After some intense speculation last week about the imminent return of Kevin Rudd it seems the betting markets have moved against him. Centrebet now has Gillard at $1.70 and Sportsbet has her at $1.85.
In the meantime here is a clip that extols Rudd’s many virtues.
Thanks for the monstrous video still of that unspeakably evil harridan roxon.
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 11:01 am
I would guess that Rudd has out the word around that he doesn’t want the poisoned chalice, come and talk to him on October when the AWU ownership of the ALP ison tatters.
I could even see Rudd as opposition leader announcing a bipartisan policy with Abbott into corruption tithing the AWU. He would smash his labor party enemies and have the chance to totally discredit his assassin Gillard.
We have to examine the rewards for actions here, PM for 6 months until defeat, or carte Blanche to redevelop the labor party in is UN-like, programmatic specificity image. Rudd alone could prevent Howes from ever ending up in federal parliament, he could vanquish the power of bill Ludwig.
That’s why I think Rudds odds are slipping – because he and his supporters aren’t serious about a challenge.
brc
1 Mar 13 at 11:12 am
Yep, the rebuild-Labor-in-opposition theory is sounding more and more likely.
Steve D
1 Mar 13 at 11:14 am
Gee, he looks good, doesn’t he; compared to the detritus that is now running the show.
Only labour could give us a choice between Rudd and the slapper.
cohenite
1 Mar 13 at 11:17 am
Kevin is the stalking horse. The question is for whom?
Token
1 Mar 13 at 11:18 am
I think Labor has made it perfectly clear they hate kevni and will stick with Ms Gillard till the end.
Besides, they hold out hopes of the polls coming up good again. A week is a long time in politics as they say.
candy
1 Mar 13 at 11:19 am
I tend to agree.
The heat has gone out of the Rudd Indian summer very quickly.
Explanation: paradoxically, I think it’s because of – not despite – Gillard’s latest debacles and beclownings. I think people just think, ‘nobody can improve this so-called government and – actually – we don’t want anyone to try. Enough.’
C.L.
1 Mar 13 at 11:19 am
One hopes the LNP in Queensland has the dosh and the guts to run that as an ad in Queensland come election time to tip KRudd out of Griffith.
KC
1 Mar 13 at 11:21 am
I reckon Rudd comes off pretty well in that vid. The rest of the characters are contemptible pieces of shit who be shot from a cannon into a wall.
Infidel Tiger
1 Mar 13 at 11:25 am
Again, I regret to say the production standards of this ‘ad’ are crap.
Is there nobody who can put these quotes and clips together in a clear, audible, perceivably paced and structured manner?
FFS Liberals, hire somebody from Breitbart, Hot Air or CPAC – now.
C.L.
1 Mar 13 at 11:30 am
The poor man was surrounded by nasty leftists.
He wuz there to help but was prevented from doing so by the illiberal gits about him like TLS, Rocksoff, Brazen Burke and Teary Steve.
Give the man a second chance!!!!!!!!
JamesK
1 Mar 13 at 11:33 am
Of course Kevni does need to retain his seat after Sept 14 (or sooner) to have a chance at getting even.
Biota
1 Mar 13 at 11:38 am
For Kev, the best revenge isn’t taking your job back, it’s watching the house fall on this evil witch and laughing your guts out.
Infidel Tiger
1 Mar 13 at 11:39 am
If rudd isn’t leader at the time of the election, his chances of winning his seat are effectively zero (as hinted at by Biota above).
Paradoxically, the only hope the goose would have of saving his seat would be if rudd was leader.
If rudd loses his seat, there is no returning to federal parliament. His strategic goals would be known and he would be blocked by vested interests.
Quite frankly, I want to see labor absolutely smashed. They have forfeited all right to a continued existence. There is a role for a social democratic party, but its control by unions must be verboten. This means the Coalition must destroy the unions, preferably via an all-encompassing Royal Commission that covers the labor pardy as well.
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 11:52 am
Their role should be for a kooky role as minority party Senators with no power.
Society has surpassed the concerns of the 1890s shearer’s strike.
.
1 Mar 13 at 11:55 am
I would love to see Krudd return to the Labor leadership, and debrief his erstwhile cabinet colleagues, so to speak. Sadly, most of them would rather stick needles in their eyes and have their reproductive organs removed with a hacksaw, than have Kevni back.
Jannie
1 Mar 13 at 12:00 pm
Rabz : I believe the term is ‘The Labor party has lost it’s social licence to operate’
brc
1 Mar 13 at 12:02 pm
Indeed, brc.
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 12:04 pm
Rabz, I’m with you on the smashing. I was having this discussion with my 15 year old nephew the other day: political parties don’t go on forever. They have a lifespan, and when they lose direction like this, they will break apart and form new, smaller parties. There’s no rule that says there has to be two big parties; it’s just easier to form a government that way.
He was chuffed to bits when I showed him the Wikipedia stuff on the Whitlam debacle in 1975, and then the Queensland state election figures.
Now if only I could find someone in the ALP who would listen to me …
Philippa Martyr
1 Mar 13 at 12:04 pm
As what? Speed humps?
Infidel Tiger
1 Mar 13 at 12:04 pm
The chance of ALP being “smashed” is virtually none, I would think.
But if it happened, on the cards they’d form a new party with Greens that would be a second major party and well to the left.
I think Australia happily is too conservative for such hijinks.
candy
1 Mar 13 at 12:07 pm
Like those blokes and their sheilas would hang out with Stephen Conroy and Nicola Roxon.
C.L.
1 Mar 13 at 12:08 pm
Bait?, Burley?
Carpe Jugulum
1 Mar 13 at 12:10 pm
Those blokes are extinct, as are their concerns, and Roxon and Conroy are also obsolete.
Just fucking finish it off and bury it at sea.
.
1 Mar 13 at 12:10 pm
I’d happily settle for a Queensland type smashing. You’re underestimating just how frigging unpopular labor actually are, candy, which I think is rather odd, given you claim to hail from Queensland.
And as I’m not particularly interested in living in a one party state, some sort of viable opposition is necessary, regrettable as the concept may seem to some commenters here.
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 12:14 pm
The true cultural heirs of the 1890s shearers are small business people, FIFO dudes and tradesmen. All of them hate the ALP.
C.L.
1 Mar 13 at 12:14 pm
I think that’s right. The modern working class man or woman is more likely to be a well paid contractor, subbie or sole trader these days and good on ‘em. They have no use for the union movement or the ALP.
tbh
1 Mar 13 at 12:19 pm
Nor I. There are too many fruit loops and agrarian socialists in the National Party for a start. The Libs could never be trusted with one-party rule either. You to have an opposition to keep the pricks honest.
tbh
1 Mar 13 at 12:21 pm
In my family were ALP MLAs who were State Cabinet Ministers, now nearly no one in the family votes labour, even though we had life memberships and stayed in the ALP as Catholic, anti communist non DLPers.
Smash it up to bits Squire!
The solution is to elect more independents (ugh) and libertarians (yay). (I tells ya).
.
1 Mar 13 at 12:28 pm
SORTITION. A CIR POWER TO STRIKE DOWN LAWS. A MORE POWERFUL EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT TO VETO LAWS. WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT? COULD ANYONE TELL THE UAP WOULD BECOME THE LIBERAL PARTY IN 1939? IN 1890, DID ANYONE KNOW THE FREE TRADE PARTY WOULD DISAPPEAR WITHIN TWO-THREE DECADES?
.
1 Mar 13 at 12:31 pm
“I’d happily settle for a Queensland type smashing”
So would I Rabz, perhaps it may be, but never take anything for granted.
candy
1 Mar 13 at 12:33 pm
I’ve been advocating time-share government for ages. My idea is that if you voluntarily choose to be a citizen (I would make it something you could choose to do and be), then for eleven months of the year, you would perform some community service (militia, road patrol, police rescue, fire brigade, etc.) and for one month you, and 1/12th of the local population, would meet in your local government chambers, and pass, or repeal, laws for your local government. No parties involved, and power shared amongst all citizens. Other levels of government could become conferences of local reps. The idea isn’t fully developed, but this is how I think we can do away with parties.
Nuke Gray
1 Mar 13 at 1:16 pm
This is a false argument. You have two parties, yes, but the contest should be about competency, not ideology. Democracy doesn’t need the left – or so-called social democrats (BIRM) – in order to function. On the contrary: we know now with greater clarity than ever that the whole project of the left is to systemically bribe electorates with ‘entitlements’ to the point of saturation; to the point where prudence and economies become unsaleable and impossible.
C.L.
1 Mar 13 at 1:21 pm
What CL said.
The opposition should be poring over budget expenditures and calling out shockers like the NBN.
When Labor is in opposition they run around crying ‘unfair’ every two seconds, and blaming all the ills of the world on the government. When this finally works, and people feel secure enough to try out Labor again, they get in, mess everything up, lose all the money and get turfed out. Rinse and repeat.
If we could just make people realise that socialism is inherently wrong and fundamentally immoral then perhaps we could move on with things.
I would be quite happy with a parliament where Barnaby Joyce was the opposition leader and Tony Abbott was the PM. There would still be arguemtns, but on finer points of policy, rather than ‘we can give you evertying you want, for free’ vs reality.
brc
1 Mar 13 at 1:33 pm
Then why bother having a democracy at all?
Look, I’m no fan of the left (so called social democrats, commies, etc) and if you couch the goals of any leftist party as solely seeking to win votes with bribes as has ended up happening, then yes, the damage done becomes too great to tolerate.
I’m more interested in a contest of ideas. Let the arguments of leftist parties stand or fall on their own merits, before an informed electorate.
My biggest concern at the moment is not that labor will be remotely salable in the near future, but the damage done to so called institutions by the left’s long march.
We’ve witnessed the subversion and debasement of education, the hijacking of the media, the takeover of the bureaucracy and the ever increasing encroachment of the nanny state.
These are the next battlegrounds and where the real action will be.
The concept of two effectively indistinguishable parties advocating the same policies with one more clearly competent in administering them is what we have at the moment.
Not entirely acceptable, I have to say.
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 1:41 pm
True; but it doesn’t have to be the ALP. And it is no reason to hold off on dealing a political death blow to the ALP, which is now structurally and fundamentally corrupt. The idea that the there would no opposition if the ALP were rightfully eviscerated is odd. A political force would rise to fill the vacuum. It might be a reconstituted ALP, or a derivative of the ALP, or indeed something else entirely; but it would happen. The destruction of the ALP might give new organizations the oxygen they need to start and become effective political and parliamentary parties.
Brett
1 Mar 13 at 1:49 pm
Lu Kewen not coming back?
Let’s see, with 3 months to run to election day, Julia on 30% , ALP on 30%, Lu on 60%. He loses but by 9 not 18, that’s striking distance and Lu’s “character flaws” in the vid have been well known to the 60% for a long time.
Lu or two terms gone, there’s your problem.
His outstanding characteristic is he holds the AWU in contempt, as you would.
Alfonso
1 Mar 13 at 1:50 pm
Ricola Noxious…I remember her.
The A.L.P.’s Chief Law Officer who had the terrible misfortune of losing almost EVERY single incriminating document about Juliar Gillard in every Court Registry her Department controlled around the Nation. Amazing coincidence!
And then, like her documents and the A.L.P.’s long-lost integrity, she too, disappeared.
Up The Workers!
1 Mar 13 at 2:17 pm
Dot, mate, you’re assaulting my eyes with that! Or should I say WITH THAT!!!!!
tbh
1 Mar 13 at 3:30 pm
Oh I agree it doesn’t have to be the ALP and I think they are irretrievably broken and in many ways irrelevant now, but I think a functioning democracy or constitution monarchy (call it what you like) has to have the “loyal opposition” who keep the the necessary and desirable amount of tension in the house. Any government should be made to have to work for whatever policy/legislation they want to get over the line. That’s also why I like the idea of Keating’s so-called unrepresentative swill in the upper house. It’s a break on unfettered power for the most part.
tbh
1 Mar 13 at 3:36 pm
Good question, the model seems to have reached its use-by-date, for the very reasons Ben Franklin suggested it would.
Its still the least worst option we have though, the alternatives are most unpleasant, and usually require a tumultuous and bloody transition.
Jannie
1 Mar 13 at 6:31 pm
There will be a party shakeout of various ‘wets’ and ‘drys’ and also some sort of shakeout on views about the welfare and interventionist role of the State and some protectionist pandering. Two sorts of conservative parties could emerge, plus a rump of socialists and greens.
The Old Guard will have to die off in the media and universities for this to happen. Five years at least, more likely ten.
Ahh. My crystal ball’s gone all cloudy again.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.
1 Mar 13 at 7:24 pm
In that clip, Kev looks a lot better than Conroy and Roxon.
Samuel J
1 Mar 13 at 7:33 pm
CL: I don’t think it’s all that bad. Incidentally, why are you so sure the Libs were behind it? Could have been made by anyone. Lots of different groups have motive here.
Oh come on
1 Mar 13 at 9:10 pm
That’s true. There should be competitive elections, but only by parties that accept non-Leftist ideological hegemony and are sworn not to overturn it. The system should be overseen by a Supreme Council of Guardians who will vet all candidates in advance.
Fisky
1 Mar 13 at 9:43 pm
So much for plurality of opinion. You’re as commited to democratic ideals as the iranians and the norkos.
leftists can be
beatensmashed in the market of ideas.We need to clean out the institutions they’ve debased.
Then we can have elections where leftist parties are allowed to campaign freely and gain no more than 15-20% of the vote. It’s all they deserve and you know it makes sense.
Becoming as bad as them is not a palatable option, Squire.
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 9:59 pm
Rabz, I understand what you’re saying, but the Fisk Doctrine is very clear on this. There will be a 10-year period in which no Leftist opinions will be permitted to be expressed at all, renewable by another 10 years in emergency circumstances.
After that, there will be open slather, as there should be (but just not now, because the Left need to be taught a lesson they will never forget).
Fisky
1 Mar 13 at 10:08 pm
A Moratorium, if you will…
That decade must be utilised to ruthlessly clean out the debased institutions I’ve referred to above.
Then let the arguments/debates begin!
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 10:15 pm
Pretty much. Otherwise it’s a reverse Long March Through The Institutions which, if successful, would take generations and is such a daunting task (to a conservative politician aware of the electoral cycle) that it may never even be attempted. This obviously rules out the possibility of success.
Oh come on
2 Mar 13 at 5:52 am