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Stay strong Karen. Just 6 more months

? This never gets old, does it

And some random comments on those observations: That's a problem with politicians in all democracies: they won't look beyond the end of the week or the next election, whichever is first. Politicians in dictatorships don't have that problem, so they won't look beyond the end of the week. Same here. The nasty extra is that we pay for US protection against unknown enemies. That's protection as in protection racket, mind. regards, Hein

I heard Ivan the Terrible has syphilis, he can't be in very good health these days. Worth keeping an eye on?

Aristotle, Politics: "... and further, it is part [of the nature of tyranny] to strive to see to it that nothing is kept hidden of that which any subject says or does, but that everywhere he will be spied upon, ... and further, to set man against the privileged and the wealthy. Also it is part of these tyrannical measures, to keep the subjects poor, in order to pay the guards and soldiers, and so that they will be occupied with earning their livelihood and will have neither leisure nor opportunity to engage in conspiratorial acts.... Also, the tyrant is inclined constantly to forment wars."

Just thought I'd un-delete this thread, I could do with a laugh

Here are a couple of random observations: yes elections are every three years but there is no set date. It is up to the PM to call when they will be within a given timeframe. As you note, the good thing is it keeps them on their toes but it means they are often only looking to the next election and focus heavily on polling, not on the long-term good. They don't come up with many policies for a long-term vision for the country or invest in major infrastructure projects that will carry on beyond their time in office. Power is also still relatively decentralised with the States having a lot of say. Again, this is good and bad as it means not everything is centralised in Canberra but it can lead to problems too. For instance, we still haven't decided on a standard rail gauge for the country after over a century of debate. Some States are narrow gauge, some are wide gauge and some are standard gauge. With education, different States have their own curriculums. This is a pain for kids who have to move from one State to another and find their new class is learning completely different things with a different examination system (or no external exams at all in the case of Queensland.) However, the good point is it means that one party can't set the ideological agenda for a whole generation of kids across the country (see, for instance, "white armband" versus "black armband" views of history. Do we really want that kind of ideological bollocks in the classroom?) Another observation here is that there are only two players in the print media industry: Murdoch and Fairfax. It isn't really like the UK where Labour voters read the Guardian, Tories read the Times, Greens read the Independent and BNP types read the Daily Mail. Murdoch's right-wing tabloids just about dominate, although this is become less of a concern as print media declines in popularity. Also, we have very trashy current affairs shows on the commercial television channels and "shock jocks" on the radios. Unlike the BBC, the ABC isn't funded by a licence fee, just by a portion of tax dollars allocated by the government, so it is a lot less powerful and has never had anywhere near as much dominance over electronic media. Both parties frequently accuse the ABC of being biased towards the other side. At the end of the day, I think most Australians vote through their pockets rather than along ideological lines or caring about big picture issues. For instance, John Howard dragged Australia into his mate George W. Bush's wars, lied about refugees falling overboard on a boat and numerous other things during his time in office but people only started to really care when he brought in controversial "Work Choices" legislation that affected their job security and salaries. At that point, he was promptly thrown out. It was the same in the State of Queensland: Anna Bligh was a well-liked leader and led an effective recovery operation after major flooding but suffered a landslide loss after plans to privatise some industries led to job fears. In overall terms though, Australia is very much a vassal state of the USA. Whoever is in, be they Left or Right, they will bow to their masters in Washington. (See comments about US military bases in the Northern Territory in my last post.) The major parties have converged a lot in terms of their ideology over the last two decades anyway. We are in the strange and worrying position now of being completely servile to the US but having to try to remain on good terms with China as they are the ones buying our coal and keeping our country out of the Global Financial Crisis. The US is keen to build up its military in our area to counter the rise of China, putting us on the firing line, just as, in the 1940s, US bases at Darwin and Townsville led to the Japanese bombing those cities. In terms of Left and Right converging, for instance it was a Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating, who copied Thatcher's Tory economic policies whole-heartedly over here, labeling them "economic rationalism." He bungled the economy in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash and plunged the country into a severe recession as a result. Later on, just as in the UK, the larger cities have boomed but regional Australia has never recovered from its loss of jobs and industries. One final comment is that a lot of commentators have noted that a trend over recent years has been for voters and the media to start caring more about personalities than policies. As I said above, the Right and Left have converged a lot, so the media draws more on the leadership battles between Rudd and Gillard and the personality of Abbott and his would-be "macho man" figure (he models himself on Putin a bit by being seen taking part in surf competitions, cycling, etc) to distinguish them. It is also the age of the sound bite and the spin doctor, so policy is less of a focus than slogans said and gaffes that are made. Okay, hope that gives some insight. Body Snatcher 44 might have some different perspectives. /end rant.

Yes he is, at the back there! That, of course, was the photo to which I was referring

Paint.