It’s been a big week for federal opinion polling, with Ipsos adding its voice to the regular fortnightly Newspoll and Morgan and the weekly Essential Research. The results are sharply polarised, with Ipsos and Morgan coming in weak for the government and Newspoll and Essential being fairly strong. The BludgerTrack aggregate reads this a slight move to Labor, which consolidates a shift in their favour last week. However, there has been no change on the seat projection this time around, with gains for Labor in New South Wales and Victoria counterbalanced by losses in Queensland and Western Australia. Newspoll and Ipsos both provide new numbers for leadership approval, on which both Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten record substantial downturns for net approval. However, since this was driven by somewhat peculiar numbers from Newspoll’s swansong, I’d reserve my judgement on that for the time being.
BludgerTrack’s current two-party preferred reading of 52.1% for Labor is a bit lower than the other players in the poll aggregation game just at the moment, with Kevin Bonham and Phantom Trend both having it at 52.4%, and Mark the Ballot being even further out at 52.7%. Our relative weightings for Newspoll and Ipsos may have had something to do with this, but another factor will have been that only BludgerTrack has Essential Research’s weekly samples as separate data points, since Bonham and Phantom Trend have only the published fortnightly rolling average, and Mark the Ballot drops the pollster altogether. You may infer from that that this week’s result was on the strong side for the Coalition.
Also of note:
• Draft boundaries of a redistribution for the Northern Territory parliament have been published, which Antony Green considers in detail. The big change is the effective abolition of the Alice Springs seat of Araluen to make way for the new seat of Spillett in the north of Darwin’s growing satellite city of Palmerston. This has already had political ramifications, as Araluen MP Robyn Lambley cited it as one of her reasons for quitting the Country Liberal Party yesterday to sit as an independent, having intimated that the redistribution has singled her out for special treatment.
• The Lowy Institute has published its annual poll encompassing attitudes towards a wide range of foreign policy issues, which was conducted between February and May from a combined sample of around 6000 respondents by Newspoll and I-view, the latter being a part of Ipsos. Among many other things, respondents were asked to give the government marks out of ten across eight issues, producing a strong 7.1 average for “maintaining a strong alliance with the United States” (if that be deemed a good thing), a fairly healthy 5.9 for “responding to the threat of terrorism”, a perhaps surprisingly soft 4.9 for “handling the arrival of asylum seekers by boat”, another 4.9 for “managing Australia’s economy”, and a low 4.0 for “managing the issue of climate change”.
• The Lowy poll also found concern over climate change at its highest level of 2008, the potential electoral ramifications of which I considered in an article for Crikey yesterday. I had another subscriber-only Crikey piece on Friday which took a careful look at Essential Research data concerning perceptions of Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten.
Sorry #3599 was directed to confessions
Sir Mad
I should add. 😀
There’s a thread for Gillard/Rudd discussions.
[It is a thoroughly fair description of the media. Every time some lazy intellectually bankrupt journo does a pox on both your houses story it shows the biggest pox is on the media house.]
The scene on Insiders last Sunday was most unedifying, as the panel – including the Jeanne D’Arc of the journalistic intelligentsia, Kath Murphy, and that paragon of considered, sober commentary, Phil Coorey – sniggered plonkingly at Gillard and Rudd briefing journos, and then admitting they were the among the ones who were both “briefed” AND who were writing “Gillard Gone” stories… for three years, until they finally guessed right.
Fancy politicians playing politics! Fancy briefing journos anonymously! Fancy pandering to the very mob of ambulance chasers whose life’s blood is sucking pandering pollies dry, then condemning them out of hand for pandering!
It must have been that other media, over there, that done it. Yes, those ones, the one who print every rumour – true or false, genuineor confected within their own empty heads – writing “the vibe” as if it was reality, guffawing to themselves as they trawl through the garbage skips of politics.
They would be the same ones, or at least the same rotten breed, who used one man’s second-hand, uncorroborated report of a conversation 5 years ago with a politician, Arbib (who is now working for Packer as a paid shill), as the basis for a shit sheet bootstrap campaign, based on God-know’s what, that after only a couple of days culminated in a thundering editorial calling for Shorten’s resignation.
It’s “The Killing Season” after all. They still operate in the false bubble of sudden party room coups, when they know full well that the party both doesn’t want a coup, and that to have one they’d have to be just about in open revolution against the leadership.
The leak “count” so far is precisely “1”: a vague reference to “nervous” Labor “insiders” reported by the same thugs who have ignored the facts of Shorten’s union career, and tried to run the idea that if a union isn’t striking and sending employers broke they’ve “sold out” their members. These would be the same plonkers who would tut-tut about “industrial thuggery” if those unions actually did go on strike. This would be in agreement with Pyne, who made the same claim (incredible co-incidence, that), while at the same time wanting to strip away workers conditions – RDOs, penalty rates, wages – himself.
It is truly Cloud Cuckoo Land that we live in.
Bushfire, if you’re about, I quoted you at length over at Bolt’s cesspool of ignorance, hope you don’t mind.
Bolt evangelized:
[I can’t believe Abbott would do something that would irreparably breach faith with his base – and betray not just our economic interests but his inner convictions.]
I can’t believe how much irreparable damage Abbott has already done to Australia’s international standing, but more importantly how he has deliberately sold out Australia’s economic future so he could keep “faith with his base” and not “betray…his inner convictions”. Last time I checked the Prime Minister’s responsibility was to ALL Australians not just those “absent minded” enough to vote for him.
Once again Andrew lets slip that the truth of his opposition to action on climate change is not based on an informed understanding of the science but rather his misguided commitment to the morally bankrupt, economically destructive neo-conservative ideology. Take the ludicrous opposition to the renewable energy industry, a high growth, high wealth generating, high tech industry with the potential to create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in income for Australia. Instead of embracing renewables, not as some Leftist plot and the “enemy of coal” but rather as a sensible, sustainable, long term solution to dwindling mining investment and declining revenue.
Australia has suffered enough at the hands of Bolt and Abbott and their faithful base. We’ve lost the opportunity of the NBN, thousands of jobs destroyed, billions, hundreds of billions of dollars forever gone because Bolt’s and Abbott’s idiotic, ill-informed, fundamentally dishonest opposition to the NBN simply because it was a Labor initiative. Where’s Andrew’s daily attacks on the Liberal’s Fraudband? Well behind schedule and currently costing almost twice per install than Labor’s FTTP roll out. So much for principle.
Let me quote at length a comment from another forum that sums up perfectly the damage and lost opportunity of the Abbott debacle (thanks to Bushfire Bill):
[Australians CAN be productive and innovative. They CAN make products that rank with the best in the world, and which are used by the best of the best…We don’t have to only dig holes or shear sheep, or raise cattle. Those primary industries don’t need to be our mainstays. They are where the old money is. We CAN compete as equals with anyone, if we put our minds to it and believe in what we do. And if we are prepared to back ourselves.]
[Yet our government is telling us that we are only good for mining, or raising cattle. Or for serving free drinks to gamblers with too much money in high-roller casinos that shut out ordinary folk.]
[They portray Australians as loyal subordinates, good enough to fight and die at Gallipoli for the Old Empire (or Iraq and Afghanistan for the other empire), not too bad at digging up dirt, clever occasionally at animal husbandry, but never good enough to take the raw materials we have in abundance and do something really clever that adds value to them.]
[The Cultural Cringe is still alive and well. Abbott, an old imperialist by any measure, still clinging to the trappings of Queen and country, traditional religion and stranded industries, effectively tells us that we must know our place. That place is as a gofer for the rest of the world, whether it be supplying troops or red dust for other countries to profit from. It’s because his cronies, patrons and mates have told him to do it, and he has a ready ear for such self-defeating nonsense.]
[Australians by and large, in contrast to the image they have of themselves, live in a state of perpetual fear. It’s the fear of having a go, of trying to make something out of what are sometimes unpromising raw materials. It’s literally the fear of success. Exploiting this fear is the easiest thing in the world, especially for a professional thug like Abbott, mired in ancient traditions that have no place in the 21st century. He always looks for profit out of chaos, often chaos he himself has engendered.
Sure, mining and construction (and for a while at least, until it stops raining, agriculture) provide much needed export income, in large sums. But if we don’t even try to progress in other fields – if we close down wind turbines, gut alternative energy research, cancel whole industries – and in the process allow ourselves to be turned against each other, then we will never get anywhere better than where we are.]
[But we will be afraid, afraid of upsetting the balance we have been told is the only possible way for us to live, of upsetting the self-appointed rulers and arbiters of good taste and judgment who lord it over us, telling us we never had it so good.
When the coal runs out, or is superseded, when the iron ore isn’t worth digging up, when the drought comes back (as it will) we are therefore left stranded, surrounded by the wreckage of lost opportunities. Another bust.]
[It’s a helluva way to run a country, by keeping it afraid of its own potential, just so that the last few ounces of profit can be wrung out of the wasted, national slag heap we are in danger of becoming.]
A helluva way to run a country indeed. If more intelligent and sensible heads are prevailing in the government that is a good thing. That Bolt would rather have Abbott knell before the altar of his busted and broken ideology tells you all you need to know about who is betraying who. The sooner Abbott stops listening to the outer fringe of the lunar Right the better off he and the rest of us will be.
vic
Have to say, I was expecting something a bit more juicy. lol
Rex D
Funny how several people confuse me with confessions.
Confessions
Journalists will write a book about orange peel if they think there is money it it, so that in itself is not an argument with merit.
The fact that you and many other centre left women feel this way, is quite possible only an example of standard confirmational bias – just like support for a footy team means you see what you want to see.
There probably IS a research thesis for someone who can look objectively at the media and determine if Gillard got treatment noticeably worse that comparable men and separate out the impact of female specific negative (or positive) references compared with equivalent male perjoratives.
Terms such as bitch or cat are used for women, but cur and mongrel are used for males. Poodle is a very common derogatory word, mostly used on males.
Re “Dan” Andrews poll, I fully expect to see similar News Ltd commentary on Federal Polling..
“Despite breaking numerous explicit election promises, overseeing a doubling of the budget deficit, knighting the Queen’s husband, undermining action on climate change and gutting renewable energy in opposition to both science and his own Church, Mr Abbott’s party somehow managed to retain the support of 49% of the electorate”
Sir Cyril
We have set a high standard for ‘juicy’ nowadays. 😉
DTT
Victoria is correct. Jenny Macklin!!!!! You have a wonderful sense of humour.
As to Ms Gillard and sexism, let’s focus on language.
How many common words in our language of an abusive, sexist nature are there to really insult a man, compared to a woman?
Bitch, slut, whore, barren, fat arsed, cunning stunt, cheap n easy, etc etc are really insulting to women. What are the equivalents which most men would take to heart and be deeply insulted by? Not so many.
When such words are directed at men IMHO most men would be stimulated to simply reply “eff off” rather than take it deeply to heart.
On the other hand, IMHO men find it relatively easier to use such words at a woman, and quite a few were happy to do so against Ms Gillard.
So the ALP wants revenue from the increase of petrol excise to go to repair of country roads, while the Greens Party want revenue to go to public transport.
I think public transport should be the priority.
dtt
If you were told your host didn’t like people to wear shoes indoors, would you?
Apologies lizzie.
Victoria
Oddly enough I am sort of serious. However I know where you are coming from and 6 months ago could well have said the same.
The success of Anastasia P here in Qld is influencing my opinion and also I guess the Killing Fields where she alone has come out as a genuinely NICE person.
I just have a gut feel that after Abbott the only sort of person with a chance is someone who is seen as reliable, honest and nice. Again it is very much based on recent events in Qld.
Some reactions so far on Abbott’s plan to stop funding public hospitals:
[Labor frontbencher Mark Butler seized on the issue, telling reporters in Canberra: “Tony Abbott is shaping up for the biggest smash and grab on Australia’s schools and hospitals ever seen in this country.”
Liberal MP Angus Taylor said hospital and school funding were matters for the states.
“There is no plan for the federal government to exit those areas,” he said.
Nationals MP Andrew Broad said the government’s approach to federation reform was wise.
“Everything should be on the table,” he said.
]
http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/federal-exit-on-health-funding-floated/story-e6frfku9-1227410369953
BB @ 3604
Another very nice bit of writing. I liked this part in particular:
[the same thugs who have ignored the facts of Shorten’s union career, and tried to run the idea that if a union isn’t striking and sending employers broke they’ve “sold out” their members. These would be the same plonkers who would tut-tut about “industrial thuggery” if those unions actually did go on strike. ]
It would seem that the only way a union leader can avoid being accused of selling out its members is to sell out its members. Such is the rampant cognitive dissonance that passes as informed journalistic analysis these days.
RD @ 3612
[So the ALP wants revenue from the increase of petrol excise to go to repair of country roads, while the Greens Party want revenue to go to public transport.]
At least it looks as though they might get something out of the trade-off – which is more than you can say about the Greens rolling over on the pension eligibility cuts.
DTT
“cur”……… you really think that would sting a man like “slut” stings a woman? And “mongrel”? Give us a break!
“poodle” and such words with a homophobic slur might have potency against some men.
Try calling a man in the front bar a “effing cur”. If you use a really insulting tone it might offend, but otherwise he might look at you in puzzlement.
I should add to my 3618 that repairing and improving country roads is actually of environmental benefit because there is less wear and tear on vehicles. Public transport improvement, while critical in and between urban areas, cannot be justified in most rural areas because the number of users will never be there even if all private vehicles were banned.
The difference being, Rex, is that Labor has a chance of getting what it wants, and the Greens don’t.
WOW… just WOW… just watched Q&A and the audience are pro-terrorist.
Applauding a guy who made death threats against ASIO officers.
Seriously. Most leftwing, socialist, anti-Australian nutjobs in Australia fill the studio audience of Q&A shows.
DTT
Anyway, IMHO words like “cur” and “mongrel” do not have sexist overtones like “bitch”, “slut”, “whore” etc.
As I said earlier IMHO our language is far richer in sexist words with which to insult women than in equivalents for men.
Psyclaw
Words specifically offensive to MEN and which I can never think applying to women
poodle, cur, mongrel, dog, coward, snivelling, limp dicked, cuckold, mother f*****,tom cat, monkey, ape, a*se hole, eunuch. Even bastard, is usually a male specific term.
All gay references such as poof, nancy boy, girly man, prissy, pretty boy
I am sure there are very many more.
Jenny Macklin for Queen!
😆
lizzie@3607
Bit of mistaken identity must be going around 🙂
Here’s today’s David Rowe effort – on the bus.
psyclaw
I think it is you very MALE perceptions that makes you see those words in that way. Cur and mongrel are very much male focused words. Kerr’s curr would not have been used if Faser had been a female. (OK the obvious would have been Ker’s c*nt)
Another conservo definition of “terrorist” ie one who makes death threats against security officers.
Wow!
These Conservo drones are sure good at hyperbole.
Looking forward to domestic violence perps being called terrorists. That is far more fear creating than just referring to them as insecure individuals who take their frustrations and power lust out on defenceless, weaker victims, often aided and abetted by grog.
citizen
Thanks for that link. I agree with this bit …
[ Labor frontbencher Mark Butler seized on the issue, telling reporters in Canberra: “Tony Abbott is shaping up for the biggest smash and grab on Australia’s schools and hospitals ever seen in this country.” ]
Abbott is floating these things before the election mainly as a dog-whistle to his IPA/RWNJ constituency as to his actual intent, but in a way that that he can also appease his moderate constituency by claiming that they are only “discussion papers” and “not current policy”.
Then after the election he can claim that he has a mandate to devolve responsibility these issues to the states because the ideas were floated and discussed before the election.
I wonder what will come next? Welfare? Aboriginal affairs?
[Terms such as bitch or cat are used for women, but cur and mongrel are used for males. Poodle is a very common derogatory word, mostly used on males.]
In my experience women tend to be more sensitive to derogatory language. This is just a difference between men and women. The problem with the sexism in politics debate is that women in politics are expected to react the way that men do – which is sexist in itself because it indicates that women must change their way of thinking and behaviour to make it in politics, rather than politics adapt to enable women to make a better contribution.
It’s the same story with a lot of push-back regarding racism and other conduct, including wealth, where one group has an existing in-built dominance because the paradigm has been built around their advantages. When people try to re-balance the dominant group screams discrimination.
You can even see it in the current fiscal debate, where a dollar spent on a pension is something to be examined closely for fairness, but a dollar foregone in revenue by way of some concession or the other is portrayed as taking someone’s (typically the richest people) money.
This has been one of the great victories of the conservatives – the capacity to entrench the advantage of those who are already the most advantaged as a natural right while throwing up obstacles against everyone else from joining the advantaged.
Even this means-testing of public education debate is in the same category. Forget the idea of getting a bit more from the rich. This is all about entrenching the right of the wealthiest to a better education – by moving education from a universal public good to a private benefit for service.
Yes true.
A shame though that what should be the priority in my view is dismissed due to politics.
DTT
I’ll concede the homophbic terms and perhaps “arsehole”. But your other egs have little or no bite.
That Muslim guy on Q&A proved 2 things last night:
1. We have these muslim nutjobs walking our streets and not in prison
2. The Q & A Audience are the most leftwing, fringe extremes of Australia
BK:
Rowe is brilliant as always!
TPOF #3630
Erudite!
[ I wonder what will come next? ]
GST increase etc.
#3633
Need to get your telly fixed.
psyclaw
Mongrel dog is pretty powerful and is the direct equivalent of bitch. I think if you went up to a couple in a bar and called the woman a bitch and the guy a mongrel dog, it is the second that will get you a bloody nose.
I think that the words that give offence are those that deliberately case aspersions at the expected roles in society. So for women the offensive words usually relate to sexual behaviours whereas for men they are usually associated with cowardice or lack of sexual performance.
I think both slut and bitch have lost their potency in recent years. Witch and whore are still powerful.
TBA
There are RW nutjobs, LW nutjobs, religious nutjobs all over the place.
[she alone has come out as a genuinely NICE person]
No genuinely NICE person has ever been Prime Minister. It is not a position you get to by being genuinely nice. On any side of politics. The top dog does not become top dog by being NICE to other dogs. Ever. Nor has a Prime Minister in my lifetime not had an over-sized ego.
The real challenge for any political aspirant is to manage and direct their aggression and competitiveness to maximise public benefit. Hawke had that ability. Keating also until late in the piece where he barged on ahead without ensuring his backers and supporters could keep up. And Howard was as devious as they come. Which is why he held onto power for 11 years, although I’m buggered if I can think of more than two or three constructive things that he did with all that power.
So, Macklin is not PM material. Sorry to say.
@mashable: Here’s what you need to know about Australia’s new site-blocking law: http://t.co/J2ZP9IhNXe
Speaking of speaking, arguing or debating in the front bar of the pub, I enjoy a few frothies most Friday nights with a couple of drinking pals where the events of the week are discussed at lenghth without the hindrance of facts or knowledge. Total agreement is rarely an impediment to our arguments.
It’s the usual repeated lies about our sporting prowess of days gone by, Lib/Labor love/hate and the normal poor taste behaviour you would expect in such an establishment.
A couple of weeks ago, one of my fellow drinkers of Irish descent (whose brogue becomes more pronounced as more beer angels dance on his tongue) and I were engaged in mildly heated political discussion regarding what I thought was climate change. For ten minutes my Irish friend was waxxing lyrical about the loss of the ‘summer rains” and how this was a disaster to Australian manufacturing. I was going along for the ride but proferred that it was more likely to affect drought areas like WA and Queensland than the whole of the country. Afterall, drought has always been a seassonal and regional issue in Australia.
My friend became more and more agitated as he furiously proclaimed I was a sell out because of my attitude to the loss of the summer rains.
About fifteen minutes in I finally twigged that my friend was actually talking about the Government not intending to build “submarines” in Australia.
excerpt from the 3641 article. Note the Google comment
[The bill, which aims to block Australian access to foreign websites that facilitate copyright infringement, has been roundly criticised by consumer advocates and Internet companies such as Google, after it was introduced in March. On Monday, Ludlum called the bill “lazy and dangerous.”
“There is increasing evidence to suggest that site-blocking is not the most effective means of stopping piracy,” he said.]
[Is the Abbott weathervane all aflutter again?
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/un-climate-conference/climate-change-prime-minister-tony-abbott-warming-to-bigger-greenhouse-cuts-20150622-ghubqk.html ]
Pardon me if I suspect it was part of his propaganda plan all along. Make outrageous ambit claims, then back off a little, throw a old dried out wishbone to his critics, and let his tame media slugs claim that demonstrates what a reasonable flexible fellow he really is.
Julia thins his should have done his career
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/julia-gillard-on-the-moment-that-should-have-killed-tony-abbotts-career-20150622-ghug63.html
I think it should have been this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amUNEsSdy_g
I cannot believe Latham’s handshake was so focused on as a sign of his nut-baggery and yet this was didn’t see abbott carted off by the men in the white coats. The only ‘up’ side of this is that Latham didn’t get the gig (imagine how that would have gone with rudd in there destabilising – although in the bright side, latham would have punched him repeatedly in the face). even if abbott wins the next election, I think he will leave the LNP a smoking ruin by the time he is done.
Labor could make a great little collage of these, along with onion eating, walking out of press conferences and him general agro simian swagger
Alan, that’s OK. I was pretty fired up that day (and every day, come to think of it!).
If our future is mining, or primary industry, or barrista-ing for each other, perhaps selling each other our properties, or doing each other’s dry-cleaning, and not being innovative and daring, taking it up to the world with new ideas and inventions, then we’ll regress into the backwater we once were, about the time that Abbott came of age.
Killing the NBN because we allegedly couldn’t afford it, begged the question as to how couldn’t afford *not* to build it. It was a big chance to jump the queue in 21st century communications, nobbled because an malignant old man in New York wanted to wring a few more dollars out of his antiquated pay TV network before it was pulled apart by cheaper – and better – on-demand streaming services.
The irony is that he offered nothing in return. His response was lazy, typical of the “protected” status he bought a Prime Minister to maintain. He issued a new recording box that didn’t work. Well, wacky-doo! He’s had to pull his prices down to almost loss-making levels. The cable infrastructure he installed can now be used, without bothering with Foxtel, to stream the competition services he tried to have gelded by restricting internet access. I am one of the proud users of his cable for this purpose, without needing to trouble him for his crap TV.
But that’s a minor victory for me. Many others don’t have the opportunity. They have to put up with a second rate service, even under the “new” NBN rules, that boasts it’s up to 3 times faster than the old system, with youngster “Riley” strapped into his lungeroom sofa, surfing the internet at supposedly blinding speeds that anywhere else in the world would be a national embarrassment.
We lost such opportunities! We lost the opportunity for genuine, productive work-from-home schemes, where download and upload would be equally fast, as if the company server was in the next room, where Mums and Dads could spend more time at home with their kids, keeping their cars off the roads, taking pressure off gridlocked CBDs and contributing to a more family orientated society in general.
We lost the opportunity for decentralization, where country towns could slow, possibly stop, and maybe even reverse the brain drain of their citizens, leaving regional centers because there was no work in the Bush, and no prospect of anything but poorly paid jobs digging holes, growing crops or wrangling livestock.
What was once Australia, when Abbott was a boy, and when Murdoch left it to abandon his citizenship for money, could have been so much more. And we sacrificed that for a few paltry pieces of silver, some lies printed in failing newspapers, and some sycophantic, trumped-up worship of a phoney hero who is heelll bent on keeping us in the 20th century because – he reckons – that’s all we’re good for.
They even want to take away the opportunity for some enterprising regional entrepreneurs to have wind turbines installed on their properties to generate valuable extra income – surely a novel, innovative use for land that had never been envisaged even a couple of decades ago.
Why? Because wind turbines are a green solution, and green means “Leftist”, and they never give a Leftist sucker an even break.
Meanwhile, coal seam gas firms invade the same farmers’ land and pollute it, without compensation to the land owner. Then, with all this extra capacity to supply gas, they charge their domestic customers more for that gas, so as to better recoup their investments in pillaging and rape of the landscape as quickly as possible.
The journalists who write this shit up as “Teh Politics” (yet who tut-tut whenever a politician does as politicians do), feign an indifference to policy in favour of an obsession with appearances, wedges and misrepresentation. They don’t “do” policy, because it’s too hard to put lipstick on a pig. It’s much easier just to snigger and posit self-fulfilling prophecies that they themselves promote as if they are Nostradamus-like savants.
The Punters – still sheep, still cringeing – lap it up. They’ve been conditioned to Reality TV – its gaudy production values, its fake drama, its confected crises – and judge politics by watching programs produced by the same people who bring us Master Chef or Instant Bride, using exactly the same shallow techniques. Every night is a “Must See Episode Of The Year”. Every political report is replete with the Killing Time, imagined leadership instability, point and petty counter-point with all the drama and depth of a cheap talent show. Here tonight. Forgotten tomorrow. Lets move on to the next scandal.
I’m not sure anymore whether art follows life, or the other way around anymore. Maybe they’re both the same thing. The Truman Show was a lot closer to the mark than any of the dwindling, ageing, pack of tired old journalistic hacks who promote politics as Reality TV will ever care to admit.
[2. The Q & A Audience are the most leftwing, fringe extremes of Australia]
Yet 39% said they expected to vote Coalition at the next election.
So who is right? Troll, who arrived at his conclusion by smelling his digit after extracting from a place that none of us want to go? Or Q&A producers who actually asked the audience?
Bit like the question of who is right? 97% of climatologists or loopy Lord Monckton?
These are the tough questions.
TPOF
My response is to use a derogatory term, usually used on males – “poor little petals” although I actually think you are quite wrong. Men I think, the “precious little darlings” are much more upset by abusive language than are women, who can usually give back as good as they get – like “fishwives” in fact.
Rex,
‘There are RW nutjobs, LW nutjobs, religious nutjobs all over the place’
And, then there is you!