It’s our leaders who are creating a generation of terrorists

Fiona Uncategorized

My apologies, Jaycee, for displacing your marvellous and macabre tale so soon. Unfortunately, events don’t wait.

The cultural warriors of the extreme(?) right – Abbott, Abetz, Andrews, Bernardi, Christensen – the list goes on and on – would do well to think about this article.

Instead of throwing oil (Saudi oil, most probably) on the flames, what about doing wussy things like engagement, acceptance, tolerance?

(Nah, no votes in that . . . but ramping up the hysteria will do the ‘right’ a power of good . . .)

However, in view of the violence in Belgium today, this article (published well before any suicide vest was detonated) is essential reading. Big hat-tip, and thanks, to eJames.

Independent

Europe is losing the battle because its leaders still indulge the sponsors of terrorism and germinate animosity and rancour
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Monday 21 March 2016

On Friday, Belgium police captured Salah Abdeslam, a key conspirator and member of the Islamist gang that murdered so many innocents in Paris last November. Belgium PM Charles Michel is triumphant: “This evening is a huge success in the battle against terrorism.” Monsieur Michel’s bombast is typical of Western leaders – they revel in their “victories” and never think about why so many young Muslims, born in Europe, are turning to violent extremism.

Not one of the EU nations has, to date, taken on Saudi Arabia, the promulgator of hardline Islam and zealous intolerance. Saudi Arabia went into Belgium in the late sixties and spread Wahhabism among the newly arrived Muslim migrants. To date, $70bn has been spent on this global brainwashing and destabilisation programme. This Tuesday evening on ITV, a secretly filmed documentary investigates the nefarious kingdom. Will this exposure alter Europe’s special relationship with the most evil of empires? No.

Here is a dire warning: Europe is losing the battle against terrorism because its leaders still indulge the sponsors of terrorism, unthinkingly aid and abet the propagandists of Isis and germinate animosity and rancour in a new generation of Muslims. EU governments never say sorry, never let complexities divert them from their macho missions, seem incapable of thinking holistically, do not engage with history or the hinterlands, undercut democratic values, can only react to events as they happen and thereby endanger the lives of millions of citizens.

The police and special forces expect multiple terror attacks in London. Other cities are preparing for new blasts. These crimes are indefensible. And no, I am not saying that the West deserves these bloodbaths or is wholly to blame for them. Repulsive Islamists and their ideologies are hell-bent on annihilating modernity and cumulated human cultures. But I do believe that European politicians have, over many decades, created the conditions for fanaticism to seed and grow. The abysmal official responses to the refugee flows are leading to new anti-Western furies.

Here is a friend of mine, a Muslim woman, who works in the City and lives in a grand home: “I was born here, have done well. My faith is private and I have no time for fundis ( fundamentalists). But I am shocked. How can Cameron, my Prime Minister, treat refugees like they are cockroaches? Those children? Would he do this if they were white people from Zimbabwe? I now understand how a young Muslim turns and loads up on hate. My own son is so full of anger.” Me too. The media and our leaders – except for Mrs Merkel – demonise refugees and fill up on self-pity. The migration crisis is all about us. Sickening.

Now Turkey – where the government daily violates human rights – is paid billions to take the migrant problem out of Europe. Men, women and children from Africa and Arabia have become traded meat. And all the while, our politicians wax lyrical about Europe’s values and “higher” civilisation. Can you not see how this dissonance affects those with links to those places? And humane indigenous citizens too?

I recently met a young, wannabe jihadi. Salim (not his real name) is 19 and very bright. His mum wrote and requested me to meet him. He went on and on about being a despised Muslim, about Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syrian refugees. He wants to join the caliphate because he feels he has no future in England. He was like a tethered animal wanting to break free of the life he knew.

His mum now has cancer and he has sobered up. However, his views on these misguided wars are not treacherous and are widely shared. (The police will not get these names out of me. Many readers write to me privately and I cannot break that trust.)

The European crusaders who attacked Iraq and Libya and play hidden war games in Syria have never accepted responsibility for the churn, chaos, rage and violence that they left in their wake. Western sanctions and bombs wiped out more people in Iraq than Saddam ever did. Read Patrick Coburn’s new book, Chaos & Caliphate, which chronicles these historical catastrophes. For Salim and his ilk, these killer facts fuse with their own life stories of confusion and rejection and the amalgam combusts.

Abdeslam was kept safe and hidden by those who live in Molenbeek, an overcrowded Muslim ghetto stuffed with no-hopers. Some inhabitants describe the place as Europe’s biggest jihadist factories. Why should this be so? Because the very air is thick with disillusionment and breathed in by all those who live there.

In the Sixties, Belgium welcomed cheap factory labour from Morocco and other Arab lands. The old industries died and families were marooned with no jobs, low skills and a sense of failure. They believe successive governments used and then discarded them. Francoise Schepmans, the mayor of Molenbeek, has now come out and spoken about the “culture of denial”, which now must be broken. Belgium needs to address its racism and neglect of Muslims who are in its national bloodstream. So too France, Germany, Spain, Britain, Denmark and so on.

Our political elites need to be honest, savvy and ethical. They must refrain from impetuous militarism and reach out to estranged Muslims. Remember, the West beat communism using political and economic seduction. Weapons, oppressive laws and racist discourse will not defeat Islamist terrorism. Soft, smart power just might.

327 thoughts on “It’s our leaders who are creating a generation of terrorists”

  3. Ctar

    Yep. the king of the Belgians treated the Congo like his private property to be mined and extracted and it was left a complete mess, with an undeclared civil war raging quietly for decades. And teh protestant belgians in Zaire hated the catholics

    I traveled through Zaire in 1977 and the villagers expected miltia to swarm through raping looting and kidnapping at will

    So what’s the link between Belgian colonies and Mannekin Pis

  4. FDOTM is vicious

    “We were able to purchase it with a grant from Malcolm’s own innovation ideas boom agenda fund”
    “it even has a teensy focus group built in”

    He has captured David Leyonnhejlm perfecktly

  6. Free to a good home

    One DYMO personal label marker, still in original, unopened packaging, includes one roll of label tape.

    Purchased before moi discovered – after discarding the receipt – that we already had one.

    First in best dressed.

    • The top hat is a regular feature of Turnbull in cartoons, some doing individual variations such as Pope having the lid open with a few remaining cables of the NBN fibre and copper hybrid pouring out.

      Moir did a beauty some time back with him wearing a very big topping so that he was a little like the Doormouse at the Mad Hatters Tea Party. This cartoon is excellent, but Truffles has now grown too big for his topper.

      Bring back the Doormouse Topper!

  11. jaycee

    While I’m watching HBO’s “Rome” at the moment Pompei’s retreating from Rome.

    Like Malcolm.

  20. What is it with the “so-called” experts and analysts on the MSM? I caught a bit of a discussion of panelists including Greg Sheridan discussing the radicalization of the Muslim youth in areas like Sint-Jans-Molenbeek district of Brussels and they would not have a clue what they are talking about.

    One “expert” argues the radicalization the youth is a result of poverty and social conditions while another argues that it has something to do with the Islamic religion and ideology because Muslims only make up 4/10ths of the population living in these areas and that people of other religions are not radicalized in the same way.. The answer is right in front of their eyes but they refuse to see it because their own ideological bias.

    One of the main reasons for the spread of Jihadism in the the world, the ME and in Belgium is the spread of Wahhabism orchestrated and financed by Saudi Arabia. The Grand Mosque of Brussels was/is financed by Saudi Arabia, created and built with full encouragement from the former Belgian King Boudewijn. In 1969 he held a meeting with the then King of Saudi Arabia, Faisal and gave the latter the key of the World Expo building in exchange for preferential oil deals.

    What most don’t know is ever since, the Saudi Ambassador in Belgium has been the President of Board of Directors of the Grand Mosque of Brussels.and it is he who appoints the Imam. Saudi diplomats and Imams are largely responsible for spreading Wahhabism and Jihadism in Brussels, Belgium and Europe and not a single government has lifted a finger to stem this trend despite increased and growing terrorism in their cities.

    The only reason I can think of is the influence of Israel on the governments of the West, Europe and the USA who support and perpetuate the thug/gangster rulers of Saudi Arabia.who in turn support Israel.

    http://www.politico.eu/article/the-saudi-wahhabis-are-the-real-foe-islamic-terrorists-salafi-violence/

  21. Terrorism in Europe: how US and Western governments nourished and encouraged Al-Qa`idah terrorists in Syria

    You can really trace the current problem of terrorism hitting Europe to the beginning of the Syrian war in 2012 and the insistence of Western governments–against all available evidence–on creating the myth of “moderate Syrian rebels”. Western propaganda glamorized a non-existing Syrian “revolution” and romanticized those Muslims in the West who took the trip to fight with the various Jihadi group. The myth of the moderate Free Syrian Army was in full swing at the time, and any opinion which warned of the dangers of rise of terrorist groups in Syria was immediately dismissed as pure Syrian regime propaganda. The dangerous propaganda ploy of Western media continues. Look at this map from this article in Bloomberg. Look how the areas designated as “Syrian rebels” is so widely expanded. In fact, if you look at the areas around Idlib, the dominant force there is Nusrah Front even if it works with other militant Jihadi groups under the banner of Jaysh Al-Fath. So basically, whenever Nusrah Front (the descenents of the terrorists of Sep. 11) align themselves with other rebel groups, Western propaganda and media outlet regard the rebels in that area as “moderate Syrian rebels” because they are not fighting under the banner of Nusrah although the banner exists. This is one of many example but it gives you an idea. And Zionists have been most active in this regard and in spinning this propaganda but they are not alone: some liberal and leftists have also been spinning this fable

    http://angryarab.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/terrorism-in-europe-how-us-and-western.html.

  22. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Peter Martin says the ABCC is a poor base to build an election on.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/restoring-the-abcc-a-poor-foundation-for-malcolm-turnbull-to-build-an-election-on-20160322-gnox7n.html
    The forthcoming election and the ongoing attacks on unions and workers.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-forthcoming-australian-election-and-the-ongoing-attacks-on-unions-and-workers,8806
    One for Google – A fascinating look at who’s in and not in Turnbull’s inner circle.
    /national-affairs/federal-election-2016-turnbulls-inner-circle-a-tight-fit/news-story/38de219fd62d55c9c87d5fe4a73c8db8
    And a similar story from Phil Coorey. It’s chaotic he says. (more Google work needed)
    /news/politics/malcolm-turnbulls-inner-circle-does-not-appear-to-include-scott-morrison-20160321-gno1ln
    Michelle Grattan reckons Morrison’s embarrassment of budget timing was of his own doing.
    https://theconversation.com/morrisons-embarrassment-over-budget-timing-was-more-his-fault-than-turnbulls-56739
    Alan Austin – Turnbull’s promises don’t match economic reality.
    http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/2016/03/23/turnbull-promises-dont-match-policy-reality/
    Mike Baird is prepared to spend his political capital.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-premier-mike-baird–im-determined-to-stay-as-long-as-i-possibly-can-20160323-gnp9ip.html
    “View from the Street” advocates research to find wind farm ghosts. And he takes aim at “Continuity with Change”.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-lets-blow-more-money-searching-for-wind-turbine-ghosts-20160323-gnpc73.html
    Gee we have some dills as parliamentary representatives!
    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/23/wind-power-senators-want-moratorium-on-turbines-until-health-studies-conclude
    Royal Commission anyone? Come on down Arfur!
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-liberals-concealed-illegal-donors-before-2011-election-win-20160323-gnpsn6.html
    Why Belgium has a serious problem with terrorism.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/why-belgium-has-a-serious-problem-with-terrorism-20160322-gnp0fu.html
    Rapaciousness: noun. Sydney Airport Authority.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-airport-flies-high-on-fat-profit-margins-for-car-parking-and-airline-fees-20160323-gnpl1j.html

  23. Section 2 . . .

    I’ve been to one of these performances and there is no doubt they are a thorough lift from the Fawlty Towers concept, characters and scripts.
    http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/stage/john-cleese-may-sue-australian-company-behind-utterly-shameless-fawlty-towers-ripoff-20160323-gnp6za.html
    Looks like the states may have been stared down over the education funding cuts.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/states-buckle-on-federal-schools-funding-cuts-20160323-gnpeew.html
    The Timbercorp hardship scheme is on the verge of collapse.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/timbercorp-hardship-scheme-on-verge-of-collapse-as-advocate-threatens-to-quit-20160322-gnon85.html
    Kupper was certainly guilty of poor judgement.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/funke-kupper-guilty-of-poor-judgement-20160323-gnph46.html
    Here’s a message to the whingeing Coles boss. You don’t HAVE to open on Sundays!
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/coles-boss-calls-for-ir-rethink-20160323-gnpjjo.html
    The head of Dow Chemicals says that with Trump the US could be heading for a Kardishian presidency.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/dow-chemicals-chief-andrew-liveris-warns-on-trumps-kardashian-presidency-20160322-gnotuu.html
    Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have gone “full cavemen”.
    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/23/donald-trump-ted-cruz-full-caveman-wives-honor-presidential-campaign

  25. Metallic ink was used to inscribe scrolls regarded as an archaeological wonder, according to scientists.

    The discovery pushes back the date for the first use of metallic ink by several centuries.

    The Herculaneum scrolls were buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 and are charred and fragile.

    Previous efforts to read them, over many centuries, has damaged or destroyed some of the scrolls.

    Ancient scrolls give up their secrets

    http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35865470

  26. This whole ISIS. organisation is a weird structure..I mean, if they have the capacity to coordinate, organise resources both human and military, incl’ explosives and small arms through many borders in several continents, it would necessitate a well structured hierarchy of administration / command /supply. yet…where is it?..where is the headquarters, the chain of command?…where are the names / places?

    I’m not saying ISIS. does not exist, I’m saying it is very “convenient” that it exists in such a amorphous state.

    • After the first Gulf War Saddam prepared for a possible second invasion on the premise that he could not stop the invasion. So , with one of his sons in charge, he created a fairly elite force of 70,000 who were to form a guerrilla army and to lead resistance to a future US invasion. Huge amounts of arms and explosives were hidden across the country.

      This force was the basis of the resistance and inflicted far higher casualties than people realise. It was only the threat of the Shia and a very large bribe to the various Sunni clans that brought about the sudden halt in their activity. A number of reports have mentioned “senior” Saddam army officers leading/directing military operations by ISIS. Many Sunni , although not fans of ISIS, fear the Shia militias even more and with good reason.

      So with a highly trained corp of people skilled in guerrilla type operations and their experience fighting the US would have taught them how to fight/coordinate without a big ‘HQ’ .With the huge amounts of explosives +arms they would be off to a flying start.

      The real Hmmmmm? is why the US did essentially eff all to sort them out, see Russia’s swift sorting out, the blind eye to Turkey and WHY the US helped known Al Qaeda affiliates. Not the first time either Seppos and Europe did the same in Libya.

  27. “States buckle on federal schools funding cuts”

    Well, no.

    Just NSW. Mike Baird, who no doubt sees himself going into federal politics in a few years, has caved in to his Canberra masters, possibly after a chat with his good mate, Abbott or a bit of arm-twisting from Birmingham. There’s no mention of what the other states are doing.

    You have to wonder what Baird has been promised for doing this. Adrian Piccoli must be furious, he has always been a strong Gonski supporter. It seems he knew nothing about this. Another Liberal leader treating his ministers like mushrooms.

    And who leaked the ‘confidential working paper’ to Fairfax?

    Tough talking about terrorist bombings on the other side of the world is all very well, but Australians don’t really care. When a government shafts our own kids people tend to get a bit tetchy. This funding cut will not be well received, and if Turnbull goes ahead with company tax cuts instead of funding education there will be trouble.

  28. The more I see and hear that patronising, waffling git of a PM, the more I want to shove his head in a bucket of shite. If Australians do not chuck the majority of this stinking government back into their cesspool, then we are doomed to be a second-rate country at the arse end of the world.

  30. I am off to Sanctuary Point public school at 10.30. Part of a ‘welcoming committee’ for Turnbull. Should be fun !!!

  31. One hundred more days of waffle about ‘Continuity and Change’ and being ‘agile’ and ‘innovative’. One hundred more days of terrorism beat-ups, Border Farce, lies and ‘evil unions’. One hundred more days of Teflon Turnbull waving his specs, being condescending and mansplaining his rip-offs and funding cuts. One hundred more days of government spin.

    I don’t know if I can handle it.

    Turnbull is obviously hoping to bore us all into a trance then hypnotise us into becoming good, Liberal-voting zombies.

  32. Turnbull’s terrorism wafflings are not being well received. Lovely smack-down from the Belgian ambassador.

    Malcolm Turnbull linking refugee crisis to bombings ‘dangerous’, Belgian ambassador says

    Belgium’s Ambassador to Australia says it is “dangerous” for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to link the European refugee crisis with this week’s deadly attacks in Brussels.
    ………………………………………..
    Belgium’s Ambassador to Australia Jean-Luc Bodson has cautioned against linking the issue with the deadly attacks in his homeland this week.

    “It’s dangerous because it’s precisely what ISIS wants — that we would make a confusion between terrorism and migrants and between terrorism and Islam,” he said.

    “My view is that the terrorists who committed the latest attacks and in Paris and in Belgium are European-raised and born. Maybe from foreign origins, but they are Europeans.

    “So it has nothing to do with the refugee crisis and I think that is the main danger to assimilate that

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-24/turnbull-comments-of-refugee-crisis-dangerous-says-ambassador/7272916

  33. Apologies for cross posting but this physicist’s comment is so good it needs circulating. She teaches science students at uni and is replying to a Green.

    Douglas and Milko
    Posted Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 2:29 am | PERMALINK
    Matt@958

    cud chewer @955: You can certainly do both; you can even make the argument that it’s better to be on the left fringe of a large Party than to be in the middle of a much smaller one. None of that would I begrudge (nor would most Greens voters) – but the hyperbolic vitriol constantly directed at the Greens from many Labor supporters (inc. many here, but by no means all!) simply cheeses us off.

    I may be grumpy, having been at my place of work until 9pm Sydney time, telling prospective science students that of course it is worth doing a science degree in Australia, right now.

    And coming home to comment on a research proposal that one of my new, very, very bright research students has put together (it was really, really good, an example of the amazing talent that Oz has in its nascent scientists), and then working on my grant request to the Australian Research Council, due in two weeks, but needing to be circulated to my collaborators tonight, for comment before the Easter break. Yes, I am a bit grumpy.

    And, Matt, you have the cheek to tell me that if I do not somehow appease the Greens by doing something, something (just consider, that maybe I am too tired from actually trying to promote science – in my case physics, and yes, us physicists are passionate and evangelical in trying to convince the community that climate change is real, and that evidence-based action will benefit us all) to remember what it is that I need to do to appease you, so that you will not then you will throw me and my worthy students to the wolves because you will consider that we have “simply cheese[d you] off”

    At this stage, I just want to work out what us mere mortals can do to work with the Greens to ensure the defeat of the coalition. Because, that will give my students a future. And yes, I am an active member of the Labor party, and a life-long progressive.

    So, Matt and others, just give me what you want us progressives who are not members of the Greens to do to get your preferences – and do not forget that there are other progressive parties than the Greens and Labor. Dot point format is fine.

    Your answering this question may save my fantastic postgrad students from the tsunami of anti-science that will overwhelm Australia of the LNP are reelected.

    971
    Douglas and Milko
    Posted Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 2:36 am | PERMALINK
    And, this is how I feel tonight listening to the Greens telling us the rest of us progressives just need to do more to get their preferences (and maybe I will put my miniskirt on for election day!):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ivUOnnstpg

    http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2016/03/22/reachtel-52-48-to-coalition-3/?comment_page=20/#comment-2361614

    • Thanks for the cross-posting, Magic Dragon.
      It’s good to read a fellow physicist ‘s and fellow Party member’s articulate comments

    • The Greens are not going to get my preferences. Not after voting with the Abbott/Turnbull government so many times on legislation a true progressive party would have rejected.

      And let’s not forget – Adam Bandt was elected on Liberal preferences in 2010.

    • I can’t. We are not allowed to have Liberal candidates up here in Nats heartland. Last is always reserved for the Nats.

  34. When I saw that low grub Turnbull on TV, trying to blame the Belgium bombing to refugees and suggesting that open borders by Belgium and the rest of the EU caused the bombings, I hit the roof. my reaction is unprintable and I was so angry i would have kicked a Turnbull effigy.

    What a disgrace! As the PM of Australia, turnbull has shamed us. He went straight into victim blaming mode (as per family domestic violence model, it was ‘her fault” and she (or he) ‘asked for it’ by their actions or non actions). And he did it for a few votes from the scum of the RWNJ’s. He probably was targetting the RWNJs in his own party.

    That disgusting appalling tapeworm has all the morals of a merchant banker.

    • only 20 workers in that photo, none of them resident in Melbourne Ports

      Higgins has many more workers to oust Kelly O’Dwyer

  38. If Australia wants to stop ISIS terrorist attacks, it needs to do what Turkey does. Turkey licenses the Imams, and pays their wages.

    At the least Australia should investigate whether Saudi Arabia pays for mosques to be built and/or pays Imams wages

    Ideally we should sling the Saudis out

  42. Leone – About not preferencing the Greens. I hope you take Billie11’s advice and still “put libs last”.

    I think the idea of differentiating ourselves from the Greens is all well and good, but unfortunately it is now going too far. There are even many Labor people pushing the idea that the Greens are Liberals in disguise.

    The facts simply don’t support this. One should not forget that Labor has depended on Green preferences (and those of independents) to win many seats in Parliament. Green preferences advantage Labor overwhelmingly, not the Coalition. That is an indisputable fact.

    I am certainly not a Greens voter. I always preference them second, and sometimes put them first in the Senate. (That latter I will not do any more, due to their Senate deal with the Libs.) I know many trolls write paragraphs like this one, (ie pretending to be a Labor voter while slyly making excuses for their opponents) but I think my credibility is such that you will not consider me a troll.

    Let us please be logical here. If the Greens have an ambition to increase their vote, is that not a legitimate political ambition? Is it not the ambition of the Labor Party?

    If certain preference deals are struck with the Liberals, then those should be viewed in the context of the particular seat and deal. I think that the whole subject of preference deals is more complex than simply condemning such deals out of hand.

    The underlying reality is that the Greens are a “progressive” party in Australian politics, (I put progressive in quote marks to acknowledge the fact that “progressive” is a very contentious word. However, in contrast with the Christian Democrats or the Nationals, I think the term is legitimate.)

    Like our own Labor party, the Greens desire to broaden their support from wherever they can. That is sufficient to explain why they would act in a conciliatory manner to conservatives – in actual fact it is to the small-L faction of the Liberal party, and to traditional conservative voters in regional and rural electorates, that they are pitching outside their inner-city base. I think that is smart, actually.

    It is politics 101.

    Driving a spiteful wedge between Labor and Green voters does nothing to maintain the high proportion of Green preferences which our party depends on. In fact, it runs the danger of having some Green voters move their second preference to the Coalition, considering that snake-oil salesmen like Turnbull can gull them into believing that they (the Liberals) are, at heart, decent and progressive.

    This entire political relationship with the Greens has to be finessed with skill, not crudely shaken. If Di Natale’s recent rapprochement with the Liberals is a big misstep (which I believe it is), then this will be reflected where it should be, in the polls at the next election. In the meantime, it would be wise for us to refrain from a deliberate antagonism which is entirely unproductive.

    • I would never consider you a troll.

      I’ve always put the Greens a fair way down my ballot papers, mainly because for years I had independents to vote for, state and federal. They came first, Labor second, then the rest fought it out for the other places, with the Nationals always last. I might have put the Greens a little higher if they had decent candidates here, but in a place like this you know who the nutters are, and I’m sorry to say the Greens here choose nuts. One woman didn’t even know she did not live in the electorate she wanted to represent until she turned up at a big central polling booth, cameras and supporters in tow, only to find out she was in the wrong electorate.

      For the Senate it’s always been Labor first. I’m not sure what the Greens senate team for NSW will be, or where I will decide to put them when I vote, but Lee Rhiannon is getting a special spot at the bottom of my ballot paper.

  43. I’ve noticed we haven’t had the usual parade of government spruikers out telling us our ever-generous government has again increased pensions.

    It’s time for the usual six-monthly pension adjustment. For the last two years we have had a lot of government spin along the lines ‘See, we are increasing pensions, look how kind we are ‘. But this time, nothing. There wasn’t even the usual spin article in the local paper from the Nats.

    Why?

    Because this time the increase was peanuts – $6.90 a fortnight ($6.50 on the base rate, 50c on the pension supplement) for a single on the full rate, scaled down for couples. It’s the smallest adjustment for quite some time. That means wages and other economic factors on which the adjustment is based have not increased as much as they have done in the past. Not a good sign for the economy.

    http://www.superguide.com.au/accessing-superannuation/age-pension-rates

    This government still wants to change the way these adjustments are calculated, changing from an average male weekly wage base to the CPI and inflation.That will mean less money for pensioners. That change is still stuck in the senate, part of the 2014 budget that has still not been passed. Morrison will most likely have another crack at it in his budget.

    Vote Liberal and see your pension fall further behind.

    After NSW Housing takes their cut I’ll have about $5.30 left. I’ll try not to spend all my new-found wealth too quickly.

  44. What the fork was Julie Bishop doing in Bali dressed like red-light street hooker This is a majority Moslem country. Not even the blokes are allowed to show that much leg. I don’t mean she needs to wear a head scarf or anything, but some sensitivity to local customs is in order by our Foreign Minister.

    I think it was a calculated insult designed to flash cultural superiority. Either that or Julie Bishop is a complete nitwit. Or both

    Any diplomat who did this would be sacked.
    http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/indonesian-foreign-minister-retno-marsudi-greets-australian-foreign-picture-id517021966

  46. I do not believe the Greens are on Labor’s side at all. Not since they blocked the CPRS if not before.

    Pretend leftists, pretend progressives but always playing to their wealthy inner city base, This base wants to feel good and progressive but not pay anything for that feeling apart from voting or preferencing Green. Greens are no longer an environmental Party, haven’t been for ages.

    To me Greens are Libs in a green coat. Part of the enemy.

  48. I’ve really got nothing against the Greens, not philosophically anyway. A lot of the things they stand for (or say they stand for, at any rate) are laudable and good. The one thing that’s really wrong about them is contained in one short Bob Brown quote (I’m probably paraphrasing, but this is pretty accurate) –

    “I don’t want us to keep the bastards honest, I want us to replace the bastards.”

    A party with 10% support, and not much likelihood of getting more than 15%, is wasting its time with mission statements like that. Brown should have been laughed at for saying it, but instead he was feted. What he’s really saying there is that for as long as there are two major parties in this country, the Greens are prepared to stand around with their arms folded rolling their eyes. And, you know, until everyone comes to their senses and votes Green, who cares?

    They’re actually in a position to get things done, practical things, things that can make a difference in this country. They’ve got a major party whose ideals aren’t a million miles from their own. And if they work to increase that party’s vote at the expense of RW senators, the Greens can claim a balance of power simply by raising the overall support of the Left in politics. That gives them the chance to negotiate good outcomes, now. And if they’re honest in their belief that this country faces an urgent, impending environmental crisis that needs to be addressed immediately (I certainly think that’s true), that’s what they’ll do.

    But for reasons best known to themselves they choose to behave as if we have all the time in the world, that the environment will wait until the perfect solution comes along, and we can ignore all the merely workable ones in the meantime.

    Ask a Greens supporter what should happen in any given policy area and they’ll happily talk your ear off about preferred outcomes. Ask them how they propose to get from where we are now to that point though, and they’ll just get shouty about how stupid and selfish people are. Ask them how to turn public opinion around and they’ll give you variations on The Truth Will Set You Free. Try to pin them down to specifics and they’ll likely verbally abuse you. They don’t know how to negotiate anything because they come to the table with one thought: “I’m Right And You’re Wrong.”

    If I ever see a Green lay out a roadmap that shows a step-by-step plan to getting anything done on any issue – wages, refugees, climate change, employment, whatever – I’d certainly consider voting for them. If I see them say, “Well, this interim step isn’t the ideal we’re after, but it’s a positive step in the right direction, and that’s progress” I’d consider voting for them. If I hear them say, “I understand not all people agree on this, so here’s a compromise we can all be happy with,” I’d consider voting for them. But it’ll be a cold day in Hell when that happens.

    In the meantime, I’ll look to a party that knows how to negotiate a satisfactory outcome rather than staring at clouds and wishing hard.

    • Got it right, Aguirre, about the Greens.

      Mind you I can see Dedalus’s point. The last thing we need now is a flame war with the Greens. We are different, but we do share many of the same social ideals. It’s a situation not dissimilar to the Liberals and the old Country Party (now Nationals). We are more often allies than enemies.

      The feuding was fanned by Bob Brown’s ambitions and possibly helped along by the ALP’s subservience to the various factional warlords. That tended to make it harder for rank-and-file idealists, some of whom have probably found a home in the Greens. Ironically, Piping Shrike saw Ruddism as an attempt to break that hold and bring idealism back to Labor, and Julia Gillard as the stooge of the old machinery reasserting its control. It was only half-right. JG was propelled by the machinery into the leadership and she depended on people like Joe de Bruyn to survive. But she was her own person, of much greater depth and substance than Rudd, and much more able to make the hard decisions. With the alliance of the independents plus the Greens the government worked successfully against the odds.

      But the Greens still ran their own race, still held their own ambitions, and worst of all, moralised often against the government, conveniently ignoring its minority status and the government’s need to pacify quite diverse stakeholders. It seemed to many of us (and was perhaps due to that rivalry thing) that the Greens spent more time criticising Labor than they did the real enemy the Liberals or the mainstream media. It was bad enough putting up with Abbott’s daily stunts, the plotting with Murdoch forces to manufacture a scandal or two, the plotting of Rudd and abuse of polling, without also having the Greens’ carping. That’s the past.

      Aguirre has got it right that that alternative party ambition has led them down that path, and essentially it is a dead end, as Boer War at PB makes clear: They are a long way short of being a credible governing party. They made the wrong choice in attempting to take Labor’s demographic.

      In the first decade of the 20th century, Labor was the third party for most of that time, just occasional being in short-lived minority governments or coalitions. Yet at the end of that time they had achieved every single plank in their political platform. They did this by bargaining with one side or the other to achieve particular goals. This strikes me as a better way of going about it: set specific goals and deal with whatever party will best achieve, In the current situation, it would mean more of what Di Natale attempted but with less naivety and pinning other parties down to very specific goals.

      Of course, it would annoy many of us, but as long as they were clear on where they wanted to go, they could achieve things.

  49. Did Jules forget to pack her skirt? Those saggy almost 60 year old knees are not an attractive sight.

    Julia Roberts did the shorts and jacket look better, in Pretty Woman, way back when. Jules should have copied it, at leasst her knees would have been covered.

  50. The bitchop is still trying to beat the ageing process. She obviously wears special glasses when (or if) she looks at herself in her mirror or at her press photos….she always reminds me of the gag I read a long time ago about the grandmother who was taken to task by her grand-daughter for wearing a see-through blouse and quipped, “well dear, if it is okay for you to show off your pink rosebuds, it is okay for me to show off my dried arrangement.”

Comments are closed.