He lived in Sydney for 20 yrs. importantly which 20? Year 1 to 20?
Lets hope he stays in England, his idea of politics apparently are needed there.
Our O/S debt has grown under Howard, he passed the debt to private industry thats all. Under his guardianship surplus tax was levied so he he could make a great fellow of himself,passing it back like he was doing us a favour come election time.
I'll bet while he wasted Australia's time working for news ltd he led the field in it's fast falling circulation.
Like one poster has said"drivel" lets hope he stays wonking in England.
fluff4

"lets hope he stays wonking in England."
fluff4

Hilarious - thanks Fluffy you made my day
JR

Changeless change as our author puts it is what underpins Australian politics - the data from the AEC highlights the fact the election was won on a handful of votes even though a large number of seats changed bums.

Rudd ran a more efficient and strategicaly targetted campaign - the marqee differences were well publicised - but the core of policy from both parties is/was/ virtually the same - and that has - with the excpetion of Whitlam - long been the case. And Hawke and Keating re- introduced the coalition to true market economy principles emphasising the convergence of the two major parties

There is a degree of consensus here that governs the swing of the political and policy pendulum to a very small arc indeed - polemicists like Akerman and Bolt would disagree but they just need to get out a little more often - even the radicalism of Whitlam has been either accepted by the conservatives in many ways or ameliorated by labor to make it more palatable to the population or to suit the economics of the day - viz Dawkins and HECS for example. HOwards experiment with Workchoices can be seen in very much the same light - Rudd will not so much "tear these laws up" as he and Big Kym declared as crumple them up a little.

Ratifying Kyoto is mainstream idea as is getting ot of Iraq - the first symbolic at best the latter like wise a symbolic withdrawal of a tokenistic gesture - nothing radical there even though it is at odds with Howards stance - but I suspect many of his one time followers were uncomfortable with his stance on those two issues anyway ..

- the back ground noise made by both parties is one that is far more harmonious than either side will publicly admit to.

Changeless change is the order of the day. Once the state Liberal parties get their act together we will see them mimicking Rudds approach - mechanistic controlled and calculating.

Palimpsest it might be advisable if you thought before you posted comments.

Then you might consider the difference between "stacking branches" for pre-selection and the targeting of ethnic and or religious minorities.

At a national level not since the 1960's has anyone other than John Howard resorted to use of the "race" expedient.

I note JDS's reference to the frequently-used conservative term, "Howard haters". This term must have been invented by Howard's blind supporters because it completely misses the point. I, for example, never hated Howard at all. I just wanted to see him and his backward-looking policies gone. Now he has gone, I couldn't care less about him. He is at long last irrelevant.

The coalition will never regain power if it and its supporters perpetuate the myth that the Howard Government lost power in one of the biggest swings in the history of this country accidentally.

Adam C seems to be maintaining that 'we didn't really lose'. Adam, get used to it - you did! And this is partly because most people were never interested in the culture wars. They did go for the border protection con for a period, but became increasingly turned off by the former (yes, former!) government's harshness towards refugees. No-one is interested in the war on the ABC or the history wars or political correctness, except the minuscule band of Australian neo-cons, who are even smaller in number than the originals in America.

The Libs need to invent a new story and leave their baggage behind, or they will end up talking only to themselves.