Rather than fully enter the debate, I present two snippets; the first, a letter to The Australian on 12 April on the NBN (not printed) re the approach of my former boss and current MP, K Rudd:

"Kevin Rudd does not have an "instinctive view that government knows best" ("Cable Guy," 11-12/4) - he thinks that he knows best. Unfortunately, he doesn't. The rationale for government infrastructure spending is that it provides returns to the community which (a) exceed those available on any alternative use of resources, including tax cuts, and (b) can be provided only by government.

Where are the cost-benefit analyses and economic modelling which show the proposed NBN to be viable? Nowhere, because it's not possible - there will be heavy losses, to be met by taxpayers. There are surely many potential infrastructure projects with much higher returns than the NBN.

But who should build them? The reason governments throughout the world privatised government utilities over the last 30 years was their demonstrated inefficiency and unresponsiveness to user needs. In the 1980s, the productivity of Australia's government-owned infrastructure was less than half of the OECD average.

Rudd has already mortgaged our future with massive ill-directed giveaways which will mean higher tax and interest rates for years to come. The $43 bn NBN will further exacerbate this ongoing cost to the community."

I'm sure this will be more valid after tonight's budget, further justifying Kerin's view.

As for Thatcher's comment on society, my archive shows (next post) ...

Thatcher on society;

"and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour"

and: "If children have a problem, it is society that is at fault. There is no such thing as society. There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate."

I fully agree. Truth, honesty, integrity, compassion, effort and selflessness from each one of us is what counts, both for oursleves and for society. Smaller government and a greater onus on personal responsibility and development is surely the way to go.

Disagree? Then ask how Mr Rudd rates on the above qualities. Do you really want him running your life more and more, with his splash-the-cash deficits, massive restructuring and economic disruption through the ETS and union-driven IR agenda? Like Kerin, I am an ex-long term (UK Labour and) ALP supporter. Never again, I fear.

Thatcher nor Kevinomics is the solution.The problem is the Global Reserve banking system and their creation of inflationary money.If you create counterfeit money ,you go to gaol.If the banks create counterfeit money,it is called monetary policy.

Since 1969 we have had 1800% increase in the amount of money in our economy.Eventually it had to collapse.If you as an individual counterfeit $25 million in money,then you are stealing $1.00 from every person in Aust.The banks with their fractional reserve system of loaning out 9 times of what they have in reserve,steal many times this amount and our Govt let them continue this theft.

There is a better way but our Govts are toady boys to the Global Corporates.

Any comparison with the world economy and the political leaders of 20 years ago are useless and irrelevant.

To be honest, memories of the Thatch's legacy should also include her massive public asset stripping, a period of the worst poverty levels in Europe, the rising culture of greed and growing social division, plus a certain personal arrogance resulting in the attempted and outrageous poll tax that ended her career.

Haha! Sorry I doubted you Col. But where is 'Socialism by Stealth'? It's like I was attending a concert and the band didn't play their hit song!

Spare us all this tripe about Thatcher. Politicians and Prime Ministers who spout the kind of pompous, patronising platitudes that have been quoted above are invariably the ones who cut dole payments and social security, drive public schools' morale and funding into the ground, spend up on warships and bombers (to conduct a Mouse that Roared style war in the south Atlantic in order to win an election over so many dead bodies), and cut taxes for the well-off. Invariably. Those quotes reveal little but hypocritical cant, a prelude or epilogue to another round of bashing the poorer sections of the populace such as those who can no longer find the jobs that have been made to disappear. Britain today produces next to nothing except financial products and Scotch whisky. Thatcher's great dream was to turn a nation of corner-shop grocers and coal miners into a nation of shareholders and council-house owners. Both she and Reagan went ga-ga.

As for Rudd? Fabulously disappointing.