Aidan

"there was certainly a need for Kerr to call an election, but no need for him to appoint Fraser caretaker PM."

The problem was that the budget hadn't been passed at that point and it needed to be passed before the parliament could be dissolved. Otherwise the government would have spent the next month ie 11 November to whenever the new parliament could be assembled, without appropriated funds. That would in turn mean all pensions, public service salaries, government payments to contractors etc. All would have come to a grinding halt.

So how to pass the budget? Fraser wasn't going to allow it until the election was called. Kerr could have asked Fraser to pass it with the promise of an election but after the budget was passed the whole crisis would have been over and an election unnecessary. Whatismore, if Whitlam knew that such promises had been made to get the budget through, he would have moved to sack Kerr first.

Therefore the only solution was to do what Kerr did.

Whitlam was a fool who thought the Kerr was a mere lackey who would do his, Whitlam's, bidding. He never saw it coming. Additionally, when it did happen he made a series of strategic errors which might yet have saved the situation for him.

Kerr was in a no-win situation. Passing the whole thing over to the people was the only sensible solution.

Aidan,

The fact that left whingers regard all media organisations that don't share their bias as fascist is pretty common knowledge.

However, it is also common knowledge that the majority of reporters are left whinge.

Finally, appointing Fraser as caretaker PM was largely due to Gough Witless refusing to deal with Kerr.

ALTRAV, you sound like that old anachronism from a bygone era, the sickening royal sycophant 'Pig Iron' Bob Menzies who used the words of Thomas Ford to describe his lusty feeling for the young queenie "I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die."

Paul,
It is but who I am.
Contrary to what some on OLO may think of me, I have always preferred women to men.
I love the the women I love, and hate the females I hate.
I am far more mentally and emotionally balanced than most people, which has kept me in good stead with women, both platonic and intimate.
So I may not be as besotted as good ole' Bob was with the queen, but being a man, with all my faculties, I cannot but not notice women in general around me.
Dare I say it; "it's only natural"!
What kind of MAN does not notice women, ANY women?

'Twas a lake, not a swamp!
Aidan,
You'd better look up the difference between a lake & a swamp !
Lakes don't contain grubs & slime !

"'Twas a lake, not a swamp!
Aidan,
You'd better look up the difference between a lake & a swamp !
Lakes don't contain grubs & slime !"

Only when a Green or two accidentally fall in.

For general information;

"Sheila (alternatively spelled Shelagh and Sheelagh) is a common feminine given name, derived from the Irish name Síle, which is believed to be a Gaelic form of the Latin name Caelia, the feminine form of the Roman clan name Caelius, meaning 'heavenly'.

It is also encountered as an alternative spelling of the unrelated Indian feminine name Sheela, which is of Sanskrit origin."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila#:~:text=Sheila%20(alternatively%20spelled%20Shelagh%20and,Caelius%2C%20meaning%20'heavenly'.