Felicity. Enjoy your stay in Berne, and the ABC will still be here when you return.

Deane ( with an E). David Cameron really needs you now, as "Brownie" is on the up and up.

Jup, well said. I am amazed that such blatant spin be offered in this forum - except as an Aunt Sally to provoke furious response.

I hope all the political minders and gurus of both parties take a peek now and again at this forum.

I am a genuinely swinging voter, determined to try to figure out who will be the best government for Australia. Obviously it is going to be either Libs or Labor however my preferences filter down.

I am absolutely revolted by Mr Howard's attempt to buy the electorate where the Mersey hospital is situated. Politics 10, rationality and good government 0. Quest for power 10, longevity of some Tasmanians 0. On the other hand, Mr Rudd's deft refusals to be wedged fills me with admiration. But Labor's refusal to accept the facts of life vis-a-vis IR fills me with dread too. Instead of distorted polemic I would prefer, on this forum, to be treated to more rational discussion of issues.

I don't know what the authors are so worried about. The trick is to recognise when a ship is sinking and scramble onto the new one. (this is called adjusting to workplace reform).

Think Opportunity! There are plenty of examples of people remaking themselves - e.g. that great Leftist thinker Christopher Hitchens became a neoconservative hack! (although I think he might have deserted that now for the Chavismo 'socialist' fad). Anyway, think laterally - perhaps you can become writers for a 'leftist' thinktank, or pursue careers as Labor bureaucrat/politicians.

The key-word is 'flexibility'! Just get used to the idea and enjoy!

Felicity and Dean have those faces that ordinary people would just like to kick. These two smug fashion labeled mouths full of silver spoons and plumbs dribble theory from postmodern idiots. How on earth would they know about ordinary people?

They are not economic experts, Deanie boy studied internal policy under Mr Cameron in the UK. mmmhmm Oh Good boy! What a jolly good debate dear boy! More presents for the Young Liberals.

Felicity, possibly another spoof from Billy Mc Mahan, is some uppity lawyer who has that smart-arse tone about her. She would be the president of a tiny students union now. Who cares?

The point is they only speak the rhetoric that their party wants them to speak. A lawyer and a debater. That is what they do.

Neither is qualified to talk about economies.

Deanie boy should know that under new Labour in the UK, it was not bad for their economy at all. It boomed under PM Blair, just as it was bleak under Thatcher.

You see, for an economy to turn there has to be money.

You can't have a Treasurer like Costello flushing our tax payers money in higher eduction down the toilet bowel because he lost it all in "The Futures Fund". Yeah, smart idea that was. Gone. Would have been just as good to squander it all at Star City Casino. There goes our Education Budget, just as the Futures Stock market crashes. STUPID PEOPLE!

Then go off and sell our national telecommunications including confidential Government data, to a foreign company: Singtel. Good one mate! Tax payers money goes to Singapore!

The economic mistakes are an outrage, so take you snotty little faces out and disappear.

Is this the best they can do? it heartens me that the conservatives think miss information and fear is the best they have.
Truth is Rudd is closer to New Labor than any comrade type Labor.
And truth is John Howard is as far away from his battlers as he has ever been ,and increasing the gap hourly.
As the government pears into the depths of a huge hole it has dug for its grave thoughts of policy's and building a better country are far down the list after lies and fear tactics,,, this time John it works against you not for you.
Oh Tapp last or second last in your electorate, is still three to one on ,less than one thousand votes is five to one on.

Is a working family a family with an five bedroom home in Sydney with a $Zero mortgage battling on earnings of $250,000 so they can qualify for Labor's renovation subsidies?

Or is it a family on $80,000 with a $250,000 mortgage who can't afford to apply for Labor's renovation subsidies?

Or is it a renting family on casual work with one income earning $30,000 who can't access the savings in Power resulting from Labor's renovation subsidies.

The world of politic's in Australia surly has become 'ruddied' recently.

But the real battlers will be missing out under Rudd's labor. For surely Rudd's socialists and their policies will ensure real won't increase annually.