “left” have to offer was last displayed when as the potential Prime Minster, they offered Latham (a ratbag suffering chronic personality disorders).
Beazley is just a cushion filling the seat whilst they try to find someone with any credibility.
Maybe they will ask Kevin – oh he needs to be elected first – well maybe they just cannot stack the branches high enough to get him up!

Tony Kevin is depressingly accurate, there is no effective parliamentary opposition to counter the government under “politically skillful” Howard. Control of both houses can’t be termed fascism, it’s an electoral outcome, but with control of major media and zero effective opposition, it opens the way for oppression and abuse of power.

Howard’s “skill” is ruling at any cost, appealing to the worst elements of racism and meanness in society, and lieing his way through any issue.
Witness the increasing limitation of access to health care and education to the rich. Increasing gaps between rich and poor. Economic management by becoming the quarry of China.
Denial of the reality of climatic change with catastrophic futures, and the stacking of the Board of CSIRO with representatives of the fossil fuel industry!
Howard sent our troops to kill and die in an illegal war on the basis of blatantly wrong intelligence, cynically exploited to justify a cringingly subservient foreign policy.
Hundreds of refugees that could/should have been saved , have drowned seeking our shores on boats known of by the government and its intelligence agencies, at best ignored and allowed to die.
Those who applaud the “skill” of Howard and his colleagues should go to Washington, go to the Smithsonian memorial to Vietnam. Weep at the tragedy of loss and suffering. Visit the Vietnam Memorial, weep again at the list of 50,000+ names of the American dead killed in that futile cause. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin, more lies told by an Australian government grovellingly eager to assist in the killing. Weep at what the list of names and stories of tragedy would be like if there was a memorial to the civilian dead in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Soon there’ll be memorials to the Iraq war dead of America and Australia. Appallingly there’ll be no memorial to the Iraqi innocents killed and maimed with our assistance.

Calling Mr. Kevin names is a pathetic response to a highly important argument. “communist” as a form of abuse went out of date when the last US soldier clambered off the embassy roof in Saigon.

There is an old bush saying that in business, especially in farming business, to always look back once in a while, and ponder over both your private and business life what was good luck and good judgment?

With John Howard, we could begin by asking was it only a rumour that the Howard government early in its first session, owing to a short of finance left from Labor and the need to prop up the housing industry mainly to lower unemployment, borrowed heavily from the US Federal Reserve? .

Did John Howard think wisely by backing America in the illegal attack on Iraq, which is now politically worse than a dog's breakfast, but with little Johnny hardly perturbed by it?

Did Johnny decide wisely about the Tampa Affair, or was that a lucky one? Or has Costello chosen wisely to invest so many billions in the Future Fund and let so many things run down, especially in education and helping build more hospitals, and rundown infrastructure, etc?

Dwelling now on the lucky breaks, electorally of course the Libs were able to inherit more than quite a few ultra-conservative votes from Pauline Hanson's collapse. But the most fortunate inheritance has been the economic rise of China, increasing the demand not only for coal, etc, but especially for iron ore. Also from China, has come the strong flow of amazingly cheap goods such as clothing and general hardware, naturally helping create consumer contentment in Australia, as well as keeping down inflation, which incidently is only mentioned by social scientists.

John Howaard has been accused by intellectuals as having a poor knowlege of history, even Australian history. So we might ask what comes first, and will it last, Howard's political knack, or the need to take the lessons especially from our political scientists about history?