Jaycee sent me this piece this afternoon, when I admitted to feeling more than a little blue about life in general. He told me, “This was written a few years ago when I was living in a different place…a different space…but the principles are still the same….” Thank you, Jaycee, for your sane reflection in an increasingly insane country – very much what I needed. I hope other denizens of The Pub will feel likewise.
(Image Credit: Shoot)
I now have no car.
That statement in itself may require an explanation in these self-commuting times, but I think I’ll leave that reason at a loose end …
And speaking of another thing that has ended … I feel I can state quite categorically (as an observant walker) and declare it official that the daisy bush has replaced the geranium as the stalwart mainstay of verdant flowering flora in the domestic front garden!
The long-lashed cheeky button flower of the daisy has edged the precocious petals of the geranium off centre-stage. I suppose in this age of “go-get-’em” attitude and “in-your-face” aggressiveness the battling geranium could hardly match the many blossomed. Fast growing daisy-bush ….. might, is now right!
I notice these small things on my walks into the town where I live. Hybrid roses too have muscled-in on a place next to the footpath, all bright and starry-eyed like the young starlets they are, their many-hued blooms huge and alluring to the passer-by ….. although I myself, religiously adhering to the adage: “Always take time to smell the roses”, find little delight in discovering so scant a scent in such wonderful blossoms. … and I feel a little cheated, like false advertising that encourages false expectations, for surely, if there is any flower that looks delicious enough to kiss. it is the rose …. and like any kiss, a fellah needs to take away with him an exotic, lingering scent of delight to caress and steel him against all the crassness of the outside world and…but I think I have made my disappointment plain..; the hybrid rose, without its scent, is as a romance without mystery!
(Image Credit: LA Times)
It is Summer where I live and the fruit trees are bearing bountifully. None more so than the cherry-plums along the railway track that I cut across on my way into town. For some reason these delicious trees are shunned by the public and much of the fruit is left to fall and rot on the ground. Bearing no such animosity to such bountiful harvest, I make feast on their berries!… These, and plums galore, accompany the walker on his journey and I make note the fruit of the nectarine tree leaning precariously over the corrugated iron fence of “Such and Such Ltd …. Motor Repairs” is deepening its crimson blush and fattening itself up for the picking!… .. not long now.
(Image Credit: Allotments and Gardens)
A Serbian I once worked with told me of his struggle against hunger in his youth after the war, and how he made it his business to note when every fruit tree, every vine in every backyard or lot in his village was ready to be raided … such are the necessities of survival. In Australia, where we take such things for granted, it is one more joy to be embraced on my walks.
Another thing I have noticed, although it has fallen out of fashion with the onset of “estate housing”, is the front fence. The front fence is one of the last and lasting expressions of individuality in a world of shrinking imaginations. In Australia – indeed, the world – the front fence, like certain hobbies, was open slather to any fetish of taste or tastelessness. I have seen them constructed of everything from shells to bits of ironmongery ….. “TAKE THAT!” was the creed for some of the monstrosities separating the incumbent from the innocents in the outside world. From bits of off-cut wood to animal bones and limestone rocks.
(Image Credit: Toothbrush Nomads)
And what was the flower that inevitably graced these icons and filled the gaps in the masonry? The geranium! Alas, it is gone now, as is that generation of front fence makers who, although predictable in all other mannerisms pertaining to urban life. could be counted upon to equal or maliciously outdo the neighbour in design or complexity, the Bastille like structure of the front fence. And gone, also, is the geranium … alas, alas!
(Image Credit: The Garden of Eden)
Windmills, simple in structure, were a regular feature of front gardens, but these too have been replaced by more complex “paddling duck” or “rowing men” and even by mass-produced “cupid” bird-baths. Some of the more bombastic citizens plant spread-winged eagles gargoyled on top of gate-pillars which gaze threateningly down on the walker as he moves past. I remember seeing a young woman innocently walk past a live wedge-tailed eagle perched on a fence at eye level next to the footpath. I was watching from a stopped train. As the woman drew abreast of the bird, she turned her head toward it (there is an impish spirit that provokes these actions!). I presume she didn’t expect to see such a large creature a foot or so from her face. The sudden leap to the centre of the road was Olympian to say the least! and when her knees buckled under her I thought she was going down for prayers on the bitumen! But no, she swiftly regained her composure and with only a few deft adjustments to her hair, promptly moved on. Against such nerves of steel, the male of the species has no chance …. though to this day I don’t know if it was the bird that screeched or the woman.
(Image Credit: Ozleworth Park)
I keep a small box at home in which I place all the “treasures” gleaned from the roads when I walk. There are shiny( they have to be shiny!) bolts and hose-clamps, a squash-ball, a portable phone, spanners and other miscellaneous objects, some unidentifiable but interesting …. what few coins I find I spend. The gutters and the shrubs are receptacles for all the detritus of mankind. Bits and pieces that fall off cars end up scarred and scraped into the kerbside gutters. Drink containers and waste paper end up stuffed, like bodies up chimneys, into any nook or kicked under bushes. At nesting time any excess chicks forced or pushed out of nests end up little mounds of fluff on the footpath or flattened on the roads. I can’t help but feel pity for these helpless chicks. who don’t even get a start in life before it is brutally taken from them. But then. what animal in the wild (even domestic) does not meet with a violent end? Though once, when a flock of starlings flew over me, I saw one fall, for no apparent reason, out of the flock. to my feet (almost) dead as a doornail ….. heart attack.? Old age? Who knows. But it was only once that I saw that.
(Image Credit: Etsy)
Walking can be very educational, peaceful and fulfilling. One’s thoughts fall into the rhythm of the step and rare is the worry or problem that cannot be resolved in the space of a good long walk. The relaxing contrasts of sunlight and shade, water sprinkler and breeze, the chlorophyll odour of fresh-cut lawn near the lake, the idle paddling of the ducks mixed with the joyful cries of children at play, lend a certain visceral ambience to the atmosphere of the clinging world around us that we call life…
Oh the joy of walking!
THE PUB 
Once again ABC have covered themselves in glory today. NOT!!!
3 ex lib leaders given air time to tell us all how sad and unfair it was that O’Farrell had to resign. Chikarovski even said early on that O’Farrell was a good friend and that it was devestating.
All day I had to sit and listen to ABC journos pretty much giving character references for O’Farrell, telling us how honorable and liked he is.
Is it any wonder that the ALP struggle so hard when even someone I thought was decent like Quienten Dempster spent all his time insinuating that O’Farrell was pretty much set up by ICAC.
I nearly threw a chair into the tv when I saw an ABC news bulletin start with the host stating that Good Manners had cost O’Farrell the premiership. I’m not fucking kidding.
Does anyone truly believe that if it had of been a labor premier bring forced to stand down under similar circumstances we would of had 3 labor identities given free air time to spin and deflect?
Actually they probably would of, I could just imagine it, Graeme Richardson, Michael Costa and Rodney Cavalier would of been wheeled out.
The ABC is a bloody joke.
The above rant is bought to you not by a $3000 bottle of grange but a $40 bottle of Jacks!!!
I’m going to bed.
I will consider those interesting questions tomorrow.
Or maybe tomorrow tomorrow.
Toddraff.
Not Rodney Cavalier.
He has his knife well into NSW Labor corruption.
Hahahahaha
Gerard Henderson, what a sad sack of shit that man is.
He was almost in tears on lateline.
I suspect he knows deep down that this is only the tip of the iceberg and that the libs are going to feel a whole lot more pain in the coming months.
Fiona,
Fair point.
I only threw Cavalier in because the only time I see him being asked to comment on anything is when it is to criticise the ALP.
I admit he is nothing like the other two rats I mentioned, who’s sole motivation is to criticise the party who made them solely and shameless for a buck.
I watch Death in Paradise. Good show, drama with humour,
In memory of all who died at Hillsborough that day and died of their injuries later.
And we continue to hear how an honest man, a decent man was brought down unjustly, unfairly….HAHAHA!..didn’t we get three YEARS of a decent woman PM. get slandered, her partner slighted and her also by association, accusations of implied impropriety back twenty years! by a bastard and his troupe of bastardettes..all gleefully and continuously…CONTINUOUSLY promoed by EVERY MSM OUTLET INCL’ OUR ABC. ….for three bloody long years!..and now when one of their own misleads the commission….it is just an “honourable man (note THAT : man) been led astray!
Well……F#CK YOU!…….suck it up primadonnas!
Keeping in mind the “in-house” LNP. sexual smears and jokes about Julia Gillard, not to mention the innuendo of her relationship with the union man twenty years before and “The Menu” at the LNP. function all implying that Julia Gillard was a “Scarlet Woman”…..could this episode with O’Farrell with the gift of RED WINE now be refered to as the incident of : “The Scarlet Drink ” ?
It seems to me that the likes of Gerard Hendersen. the abbott, Chickaovski et al, all ignore the elephant in the room when it comes to the downfall of BOF because he made the decision to lie over accepting a gift of a bottle of plonk. The memory lapse is, I would think, a half-truth in that he possibly did forget to declare it but he did deliberately lie in saying he couldn’t remember ever receiving the gift, and he’d have been safe and sound but for the fact that his ‘friend’ kept his thank-you note and the shit hit the fan.
One of these days the abbott is going to get caught like a bunny in the spotlight because he is a serial liar (even when there is no need to lie) but it is only his media pals who will stand up and defend him as being ‘honourable’ and even perhaps, ‘pure of heart’. Most others will wonder how the hell he managed to enjoy all the protection he’s been given over the years.
Trioli has just reported that Gladys aint going to challenge Baird for the leadership…..on the other hand, it was reported on ABC radio this morning that the lovely Pru is juggling with the idea of becoming Premier. I am wondering whether Pru is the reason the leadership ballot has been brought forward to this afternoon rather than next week which would give her time to rustle up her numbers.
Great comment, jaycee.
There’s a lot of talk in the media about how poor Barry O’Farrell inadvertently misled ICAC and how having gone so he did the honorable thing and resigned.
Well I for one won’t give him the benefit of a doubt. I think it more likely that he thought he could just lie and spin his way out of trouble because for the last few years the liberal party have been able to operate without criticism or scrutiny under a protection racket run by the press gallery and media in general in this country.
The media have fed their born to rule mentality, knowing that they will always be held to a different and lower standard than the ALP.
Also, if Mike Baird becomes Premier I expect not to see Julia Baird hosting the Drum from now on.
Also just heard that reporter on ABC24 who spent all day yesterday telling us all what an honourable and decent man O’Farrell is just refer to Baird as similar to JFK!!!!
FFS, the ABC make me sick.
Bruce, Julia, Mike – any more Bairds around?
So ICAC should be done away with because it has brought down two NSW premiers – two Liberal premiers. If ICAC had brought down a couple of Labor premiers Henderson would be telling us all what a great thing it was, so valuable in getting rid of Labor corruption.
While i’m talking about Henderson, did anyone else laugh out loud when he said he had no idea how much a bottle of Grange was worth? The little twerp knows exactly what every vintage of Grange is worth, he probably has a hoard in his wine cellar and sits there in the dark of night, like Gollum in his lair, stroking his bottles and muttering ‘My preciouses’.
gigilene
April 17, 2014 at 8:54 AM
Bruce, Julia, Mike – any more Bairds around?
Well there was Logie Baird, who invented television. Not sure if related, and sometimes confused with the American cartoon character, Yogi Bear.
And now Joe O’Brien asks that same reporter, Bridgette Glanville, about the fact that Mike Baird appointed Nick DiGiromalo to the board if AWH and the stupid fool answers that she has asked but not received any answer clearly implying that she has asked that question to liberal members.
I’ve got a suggestion for you Bridgette, do your fucking job and investigate instead of lying back and awaiting the next press release from liberal party HQ
Mike Baird is a friend of Abbott’s and they used to surf together – oh great! Gladys would never have been allowed to become premier for three reasons –
1 – She’s a woman
2 – The Liberal Party Old Boys Club and Tony Abbott want Baird.
3 – Gladys has been described as ‘a warrior of the left’, Baird is of the right. The right side of the Liberal Party in NSW includes the religious nutters headed by the extremist David Clark and they have far too much say and far too much power. Elect a woman from the left as premier and the right will plot and scheme to get rid of her from day one.
So – the Libs can choose a woman and NSW can have all the fun of watching a year of infighting and self-destruction by a party heading into an election, or they can elect a North Shore elite with ties to Abbott and sit back and watch the party become ultra right-wing as the government heads into that election.
The NSW election is on Saturday 28 March 2015.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/libs-give-leading-fundraiser-water-board-role-20130301-2fbpi.html
Right now they’d probably love to give him a bit of waterboarding.
You must admit that the Libs always find someone to defend the indefensible. Here is Gerad H passionately defending BoF. And many others, including former leaders. Haven’t seen Howard come out yet, but I’m sure he will at some stage.
Mike Baird appointed Nick DiGiromalo to the board
Sarah Ferguson asked this same question on 7.30 last night:
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s3987273.htm
According to a Labor MLC, Pru doesn’t have any friends in Parliament
From Tony Abbott , to the press, the public, et all…..:
“If anyone thinks I amn’t divine
He’ll get no free drinks when I’m making the wine
But have to drink water and wish it were plain
That I make when the wine becomes water again.”………….From “Ulysses”
Greiner knows nothing, some female from the ABC knows nothing, no-one can answer questions and yet the SMH ran the ‘Mike Baird appoints Nick di Girolamo’ story a year ago. That story has been all over social media and it has been linked here at least twice since yesterday afternoon. So why all the ‘I have no idea what you are on about’ comments? How stupid do these people think we are?
There is a strong smell around Mr Baird and it won’t go away.
Gerard Henderson and Kate McClymont were wrong last night when they said AWH got nothing from the O’Farrell government. AWH got their man into a key job. Someone, somewhere used a bit of influence to arrange that. Was it Sinodinos, perhaps?
Mike Baird must know who ‘suggested’ a certain person for the job. He probably received a few nice little gifts to help him make up his mind. Baird must be frantically trying to remember of he sent Nick any thank-you notes, or made any phone calls, or found any strange packages on his front porch about a year ago.
These are the best times to see just how corrupt our media is, and which of them is in deepest. Gillard was hounded and hounded and hounded over the Slater and Gordon issue (which we know after long investigation into the subject has no basis in fact whatsoever) by more or less the same people who want to give a free pass to a state premier found to have lied to ICAC – and admitted as much by his own resignation. Those who are eulogising BOF the loudest are the deepest implicated. And those who refuse to harbour any suggestion that Abbott might have known a bit about it – even to the point of asking him any questions – are just as culpable. That appears to be all of them.
I’m not surprised at any of this. But I do sometimes wonder whether the CPG are concerned at the deep hole they’re digging for their own profession. If they immediately leap to the defence of the Liberal Party every time, even in the face of clear evidence against it, and if they immediately leap to the attack against the Labor Party, usually on the flimsiest of pretexts – and if they do this every single time they’re going to have to expect people to notice. It’s an unsustainable situation.
The reason for this is that they need to be seen to be defeating strong counter-arguments. Every time there’s a debate on even terms, the ALP wins it. We’ve seen that time and time again. Creating uneven terms (or, failing that, misreporting a clear ALP win as a close Liberal one) doesn’t solve that issue. It might be a short-term fix while you get your house in order and develop your arguments or policies. The trouble is that the Liberals, and media cohorts, are treating the short-term fix as the long term strategy.
If you create an uneven playing field as the norm, so that your side gets away with a lot more than the other side does on a regular basis, then on those occasions when the field evens up – as for instance the ICAC hearings – your own people start toppling rather rapidly. Stands to reason. There’s no way to keep the field tilted your way permanently, so these things are inevitable.
Cruel but funny.
http://www.theshovel.com.au/2014/04/17/barry-ofarrell-back-to-work-already/
“dianaresque” is the new word in the press describing the public’s adulation of Kate and Will.
From North Coast Voices – a cunning revenue raiser. (And a cunning way to force couples into getting married in a church as well?)
Abbott government move increasing the cost of getting married by a celebrant?.
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/abbott-government-move-increasing-cost.html
From Kaye Lee –
You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear
http://theaimn.com/2014/04/16/you-cant-make-a-silk-purse-out-of-a-sows-ear/
Yes, yes, and just wait for the journos to get going on how many times he’s met Nicky Dee, and how many gifts he’s accepted from him.
It’s going to be a turkey shoot.
BOF probably thought Nicky Dee could be trusted to keep schtum about the wine. But he didn’t reckon on the fact that, to influence peddlars, a personally penned note from the Premier, thanking you for ALL your help, is absolute gold.
You can flash it around, tell people the Big Man is your mate – “Hey buddy, here’s a personal thankyou note, and a happy snap of me and Bazza at Wests Leagues” – as well as use it for later reference.
It’s a variation on the Honey Trap: corrupt someone in a small way, then use it later on to garner bigger favours.
And if it all goes belly-up, then produce the evidence… pour encourager les autres that you have supplied with expensive baubles and trinkets (and who knows what else?) over the years.
We don’t know that Nicky Dee told Hartcher about the wine, or showed him the letter of “appreciation”. He might have told, say, Eddie Obeid, who at the time was pressing for a result on the AWH contract bid.
“Look Eddie, Barry’s grateful to me. I can work miracles. Be patient, maaaate.”
It could have been anyone. And it could have been anyone who ratted on Bazza to The Daily Telegraph.
That newspaper is aligned with the Singleton-Hadley axis. Hadley hardly ever shuts up about O’Farrell this and O’Farrell-that.
What’s also funny is the way the Liberals and their shills have suddenly discovered that ICAC can be used for the purposes of witch hunts. Who knew?
They didn’t seem to mind when a succession of federal Labor ministers were trundled out in front of the ICAC beak to be embarrassed about using Obeid’s ski lodge, or going for a putt-putt on Sydney Harbour aboard Eddie’s boat.
No, no, THAT was all perfectly fine. Gerry Henderson said on Insiders once (from memory) that this didn’t necessarily imply corruption (nice “imputation” that, from the man who just hates imputations… ones that he’s not making himself, that is), but that it was a “bad look”.
If ICAC proves anything it’s that when it comes to big money, there is no “Labor” or “Liberal”. There’s only “Money”.
Nicky Dee and the Obeid Boys went to St. Pats (my alma mater, in case anyone’s missed it). St. Pat’s was – and probably still is – regarded as a low rent Catholic School with high-rent tickets on itself.
When I was there it was directly run by the Christian Brothers on basically “Catholic” principles. It therefore produced dozens of lefties, from unpromising stock – the sons of real estate agents, GPs, tradies and moderately prosperous business people.
The sons of landed gentry, specialists (as opposed to GPs), dentists, property spivs, big business and wannabee big business went to Joeys and Riverview, with some spillage to Joe Hockey’s old school, St. Aloyisus.
Ever since, one of the main streams of Australian politics has been GPS Catholic boys in the Liberals versus Son Of Catholic Tradesmen from lower rent schools like St. Pat’s.
St. Pat’s today is higher rent and only lip service is paid to religion. They also have Rugby tours to Argentina. They have a basketball team. They go on study tours to Tuscany. They have an orchestra. I get the color, glossy magazine posted to me every few months. I’m on the mailing list.
In my day it was footy in winter, cricket in summer and a few kids played tennis. No study tours, no rugby tours, no orchestra.
Of course, the Brothers are no longer there. One of the retired Brothers recently told me that they made a corporate decision to return to their roots, working with the poor, not the rich.
St. Pat’s is (and has been for decades) all “lay” teachers. As far as the GPS boys are concerned this is nouveau riche, piled on top of the mountain of pretentious tickets St. Pat’s has on itself. Anyone can go there now, as long as they have the money, and preferably if their old man is an Old Boy.
Imagine being a GPS Catholic boy – like many on the front bench of the Liberal government in Canberra, and many of their supporters – and seeing the trailer trash of St. Pat’s bringing the whole, carefully crafted show down.
Not only is Di Girolimo ex-St. Pats, but so are many of his cronies, like the Obeids and others. Even Counsel Assisting ICAC, Watson, is ex-St. Pat’s. These peasants don’t know how to corrupt in the approved manner.
Now look what they’ve done. They’ve gotten rid of another high-rent Catholic boy, in the person of Barry O’Farrell. When will the rot stop?
Just as the bonds between ex-Jesuit educated boys remain lifelong, so do the bonds between St. Pat’s boys. They’re tribal, both lots. They stick together (Di Girolimo’s predecessor at Colin, Biggers & Paisley was also a St. Pat’s boy). The animosities, envies, jealousies and friendships go back thirty or even forty years in some cases. Nothing is forgotten or discarded, including thank you notes from the Premier.
So, OK, the Micks are fighting among themselves, so what must the Proddy Establishment think of all this? THEY are the natural bosses of the Libs, and the Catholics are ruining it for everyone.
Pissants like Greek Orthodox (shudder) Sinodinos are useful idiots, feared only because of the back-up they have behind them. They are hit men. Point them in one direction, flick the switch and they go off like the Energizer Bunny. When they go bad, you can drop them (usually while protesting that you are their greatest friend evah). John Brogden was also disposable. He went to St. Pat’s too. Meh.
So figure in Proddies versus Catholics as well.
Non-U Catholics from modest and (in the cases of the Obeids and Sinodinos) suspect “woggy” backgrounds have cruelled the ground for the Upper Crust GPS Jesuit boys who have, in turn, usurped the rightful Protestant Establishment in the Liberals.
And did I forget to mention they were from Sin Sydney as well? Well, QE-bloody-D!
It was all so predictable.
The bloody Micks and the Wogs ruin it every time. There will certainly be much harrumphing in the Melbourne Club this week. The barbarians have invaded Rome and the Liberal Party has gone to hell.
Don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out Barry!
Just to say I’m in agreement with all those pointing out the colossal double standards on display by the MSM over the Bazza issue.
One rule for them, another for their opponents. There’s a possibility of a big media push intended to wrong this right.
That is an awesome analysis, Bushfire Bill. The goss behind the gross,
BB
And didn’t they they all go tossing apeshit when a Welsh atheist living-in-sin childless ALP lefty with righty faction connections, state-school-educated peasant human being with (shudder) FEMALE PARTS became Prime Minister of Australia.
BB,very, very good. Unfortunately, totally true.Interestingly, Craig Laundy, the Liberal member for Reid is also St Pats and has been showing some common sense, something rarely seen over on the dark side.
A bit more to disprove that ‘AWH got nothing from O’Farrell’ lie –
Not the first time Barry O’Farrell’s memory has failed him
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/not-the-first-time-barry-ofarrells-memory-has-failed-him-20140416-36rvl.html#ixzz2z5MP4ymP
A cat is not a chair:
http://www.thelocal.fr/20140416/animals-to-no-longer-be-furniture-in-france
One for the conspiracy theorists –
What if the Liberals set up Barry O’Farrell? Think about it – O’Farrell has been a reasonable premier, standing up to the federal government when he thought it was in the best interests of NSW to do that. He opposed Abbott’s Gonski changes and became a real thorn in Abbott’s side, as did his education minister Adrian Piccoli.
So what do you do with a premier who is standing in the way? you get rid of him and replace him with a staunchly right-wing premier who is also a friend of Abbotts, a premier who will take NSW far to the right. Baird is all for privatisation, he’ll agree to whatever slashing and cutting Abbottt wants, Gonski will be out the door in a heartbeat and anything else Abbott wants will be rubber stamped.
There’s an election to win next year and the Liberals are very much in a losing position right now. No-one with half a brain will want to antagonise the voters just yet. It’s likely the worst of the Baird/Abbott agenda won’t be rrevealed until the day after the election, should the bastards win, but it will come.
NSW – out of the frying pan into the fire.
Hah. This little bit of nastiness from O’Farrell backfired on him big time.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/premier-will-miss-perks-20140416-36sej.html
In 2012 he cut the perks of former premiers back so they’re only entitled to them after 5 years in the job. This was aimed at kicking Kenneally, Rees and Iemma when they were down, but it seems now he’s the one that’s also missed the gravy train.
And by the looks of it, Baird will miss out too if he loses next year, or in fact in 2019 if he lasts that long, since the election will be in March and his premiership starts 1 month too late.
The Abbott government is paying a Japanese-owned media company $137 million to handle its propaganda campaign.
More –
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/from-those-wonderful-folk-who-gave-you.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FUtodS+%28North+Coast+Voices%29
and –
Kirsdarke
Good point, I bet Bazz didn’t think for one second he would ever become the victim of his own nastiness. Karma is a wonderful thing.
AWH was one vehicle for corruption. I wonder what other little businesses are in the same “business”.
Leone – That theory is out and about, I notice. But I really can’t see how dragging the NSW Libs into ICAC is going to do them any good. There’ll be a fall in support for the party, which they’re going to have to win back. And I don’t think Baird’s the guy to do it. They’ve let BOF go, which is probably a gambit to try to take the heat off in ways I can’t quite figure out at the moment. But it looks much more a defensive move than a pro-active one.
The other thing is that BOF was a reasonably popular leader. They’ve bending over backwards to praise him as he goes, at the risk of their own credibility. This is a complete stuff-up. I can’t see it going any other way.
Have any Lib Premiers bit the dust while I haven’t been looking?
Spot on analysis of St Pat’s, Bushfire.
As one who was there a few years before you, I can let you know that the alliances of former classmates go back more than 65 years. (At the foot of the the back page of the latest colour, glossy magazine from the school is an account of the memorial service in the school chapel last month for my younger brother.)
You wrote “When I was there it was directly run by the Christian Brothers on basically “Catholic” principles. It therefore produced dozens of lefties, from unpromising stock – the sons of real estate agents, GPs, tradies and moderately prosperous business people.” That was the same in the forties; it’s the getting across of social rather than religious values that I remember was the output of men like McGlade, English, Molloy and others.
But that was then and now is now.
No need for comment
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/17/australian-ship-went-far-deeper-into-indonesian-waters-than-disclosed?CMP=ema_632
Moir on BOF
Dyson on Ukraine