Bruce your hatred is unhealthy, if you didn't bring it up, no one would care. People are not stupid, they know politicians reflections are distorted. It will be interesting to see how you deal with PM Rudd's clear rebuilding of history, after the event.

Is it because old PMs see the past differently to you that is offensive, or is it a personal hatred you harbour? (Do you hate any other past PMs? Do you need to 'fess up to any particular event where PM Howard personally "did you wrong")

PM John Howard was labelled the "Man of Steel" by none other than a US President, so it's historical fact, no spin or unspin will change that.

Let it go, the world moves on.

what a spiteful little peace about a man who did more for this nation than most. Just because people demand facts and refuse to bow to Bruce Haigh's climate change fantasy shows more character than weakness. Just like the ozone layer scam of the 1980.s so man made climate change is shown to be believed only by the gullible and deceitful. As for the 'stolen generation' I suggest Bruce take off his black arm band and look at how many Indigenous parents are treating their children today. You might get a bit more of a balanced view, A little more honesty would be appreciated instead of this petty attack.

Bruce, your first paragraph discloses you to be a believer in climate change caused by human activity, the non existent stolen generation and the pernicious fiction of the unthrown children.

There is no scientific proof of AGW, and plenty of proof of the mendacious nonsense that is peddled by the IPCC.

The Fourth Summary, of the IPCC, was considered in a court case, the usual forum in which the purveyors of nonsense are exposed, when a greenie group run by Ian Lowe challenged the development approval of a coal mine of Xstrata, in Queensland.

The judge found that the IPCC Summary misstated the science, and that the graph incorporated in the summary, although it had a meaningless swatch of colour added to it, to give it a superficial appearance of supporting the assertions in the Summary, was still readable, in its original form. and showed the assertions to be incorrect. Ian Lowe gained a mention for exaggerating his evidence 15 fold. Normal for a greenie, he just forgot he was on oath.

The stolen generation scam has also been thoroughly tested in two court cases, with no evidence of stealing of children produced. The myth is still stoked by people like you, Bruce, and you, and your like, do immense harm to aboriginals by fostering the destructive victim mentality.

There were photographs of children being held up, to be thrown, by illegal aliens, there were photographs of children in the water. There were no photographs of the children actually being thrown. On this point the lying left kept up a chorus of “unthrown children”, supported by the scurrilous media.

John Howard’s honesty was, and is, his outstanding characteristic. The left know that a lie repeated often enough, is eventually believed by an increasing number of people. This one could not have been sustained without the shameful support of the media.

Your credit is non existent,Bruce, before you even start on your outlandish assertions on East Timor.

Leo,
The part of the Children Overboard debacle that you have conveniently left out is that when Howard and Reith were made aware of their incorrect statement, they did nothing to correct the record - even to the extent of saying "well be better not see the video then" when Naval representatives said there was video evidence that children were not thrown overboard.

Likewise their feigned ignorance of the Dubai-trained waterfront workers and Patrick's plans are also hard to swallow.

I for one am interested in any developments in the Wheat Board enquiry when Downer takes the stand.

Maybe some of his efforts were simply "non-core" honesty.

Bruce Haigh's comments on Howard's attempt to bury the Timorese is as correct as his disgust with Kelly's acquiescence is justifiable. The Australian military had spooks all over Timor in the months preceding the vote on independence and Howard was fully informed of plans to stage a massacre. When those plans were put into effect the response from Australian citizens was immediate and so overwhelmingly in support of the people of Timor that Howard, ever the populist, had no option but to act.

It was a remarkable response to popular feeling and one wishes that Whitlam had found the same sort of resolve.

The mass demonstrations of Australians were well informed about the long history of betrayal of the Timorese and equally well informed about how the Javanese ruling caste, who constitute the senior ranks of the TNI, behaved themselves during the bloody massacres of the 1960's. It appeared to most of us that the TNI were planning a repeat of those events.

Howard had no choice because well informed citizens gave him no choice. As to other issues of his capacity for truth or deceit it is a matter of public record that Howard operated on the basis of "non-core promises" which goes to evidence of his capacity for self delusion more than anything else.

Anthony Nolan

Bruce Haigh, a master of the mendacious, is hypocritical in complaining about the supposed "merchants of spin".

The sad thing today is respect for freedom of speech, which saw the Howards liberals resist censoring the internet has been taken up by Conroy and the manipulative swill of the political and regulating left.

In reality, an article from Haigh is no different to a mosquito bite on the ankle... a momentary distraction and then back to "business as usual".

Now where did I put the aeroguard...?

John Howard had dignity, he did not have a dirty mouth, he did not lie,he will go down in our history as the greatest Prime Minister we ever had. He kept our borders reasonably safe, his ego never outran himself.
Mr Haig , go and take a happiness pill and have a little lie down, you will feel better.

Well, well Bruce, you have upset the Howard Toadies haven't you?

No doubt all aliases of both Howard and Downer, or maybe even Kelly?

I think Kelly demonstrates, once again, how chamelion-like he is, always able to find a means to support the unsupportable in an attempt to bring dignity to the status quo, whoever owns it at the time.

As Bruce writes here, is pretty well how I recall events too, particularly how Brereton forced not just Howard but also the constantly in-denial ALP to alter course as well.

In fact, with no thanks to the ALP, I suspect Brereton, not someone I'd normally bother to waste two words on, was the most important public figure to have an impact on East Timor in Australia.

Howard and Downer would have to produce some evidence, although not just a photo of the two of them (with or without lifejackets on) plotting together, before anyone could even begin to consider their account was anything more than a fable-in-the-making.

For those who doubt how terrible Howard was, do go and read the Irving Kristol speech he gave shortly after being tossed gloriously from both Bennelong and Government. Quite mad!

There is simply no evidence from the Howard era to draw on to support his claims to care about anyone from beyond our shores, other than Bush.

Kelly will continue to pour out his apologist genre whileever there is a dollar to be made and a career to bolster.

The only good thing Howard ever did, for mine, was get rid of guns, and in so doing alienate a percentage of his low-brow constituency. History will remember him for the shameless manipulator he was, who, pathetically, continues to gull the supporters he truly despised. Downer was never ought but a sychophant sucking plums
A plague on him and his house