This post delves into wonkish matters arising from last week’s report by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters into last year’s federal election, and can thus be seen as a sequel to my earlier post on that subject. That post has a stimulating comments thread that I would like to see continue if anyone has anything to contribute specifically concerning the matters covered in this post. However, the comments thread below this post will serve as the usual open thread for general political discussion, it being past time for a new one.
On with the show. Among the more surprising recommendations of last week’s JSCEM report was the introduction of optional preferential voting. Whereas committee recommendations very often die on the vine, the chances of something becoming of this one shortened last week when both One Nation and the Centre Alliance indicated it would have their support, potentially giving it the numbers in the Senate over the opposition of Labor and the Greens. This prompted me to dig into data from last year’s state election in New South Wales, which offers the most proximate and generally useful pointer to how such a reform would play out at a federal election.
The New South Wales Electoral Commission is the only electoral authority that conducts full data entry of lower house ballot papers and publishes all the data, something the AEC only does for the Senate. The broader utility of this has been limited by the fact of New South Wales’ peculiarity of optional preferential voting, but as noted, there is a chance that may shortly change. I have aggregated this data to determine how each party and candidate’s preferences flowed between the Coalition and Labor, which no one else had done so far as I could see.
For those with a professional interest, this spreadsheet lays it all out seat by seat and party by party — for the lay person, the following table should suffice. It shows the aggregated statewide results from the state election, inclusive of the rate of exhaustion (i.e. voters who availed themselves of optional preferential’s opportunity to number neither Coalition nor Labor boxes), and the equivalent results from New South Wales from the federal election.
The reform’s attraction to the Coalition lies in the 40.0% exhaustion rate for the Greens vote, which split 82.2-17.8 in Labor’s favour federally. That alone would have sliced nearly 1% from Labor’s two-party preferred vote. However, the high exhaustion rate among all other minor parties, whose preferences in aggregate tend to favour the Coalition over Labor (think Hanson, Palmer and the religious parties) would have pared that back by around 0.3%. Such a change would probably have made a decisive difference in Macquarie (which Labor held by 0.2%) and Lilley (0.6%, and with an above-par Greens primary vote of 14.0%), and made life still more uncomfortable in Cowan (0.8%) and Eden-Monaro (0.8%, followed by 0.4% at the by-election).
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
According to Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke, the Morrison government won’t start trying to repair the budget bottom line until 2024, revealing it is concerned about entrenched high unemployment despite a $15.9 billion improvement in the nation’s finances due to higher iron ore prices and a slightly stronger economy.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/iron-ore-and-lower-unemployment-improves-a-still-deep-red-budget-20201217-p56oa0.html
On MYEFO, the SMH editorial says that there are encouraging signs, but the economy still needs government support. It opines that despite Mr Frydenberg’s upbeat remarks, the end of emergency measures – such as the JobKeeper wage subsidy program and the JobSeeker unemployment supplement – will throw sand in the economy’s gears.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/encouraging-signs-but-the-economy-still-needs-government-support-20201217-p56oga.html
Phil Coorey sums it up by saying that despite the improvement in the budget deficit, debt forecasts are both hideous and largely unchanged.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/despite-the-sandbagging-a-long-hard-reckoning-awaits-20201217-p56o93
Michael Pasco explores what the government isn’t telling us. He says that tucked away in the fine print of Thursday’s MYEFO statement was $1855.3 million worth of reduced revenue over four years for “decisions taken but not yet announced”.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/federal-budget-2015/2020/12/17/the-treasurers-back-pocket-what-the-government-isnt-telling-us/
Michelle Grattan reckons there will be six issues on Scott Morrison’s mind over summer. Interesting.
https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-six-issues-on-scott-morrisons-mind-over-summer-152181
Michelle Pini sums up 2020 as rorts, fires, a plague and more rorts.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/2020-in-review-rorts-fires-a-plague-and-more-rorts,14629
Ouch!!! Paul Sakkal reports that four Victorian Liberal Party operatives face potential expulsion and a further 170 members will have their memberships invalidated following a root-and-branch review of the party sparked by evidence of branch stacking and alleged rorting of taxpayer funds. One of our favourites, Karina Okotel, is one of the four.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/more-than-170-liberals-to-have-memberships-revoked-after-review-20201217-p56ojw.html
Here is the latest info about the NSW northern beaches cluster.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/sydney-s-northern-beaches-cluster-grows-to-17-as-a-dozen-more-covid-19-cases-identified-20201217-p56oi8.html
And it is throwing Christmas travel plans into disarray.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/christmas-travel-plans-in-disarray-after-northern-beaches-covid-19-cluster-20201218-p56okw.html
Biosecurity expert Raina MacIntyre explains how serious the holiday threat for NSW really is. It’s quite a hard hitting contribution.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/it-s-no-time-to-breathe-easy-sydney-the-holiday-covid-threat-is-serious-20201217-p56oew.html
Waleed Aly says that our Covid experience has punctured the myth of the Australian larrikin and shown that we are obedient to authority. A very good read.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/carefree-larrikin-is-a-myth-australians-are-obedient-to-authority-20201217-p56oc7.html
Abul Rizvi accuses the Morrison government of duck-shoving its COVID-19 responsibilities onto the states.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/morrison-government-duck-shoving-covid-19-responsibilities-onto-states-,14628
John Lord asks the question, “How come a pathetic government leads in the polls?”
https://theaimn.com/how-come-a-pathetic-government-leads-in-the-polls/
Steve Evans contrasts the efforts of the UK to Australia’s with respect to the pandemic.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7057374/how-united-aussies-got-it-right-and-the-disunited-kingdom-got-it-wrong/?cs=14258
Michael Pascoe makes a case for why we should export our first vaccine supplies.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/coronavirus/2020/12/17/vaccine-export-supplies-pascoe/
Meanwhile, the king of Sweden has declared his country’s “herd immunity” approach to be a failure.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/we-have-failed-sweden-s-king-delivers-damning-verdict-on-nation-s-coronavirus-strategy-20201218-p56oko.html
Human rights lawyer Kieran Pender argues why Australia must do more to protect whistleblowers and reward their courage.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-cost-of-courage-australia-must-do-more-to-protect-whistleblowers-20201217-p56odp.html
Why people are reluctant to use COVID-19 contact-tracing apps. It’s not just complacency.
https://theconversation.com/not-just-complacency-why-people-are-reluctant-to-use-covid-19-contact-tracing-apps-152085
Van Badham wonders whether, without a reboot in 2021, Anthony Albanese can win the next election.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/17/without-a-reboot-in-2021-can-anthony-albanese-win-the-next-election
Gambling researcher, Professor Charles Livingstone, criticises the wrongdoings of Melbourne’s Crown Casino and the political influence it has wielded. He concludes by saying the failures of VCGLR, and Crown’s malfeasance, need to be publicly identified and properly sanctioned, including, if necessary, by loss of licence, and anything less will be an insult to Victorians.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/where-were-the-controls-crown-s-performance-needed-closer-scrutiny-20201217-p56ogk.html
Jeff Kennett says the Andrews government has been “embarrassed” into holding its own inquiry into Crown Resorts’ suitability to hold a licence at its flagship Melbourne casino.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/victorian-crown-resorts-review-to-probe-deeper-than-hotel-quarantine-inquiry-says-former-premier-jeff-kennett/news-story/c7bca1aca9c5e3f49fb9afb6043f7ae3
NIck O’Malley tells us that Bob Carr has written to about 70 international government contacts in Europe, Asia, the Pacific and inside US President-elect Joseph Biden’s transition team to highlight what he calls the Australian government’s “strong resistance” to action on climate change.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/bob-carr-pens-global-letter-that-highlights-government-s-resistance-to-climate-change-20201216-p56o2l.html
Ben Butler reports that the Japanese part-owner of Australia’s newest coal-fired power plant has written off its investment amid dimming prospects for coal.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/17/australias-newest-coal-fired-power-plant-deemed-worthless-by-japanese-owner
Paul Karp writes about the budget papers showing Australian taxpayers could be on the hook for compensation following a dispute between the Western Australian government and Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy. What a bloody pest!
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/18/clive-palmer-could-seek-unquantifiable-commonwealth-compensation-under-singapore-free-trade-deal
Nick Bonyhady explains how unions, the NSW government and gig economy companies will for the first time develop a joint safety plan for the industry following the spate of deaths of food delivery riders.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/delivery-industry-players-agree-on-driver-safety-push-20201217-p56oef.html
Credit Suisse Group and one of its former bank managers have been indicted by Swiss prosecutors over the lender’s alleged failure to prevent money laundering by a Bulgarian drug ring. That’s not a good look!
https://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/switzerland-charges-credit-suisse-in-money-laundering-probe-20201218-p56ol1.html
Owen Jones opines that the UK Labour Party should be wary of a rightwing media that only wants ‘culture war’.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/17/labour-rightwing-media-culture-war-keir-starmer-lbc
According to Barack Obama’s publisher, A Promised Land is set to become the best-selling presidential memoir of the modern era.
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/books/obama-s-memoir-delivers-on-its-promise-with-top-spot-at-christmas-20201217-p56odw.html
The Epstein stuff keeps rising to the surface!
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/model-s-tears-of-joy-as-epstein-associate-is-held-over-alleged-sex-crimes-20201218-p56okr.html
Unlike Trump, Europe’s far-right leaders haven’t been damaged by the pandemic.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/dec/17/trump-europe-far-right-pandemic-covid-19-us-president
Trump will soon leave. But his Republican enablers haven’t learned their lesson, wards David Litt.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/16/donald-trump-republican-enablers-mitch-mcconnell
Trump’s neighbours in Florida are seeking to enforce a decades-old compact that says Mar-a-Lago, his private social club, cannot be used as a full-time residence — as Trump has suggested he plans to do after he leaves the White House.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/voted-out-of-the-white-house-trump-s-old-neighbours-don-t-want-him-back-20201217-p56og1.html
It looks like a recent “Arsehole of the Week” has even cleaned her husband out.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/missing-melissa-s-hairdresser-husband-tells-court-he-has-1-95-in-his-bank-account-20201217-p56oe2.html
Today’s nomination for this prestigious award goes to Andrew Grant, who taught at some of Melbourne’s most prestigious private schools and has been jailed for having girls in south-east Asia send him child exploitation material.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/former-teacher-andrew-grant-jailed-for-possessing-child-abuse-material-20201217-p56ofq.html
Cartoon Corner
David Pope
Cathy Wilcox
Peter Broelman
Glen Le Lievre
Mark Knight
Johannes Leak
David Rowe
Jim Pavlidis
Mark David
Andrew Dyson
John Shakespeare
Matt Golding
From the US
‘Michael Pascoe explores what the government isn’t telling us. He says that tucked away in the fine print of Thursday’s MYEFO statement was $1855.3 million worth of reduced revenue over four years for “decisions taken but not yet announced”. ‘
https://thenewdaily.com.au/federal-budget-2015/2020/12/17/the-treasurers-back-pocket-what-the-government-isnt-telling-us/
Hackers breached US nuclear weapons agency in massive cyberattack: report
The scope of the massive cyberattack on the U.S. federal government continued to expand on Thursday.
“The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected at least half a dozen federal agencies, officials directly familiar with the matter said. On Thursday, DOE and NNSA officials began coordinating notifications about the breach to their congressional oversight bodies,” Politico’s Natasha Bertrand reported Thursday.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/12/hackers-breached-us-nuclear-weapons-agency-in-massive-cyber-report/
Genomic testing has revealed the Northern Beaches outbreak is an international strain of COVID-19 but authorities still do not know how it got into the community.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the latest number of cases would be announced by 11:00am AEDT.
‘Suck it up buttercup’: Rick Wilson bludgeons GOP whining about ‘incivility’ of top Biden aide
Anti-Trump conservative Rick Wilson on Thursday dropped the hammer on Republicans who are complaining about the incivility of Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, a top aide to President-elect Joe Biden.
At issue is an interview O’Malley Dillon conducted with Glamour Magazine in which she acknowledged that Senate Republicans can be “f*ckers” while also calling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “terrible.”
Wilson said it was monumentally hypocritical for Republicans to decry O’Malley Dillon’s incivility when they’ve been making excuses for President Donald Trump for the past four years.
“I don’t want to hear one goddamn word about civility from the people who spent 5 years ignoring, eliding or excusing the open sewage hole of Trump’s insults and outrages,” Wilson wrote. “Suck it up, buttercup. You bought the ticket. Now you get to take the ride.”
Wilson continued to tear apart his one-time allies in follow-up tweets.
“Washington is full of weak, ambitious men more familiar with the geography and odor of Trump’s ass than they are with anything remotely resembling honor, integrity, courage, or strength,” he wrote. “Civility, my ass.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/12/suck-it-up-buttercup-rick-wilson-bludgeons-gop-whining-about-incivility-of-top-biden-aide/
Trump is asleep at the wheel while the world is burning — and it’s a ‘dereliction of duty’: columnist
“In 45 tweets this week (so far) the president has not said a single word about the record deaths from COVID. Or economic stimulus. Or the Russian hack. Not. One. Word. Instead, it is an endless litany of complaints, self-aggrandizement, and conspiracy theorizing,” wrote Last. “We have never seen a dereliction of duty at this scale from an American president. With citizens dying by the thousands every single day and the federal government being raided by the intelligence services belonging to his good friend, he pouts and rages and tweets and tries to overturn a free and fair election in order to break our democratic republic.”
There’s no precedent for this and no real guide for what the government can do to ensure the country is still working.
There is “no historical analog to help us understand the scale of destruction and the level of irresponsibility, stupidity, and derangement,” he explained.
MORE : https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/where-is-the-president-of-the-united
So letting people leave queues to wander aimlessly around airports might have a downside?
Morning all and thanks BK.
From the Bulwark daily email today, this is precisely why Trump needed to go, preferably long before now. He never was up to the job, something that was clear to many from the get go.
Taz
“Genomic testing has revealed the Northern Beaches outbreak is an international strain of COVID-19”
That creates a laugh besides being a fact.
Morning all. Thanks BK. How has the Murdoch press handled the Sydney outbreak after Gladys decided to open up the State again? Was Daniel Andrews at fault for causing it or for not fixing it?
Its a welcome distraction from the corruption stories for Gladys.
Apologies for my repetitiveness.
Trump is a sadist. Explains very easily why he has conducted himself in the manner that he has to date.
I await patiently for the day when people who have blindly followed him, wake up from their stupor.
Meanwhile the GOP senators and congress members who continue to bow to him, are only doing so, cos they are extremely compromised themselves.
Looking forward to them being exposed as well.
Would rather it sooner than later.
This shit show is dragging on too long.
Goll
We should all be thankful that Gladys isn’t blaming Victoria. 😉
International strain? Well duh. Aren’t all of them international strains.
Lizzie
If they could find a way to blame us, they would.
Meanwhile, Freydenberg trots out “NSW has been the gold standard” and blames South Australia’s lockdown (not its outbreak!) for a slide in consumer confidence. And yes, he’s against border closures, because The Economy. The economy is so much more important than infection or death in Liberal eyes.
(CNN)Hundreds of schoolboys who were abducted last week in northwestern Nigeria have been freed, according to a state official.
More than 300 schoolboys were missing for nearly a week, after an attack on the Government Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina State. The Nigerian military late on Thursday rescued 344 of them, who are being brought to the state capital, said Abdu Labaran, a spokesman for state governor Aminu Bello Masari.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/17/africa/nigerian-schoolboys-released-intl/index.html
Socrates
From the Abul Rizvi article I linked this morning .
“Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt would have been advised very early on that quarantine is explicitly a Commonwealth responsibility under the Constitution. There is no legal uncertainty about this. The former Quarantine Act, now the Biosecurity Act, was one of the first pieces of legislation passed by the new Commonwealth Parliament after Federation.”
Surely It will have to be the end of Morrison and Frydenberg if they are continuing to call for the borders to stay open for economy reasons not for health ,
And in other news, why is it that architects and developers love to ‘erect’ buildings that look like penises!?!
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/first-images-emerge-of-corkman-tower-plan-for-carlton-demolition-site-20201217-p56ocw.html
😯
I wonder how much of the ‘improvement’ in the budget bottom line is due to the $billions promised by Morrison but unspent.
Dave
Some good news!
c@t
Oh my. That is not a very appealing looking structure.
I’m surprised taylormade has not had anything to say about the crisis in the vic libs.
Surely it is worthy of a post.
Are the federal chief/deputys medical officials still calling for the borders to stay open ?
From what has been reported to date, Sydneysiders haven’t been masking up on public transport etc.
This will need to change pronto.
Goll
Well of course it was an “International strain”. The Insular Peninsular people would not muck about with common domestic rubbish 🙂
The preference flows are very much in line with the 2015 data. Then the numbers were –
Greens, 47.9% to Labor, 8.0% to Coalition and 44.1% exhausted
Christian Democrats 13.0% to Labor, 33.8% to Coalition, 53.3% exhausted
No Land Tax 17.7% to Labor, 15.6% to Coalition, 66.8% exhausted
All others 23.4% to Labor, 16.2% to Coalition and 60.4% exhausted
Total 33.6% to Labor, 14.6% to Coalition, 60.4% exhausted
There were fewer parties in 2015 than 2019
BK
“ From the Abul Rizvi article I linked this morning .
“Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt would have been advised very early on that quarantine is explicitly a Commonwealth responsibility under the Constitution. There is no legal uncertainty about this.”
Anyone who would try to blame someone other than Daniel Andrews for a Covid outbreak in this country, let alone our great decent bloke Prime Minister is obviously a communist in the pay of Xi Jinping and can expect a raid from the AFP. Let that serve as a warning to all journos. Or do we have to cut the ABC budget again?
John Lord’s explanations in his article from AIM outlining the success Morrison had at the last election and Morrison’s continuing popularity is a good read.
Lord explains Morrison success without needing to refer everything back to Shorten or Labor.
Lord’s piece makes me continue to believe that the Morrison style will collaspse with the same immediacy and good fortune as was his ascendancy to the leadership of the Parliamentary Liberal Party.
I’ll continue to think of Morrison as an illusionist!
Cat
(on Corkman tower)
Quite apart from the symbolism, I am no architect but what a colossally ugly and inappropriate building in that location! It seems to clash with everything around it.
“Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt would have been advised very early on that quarantine is explicitly a Commonwealth responsibility under the Constitution. There is no legal uncertainty about this.”
It is a power under the Commonwealth Constitution but not an exclusive one for the 1,000 time. That is why the States have been exercising their quarantine powers throughout the pandemic.
Is she merely worried, or she knows more. Why does she remind me of that senator from the US. Always expressing concern, but not much else.
Kirsten Aiken Earth globe asia-australia
@kirstenaiken
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1h
Gladys Berejiklian says there is now genuine concern that seeding events may have occurred in Sydney. She is worried people may unknowingly have spread coronavirus from the Northern Beaches council area.
Quote Tweet
Kirsten Aiken Earth globe asia-australia
@kirstenaiken
· 1h
Goll
I think of Morrison as an imposter,
They are roughly cylindrical without hard edges
A ‘Gold Standard’ seeding event? 😐
As a Western Australian I’m glad the feds didn’t manage quarantine and that it has been undertaken by the state government. The feds would have surely botched it.
The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected at least half a dozen federal agencies, officials directly familiar with the matter said.
On Thursday, DOE and NNSA officials began coordinating notifications about the breach to their congressional oversight bodies after being briefed by Rocky Campione, the chief information officer at DOE.
They found suspicious activity in networks belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation and the Richland Field Office of the DOE. The hackers have been able to do more damage at FERC than the other agencies, the officials said, but did not elaborate.
Federal investigators have been combing through networks in recent days to determine what hackers had been able to access and/or steal, and officials at DOE still don’t know whether the attackers were able to access anything, the people said, noting that the investigation is ongoing and they may not know the full extent of the damage “for weeks.”
Shellbell says:
Friday, December 18, 2020 at 8:43 am
“Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt would have been advised very early on that quarantine is explicitly a Commonwealth responsibility under the Constitution. There is no legal uncertainty about this.”
It is a power under the Commonwealth Constitution but not an exclusive one for the 1,000 time. That is why the States have been exercising their quarantine powers throughout the pandemic.
———————————–
For international travellers to enter Australia it is not the states , under the bio security it is the federal government responsibility only , Border force has to give the go ahead for travellers to enter and leave Australia
Hence the recent statement on cruises not allowed to resume , was not the states but the federal government
Socrates
A six-sided penis would always be out of step with everything around it.
But I agree. It isn’t respectful to the heritage values of Carlton.
Victoria @ #14 Friday, December 18th, 2020 – 8:27 am
An “international strain” translates as recently imported variant. This implies reintroduction from overseas in the last 1-2 weeks, not re-emergence of a “local” strain that has been circulating, undetected, in NSW for longer – as CC was (quite correctly) concerned about. The numbers now emerging imply a superspreader event focused on Avalon (most probably the RSL, but could also be the Bowlo) on, or before, 11 Dec. This is where the rubber meets the road for the NSW genome-linked track & trace system, which depends on PCR of nasopharyngeal swabs). I think the NSW Health Systems involved are pretty good – if not up to Scummo from Marketing’s “Gold Standard”. If it can be largely contained on the insular Peninsular this week, we will do well. If not – it’s going to be a shitty silly season.
Goodness me ! Look how many reptiles Rupert allocated for Puff Piece Duty on Gladys. We learn another word in the Bin Chicken dictionary though “tested”= Caught red handed.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/style/edward-enninful-to-gladys-berejiklian-2020s-power-players/news-story/e5497fa51d173d0836694d4574ffbb04
Fess
For WA state controlled quarantine was definitely best option.
But my feeling about Victoria and NSW differs. Most international arrivals come through Sydney and Melbourne. Being the most populated cities as well, the odds of the virus getting away from us is much higher.
Hence my belief that a federal run quarantine facility should have been in the mix.
Shellbell
‘Exclusive’ and ‘explicit’ mean different things.
There is a very powerful quarantine act that the Commonwealth is not much interested in using for fear of the kind of blowback they delivered to Dan Andrews.
rhwombat
Being introduced in past two weeks will make it easier to get on top of.
Premier due to speak around 11 am. More will be known then.
Lizzie
Perhaps they are planning a red light district for Carlton? Something very classy, I’m sure.
Off to do all the admin jobs I have put off that need to be done before the Christmas break.
Spray:
[‘Well there was also the 9:40pm post about the 17 NB cases.’]
My post was enclosed with single inverted commas and it was correct.
[‘Nevertheless, I apologise Mavis. Withdrawn.’]
Thanks, it takes a person of character to apologise.
__________________________________________________
Cat:
I’m not sure what my ‘well-known problem’ is.
__________________________________________________
Red Ted:
Re. Pepys. He used to end his diary entry with ‘and so to bed’. I’ll let you figure out the rest.
TPOF
So does power and responsibility, so what? The mischief is the attempt to mislead readers that it is exclusive.
Will Scotty do us the courtesy of making a public statement of who will be acting PM while he is taking his “well earned” break?