There are posts above on state politics in New South Wales and below on the slow motion demise of Boris Johnson. This one covers local electoral news relevant to (mostly) the federal tier:
• In an article for The Monthly by George Megalogenis, Shaun Ratcliff of the University of Sydney relates research suggesting home owners were nearly twice as likely to vote Coalition than non-home owners after controlling for income. However, there was a marked exception for those under 35, who were twice as likely to vote Labor and Greens than the Coalition, which played a major role in the latter’s disastrous showing in the big cities. The Coalition had just 16% support among renters, compared with 38% for Labor and 35% for the Greens. Home owners were only half as likely to vote for the Greens as renters, while distinctions among Labor were more modest. This was based on the Australian Cooperative Election Survey, conducted during the campaign from a sample of around 5800 by YouGov and various universities, which we will be hearing a lot more from in future.
• The Guardian reports Senator Andrew Bragg is pushing for changes to the New South Wales Liberal Party’s rules at its annual general meeting later this month to allow preselections to proceed without the involvement of the leader’s representative in the nomination review process. This seemingly arcane point lay at the centre of the long-running logjam in its preselection process before the federal election, when Scott Morrison’s centre right faction ally Alex Hawke persistently failed to show at meetings to move the process forward. Factional rivals said this was a deliberate effort to force the national executive to intervene to protect centre right incumbents from preselection defeats. Bragg’s proposal has been criticised by Hollie Hughes, Liberal Senator and centre right member, who instead blames reforms championed by Tony Abbott that required the concurrence of 90% of state executive members to certify factional deals that would have broken the deadlock.
• Matthew Knott of the Sydney Morning Herald reports members of Labor’s Cabramatta branch have reacted to Kristina Keneally’s parachute malfunction in Fowler by calling for those who “white-anted” her to be disciplined. This included passage of a motion calling on the party administration to consider expelling Tu Le, whose own aspirations for the seat were thwarted by the Keneally manoeuvre. Local sources cited by Knott said members were “peeved by the presumption Le would have won a rank-and-file ballot given she had only moved to the electorate a year earlier herself and was not well-known in the area”.
• Poll Bludger regular Adrian Beaumont has a piece in The Conversation on the performance of the polls at the federal election, which I mean to get around covering myself in depth eventually.
• Matt Martino of the ABC drew upon my supposed expertise in a fact check on claims made by Barnaby Joyce about the federal election result. I rated him no pinocchios, but told him to watch it anyway.
• Late counting has shown the Liberals’ performance in Saturday’s Bragg state by-election in South Australia to have been a bit less bad than it appeared on the night. There has actually been a 2.8% swing in their favour on postals and pre-polls, compared with a 6.0% swing on the election day votes that were all we had to go on on Saturday. This leaves the Liberal margin at 5.5%, down from 8.2% at the March election (and 16.8% at the election before).
ven
Pinchergate was about Johnson lying to the effect that he did not know that Pincher was alleged to have pinched bums.
The lie that broke the camel’s back.
C@tmomma says:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 8:52 am
“And speaking of narcissistic leaders who think it’s all about them being hairy-chested:
Putin warns Russia is just getting started in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has said “everyone should know that” Russia was just getting started in Ukraine and has not “started anything yet in earnest”.
This just confirms the decisions of Sweden and Finland to join NATO as well as well as highlighting NATO’s intentions to strengthen its own capabilities.
The Cathy Wilcox (my fav along with Moir) reminds me of the Archibald winner, without the overt indigenous references.
Guardian:
Another highly senior Tory source who has been with Johnson over the past 48 hours said his behaviour meant it was dangerous for the country for him to stay. The source said:
“His behaviour in the last 48 hrs and been reckless and erratic. He cannot be trusted to lead the country until the autumn. God knows what he will do.”
”
Soharsays:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 8:49 am
Pretty good overview of present day Britain:
‘What is Britain, without the EU? It’s a small island. A medium sized economy. Which doesn’t make much, doesn’t do much, and doesn’t offer the world much. ‘
https://eand.co/how-britain-destroyed-its-future-a59f3f5cc6aa
”
Isn’t it true that, like Ukraine, Britain is deciding its own future, whether it is good, bad or worse.
Q: Isn’t it true that, like Ukraine, Britain is deciding its own future, whether it is good, bad or worse.
You are comparing invasion and absorption into Russia with being a member of the EU?
Brandis writes all but a nauseating eulogy. His glowing admiration for Johnson seeps through, an unresolved school boy crush, if only I, a photo under his pillow, no doubt signed.
Thanks BK, lots, and then some.
Thanks, BK.
”
torchbearersays:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 9:14 am
Q: Isn’t it true that, like Ukraine, Britain is deciding its own future, whether it is good, bad or worse.
You are comparing invasion and absorption into Russia with being a member of the EU?
”
No, I am not comparing that. I am saying that Ukraine wanted to do what Ukraine leaders thought was good for that country and be independent of a big country influence on it.
UK Cartoons – Big Swag for some reason:
%3Fname%3Dsmall
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A GIF of Boris waving farewell:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1544985932595699712
Finally another GIF: Will Boris have a Leaving Downing St Party?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1545055547518435329
frednk says:
“Well BEXIT (sic) got done …”
Ireland: “Hold my Guinness!”
Two things that matter:
Was the Rwanda trafficking plan a Downer recco to Johnson?
Was spying on a friend during crucial nation building negotiations a Downer thing?
William, I was quite taken by this revelation in your intro to this thread…
“…Hollie Hughes, Liberal Senator and centre right member…”
Hughes – ‘CENTRE right’? LOveryL!
Thank you, Alpha Zero.
The strange thing is that Johnson, Morrison and Trump each normalized, for a while, some incredible behaviours.
In each case democracy sort of worked… this time.
I’m not a fan of Grattan. There’s a begrudging sourness in her reserved praise for Albanese, in a piece headlined :
WTF does that even mean.
And on she plows, cautious to the point of tedium.
It’s not on her radar that they didn’t need to learn anything, that they knew, just knew, when decency meets competence. And her egregious and unnecessary “so far” lemon sucking aside speaks for itself. It doesn’t end there, but I should.
Solar
The strength of Europe to me (exceptions notwithstanding) has always been the sum of its parts. Brexit denies this reality and imagines that a medium sized entity (the UK) that is a financial hub but produces almost nothing of consequence can be better, stronger, more influential and more successful on its own. I think the UK is delusional and is about to suffer the consequences of ‘the great big lie’.
Good article. Thanks sohar.
https://eand.co/how-britain-destroyed-its-future-a59f3f5cc6aa
Quotes that apply to other issues:
My take on Brexit is simplistic. Brexit is a wall designed to “keep out the foreigners”. What the Brits never realised, even now, is that walls have two sides.
Thanks BK.
I particularly enjoyed this piece of satire…
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/love-him-or-loathe-him-boris-johnson-was-britain-s-most-consequential-pm-since-thatcher-20220707-p5b00f.html
frednk @ #39 Friday, July 8th, 2022 – 8:53 am
The collapse of once great empires is always messy and drawn out in fits and starts as it has to come to terms with the inevitable.
That’s why I think Britain (mainly England), embraced Boris Johnson. They wanted a new Winston Churchill. Especially the Red Wall electorates who probably also grudgingly respected Margaret Thatcher and cheered on to victory the wars that those leaders engaged in because it proved to the world that the doughty little islands off the coast of Europe still had it.
Instead of facing reality and admitting they lost it, the plot that outlines one of the superior countries in the 21st century. Because being the repository for the ill-gotten gains of the plutocrats and the oligarchs was never going to be a lasting or successful solution for a Post Brexit Britain. Which also, at one and the same time wanted to be seen as a serious player on the world stage. At some point, and its apotheosis came in the form of Boris Johnson, and Nigel Farage, the two paths would meet and a decision would need to be made about which path to go down as the rest of the world, and the MPs in your government, looked on.
The War in Ukraine was that tipping point because, as the rest of the democratic world is fighting to maintain standards of decency and democracy, as James O’Brien so eloquently said, they go hand-in-hand, Boris Johnson was found out to not actually be in favour of either. And so it was thus put into stark relief. Especially, as I thought, what would be his most egregious and anti-democratic act, the giving of a knighthood to Evgeny Lebedev, whose father, Alexander Lebedev, is an ex-KGB agent.
Boris Johnson tried to square that circle but even the slipperiest liar eventually gets found out and that the emperor has no clothes.
Snappy Tom says:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 9:25 am
William, I was quite taken by this revelation in your intro to this thread…
“…Hollie Hughes, Liberal Senator and centre right member…”
“Hughes – ‘CENTRE right’? LOveryL!”
A Revelation ….. of almost biblical proportions (see what I did there? I knew you’d appreciate such a pun).
Hope you are well Quasar.
One of Britain’s great sources of power over the centuries has been the ability and willingness to play one continental country or alliance against another.
In this tradition, it is currently vigorously supporting Ukraine.
It is also why it is trying to divide the EU further.
Snappy Tom says:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 9:25 am
William, I was quite taken by this revelation in your intro to this thread…
“…Hollie Hughes, Liberal Senator and centre right member…”
___________
That appears correct to me.
nath @ #73 Friday, July 8th, 2022 – 9:36 am
Mindful of where the(ir) centre is these days.
”
Boerwarsays:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 9:26 am
Thank you, Alpha Zero.
The strange thing is that Johnson, Morrison and Trump each normalized, for a while, some incredible behaviours.
In each case democracy sort of worked… this time.
”
And democracy worked for the time being.
Another from BK’s Patrol…
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-learns-government-is-not-so-easy-as-it-seemed-in-opposition-20220706-p5azkk
The sentence-below-the-headline…
“It is silly that a prime minister should have to justify his trip to the NATO summit. But that’s the upshot of complaining your way into office.”
William, I give you fair notice: I have no respect for Coorey.
Who called for Albo to justify his trip? Er, the Opposition and sections of the Meeja (note my deliberately disrespectful term.) So, not so much a result of complaining his way into office as of the (understandable) bias of the former (haha!) govt and the (unforgivable) bias of meeja hacks like Coorey who are really Coalition propagandists masquerading as journos.
Hughes is a member of what they call the centre right faction.
Unfortunately the Liberal Party has moved so far right that this distinction is meaningless. I’ll quote her reason for losing the youth vote, “one of the issues … [is] we’ve got an education system that’s basically run by Marxists”.
So moderate.
Ray(UK) posted this last night, and it might have slipped by in the thread change.
https://theintercept.com/2022/06/30/joe-manchin-west-virginia-democratic-party/
”
Cronussays:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 9:29 am
Solar
The strength of Europe to me (exceptions notwithstanding) has always been the sum of its parts. Brexit denies this reality and imagines that a medium sized entity (the UK) that is a financial hub but produces almost nothing of consequence can be better, stronger, more influential and more successful on its own. I think the UK is delusional and is about to suffer the consequences of ‘the great big lie’.
”
Like USA is going to suffer the consequences of ‘the great big lie’ that 2020 Presidential election is stolen?
Gareth says:
“one of the issues … [is] we’ve got an education system that’s basically run by Marxists”.
__________
Don’t you love recycled shit from the early 80s. At least back then it was kinda true.
Snappy Tom,
Phillip Coorey is probably suffering from some well-earned retribution.
Putin has all the pugnacious belligerence of a teenage boy experimenting with methamphetamine.
I’m waiting for the next conservative politician to tell me about how teaching a man to fish can replace the entire welfare system. After all these decades, can’t they admit that fishing is not going to solve poverty, and that even if it could, an extensive network of fishing schools will be needed nationwide.
Aaron Rupar
@atrupar
Fox & Friends obliviously criticizing Boris Johnson for being untrustworthy, refusing to leave office, creating chaos, and mishandling Covid — after years of running interference for you know who — is pretty rich
Video : https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1545048168844312577?cxt=HHwWgoCqjfTHjvEqAAAA
The Spin Cycle; A segment on the local ABC radio morning show where the presenter chats to journos to supposedly tease apart the weeks political spin. In reality it is just the journos and presenters spin on show. Today;
Bragg byelection (where the liberal party primary has dropped even further from mid 60s last decade to around 50) – meh, nothing to see here.
Malinauskas looks very unwell (wtf? Have they seen the walking corpse of the opposition leader?).
Malinauskas bringing his family into the issue of him taking a couple of weeks off during the winter recess is the same as Morrison needing his wife to tell him right v wrong on Brittany Higgins (even the Ch7 journo briefly took issue with the ABC presenter trying that on).
The opposition leader accepting an invite to speak at an anti abortion conference in the wake of roe v wade and during a by election – rookie mistake.
What a joke.
nathsays:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 9:43 am
My pre-school and primary school teachers in the early 80s didn’t seem like reds. Her comments sound deranged to people my age who were not yet teenagers when the USSR fell.
Snappy Tomsays:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 9:25 am
Yes, it certainly is a revelation.
It just highlights where the Liberals have moved to if she represents a more moderate element within the Party.
Gareth says:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 9:50 am
nathsays:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 9:43 am
My pre-school and primary school teachers in the early 80s didn’t seem like reds. Her comments sound deranged to people my age who were not yet teenagers when the USSR fell.
____________
Perhaps your Prep teacher wasn’t involved, but during the 1970s Marxist influence on English speaking Education departments across the world was fairly routine, and fair enough too as some of the radical education approach was worthwhile and innovative. But that certainly isn’t the case today or for some time.
Jonathon Pie on Boris:
https://twitter.com/jujuadl71/status/1545191624099393536?s=20&t=1aKeZOlHGnN5hA5mt4NWag
Steve777 @ #37 Friday, July 8th, 2022 – 8:51 am
More birds though down here : Magpies, Wattle Birds, Kookaburras, Rosellas, and the much missed Eastern Spine Bill, now the Grevilleas are in flower.
What’s weird, I’ve reloaded this thread page a few times, and each time I get more comments, not coming through initially.
nath
I was a student in the ’70s, at a very innovative school – but the ideas behind the innovations came from the US. At the time, every Victorian school had at least some American teachers, due to the teaching shortage at the time leading to a heavy recruitment drive in the US.
Socrates at 8.50ish
…To me its a no brainer to dump the frigates, build more AWDs instead, and build the UK subs.
_____________
I agree re AWDs, but I’d pick the French subs. Declaration: I’m half-British, so entitled to have a go at the place of my father’s birth!
zoomster says:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 10:02 am
nath
I was a student in the ’70s, at a very innovative school – but the ideas behind the innovations came from the US. At the time, every Victorian school had at least some American teachers, due to the teaching shortage at the time leading to a heavy recruitment drive in the US.
_________
I was fortunate to have one of them at my school. Of course some of them were Marxists, as many American teachers were in the 1960s and 7os.
The Daily Mail is not coping very well.
If you only read one thing from today’s Dawn Patrol, make it John Crace’s article in the demise of Boris Johnson!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/07/the-convict-remains-true-to-himself-with-a-very-on-brand-resignation
Lord Rothermere has a lot to answer for with his constant pumping of the tyres of that man.
The Disinfo War goes on:
Russia’s defence ministry has said it killed Ukrainian servicemen who were trying to raise Ukraine’s flag on the recently retaken Snake Island. Authorities in Odesa appeared to confirm that missiles had struck the island, and that Russians had also destroyed two grain hangars in the region which contained “about 35 tonnes of grain”. Ukraine has denied reports any of its servicemen were killed.
And Turkey is trying to walk both sides of the street again:
Ukraine has summoned the Turkish ambassador after it said Turkey had allowed a Russian-flagged ship carrying thousands of tonnes of allegedly stolen Ukrainian grain to leave the port of Karasu. Turkish customs officials had seized the vessel at Ukraine’s request on Tuesday, after Kyiv said the cargo was illegally transporting 7,000 tonnes of grain out of Russian-occupied Berdiansk, a port in the south-east of Ukraine.
From The Guardian
I doubt Hughes encountered many Marxists at John XXIII College or Loreto either.
”
Soharsays:
Friday, July 8, 2022 at 10:01 am
Jonathon Pie on Boris:
https://twitter.com/jujuadl71/status/1545191624099393536?s=20&t=1aKeZOlHGnN5hA5mt4NWag
”
BK, Cronus, Ray, BW Clematlee, Snappy Tom others who were critical of BOJO will love this video. Brandis, Downer, Abbott, Morrison will hate this.
It is absolutely hilarious.