praxidice, Belly has always claimed to be male. I've never seen a reason to doubt that nor do I think there is reason to think females have any monopoly on obtuseness.

I do wish there would come a point when pollies try truth but they mostly seem unaware of the concept. The rarity of a political leader acknowledging that they thought they had what it takes to lead a country, state, portfolio and have found otherwise and then standing down is testiment to that. Not an occupation that seems to draw the honest or thoughtful. Rather those driven by bullet point agendas and self serving.

R0bert

Belly has changed in recent times, as the old belly would debate with you, whereas now, if challenged, he simply runs away.

The really sad part about Belly is that despite his dislike of Gillatd, and his calls for party reform, he is stil likely to vote for labor, and then hope and prey they will change, yet The only way for labor to change is for their supporters to withdraw their support.

But what would I know, I'm just the il informed one.

Robert - Not an occupation that seems to draw the honest or thoughtful.

Way back before the political circus was overrun by lawyers, there appeared to be some vague semblance of decency. As you say, honesty in politics is a rare commodity these days. I do believe we'd be a lot better off banning the lawyer element completely, as many of the worst have a legal background. Add the priesthood & we see disasters like Slippery Pete & the RAbbott. Ultimately the 'power corrupts', 'positions of power attract the corruptible' & 'some pigs are more equal' factors must be the keys, If perchance we could establish really robust checks & balances before giving **ANYONE** authority, we'd have a good chance of keeping the lid on corruption. As always, apathy of the sheeple renders any real change near impossible.

As for Belly, I've certainly never encountered such totally scrambled thinking in a male, but them most of my associates have had something of a real world background. I've generally managed to avoid the queer sympathizer / unionist / do-gooder fraternity so typical of ALP & Greens faithful. Its not that I have much respect for LNP logic but I've always thought avarice more straightforward than the blatant hypocrisy on the other side of the fence.

rehctub - The really sad part about Belly is that despite his dislike of Gillatd, and his calls for party reform, he is stil likely to vote for labor, and then hope and prey they will change, yet The only way for labor to change is for their supporters to withdraw their support.

Its long been accepted in male circles that females are strange cattle, but much the same also applies to ALP & Greens faithful. For what its worth, I really do believe it would be possible to saver the day for the ALP. The RAbbott is almost equally on the nose as the red-headed witch and even the polls aren't impossibly damning for the ALP. Given the time remaining, one would logically think the clowns would be grabbing at straws instead of racing headlong to disaster like so many lemmings. Make no mistake, I have even less time for the red-headed witch, the dying duck and the wong wun than I do the RAbbott, Hockey & Turnbull (and thats negative). It just strikes me as extraordinarily weird that the supposedly faithful members of an entity facing certain annihilation refuse to face up to its faults before the axe falls. 'Thick in the head' is the only thought that comes to mind.

Arjay, I can definitely affirm that Belly is male, as I have seen his
photograph. Indeed I think I may have seen him in real life last
February, but I did not realise it until it was too late to say hello.

My understanding is that post election Julie is seeking Kevin Rudd's seat in the United Nations.