Comments on: John Howard: a political obituary

By: Lev Lafayette

Lev Lafayette — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:08:05 +0000

An accurate assessment. Howard may have had great skill in politics, (as the art of being elected), but history will record him as a person who pandered to bigotry, had a fair degree of it himself, and was prepared to utterly debase any liberal notions of the honesty, the separation of powers, checks and balances etc, in his desire for “radical conservatism”.

By: The manner of his leaving « Larvatus Prodeo in exile

The manner of his leaving « Larvatus Prodeo in exile — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:42:14 +0000

[...] to write some sort of balanced account of John Howard’s career, and I don’t see the need to acknowledge any positives in his contribution to public life, except to say that he appeared gracious in defeat when conceding to McKew. We’re all too [...]

By: steve at the pub

steve at the pub — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:15:31 +0000

Hehe, that may be Fred, though staff numbers are indeed way up, I roughly 20% less bar staff than when Howard came to power.

By: Fred at the bar

Fred at the bar — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:21:45 +0000

“I employ 3-to-4 times the number of people that I did when Howard came to power.”

Yes, I guess more people have started drinking heavily over the past decade.

By: sona

sona — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:04:13 +0000

JS @30: “Economics is vastly over-rated as a tool for improving national welfare. Ecology, biology and technology are far more important.”

What are trying to say? Economics is essentially a study of human behaviour as they interact in the production-consumption-distributionactivities essential since the earliest dawn of human settlement in Mesopotamia.

I have read a few comments from you today. Enough! I am astounded, amazed at your ignorant exhibitionism. I’m off to better pastures – the world is a big place.

By: steve at the pub

steve at the pub — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:44:10 +0000

I employ 3-to-4 times the number of people that I did when Howard came to power.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:42:45 +0000

Howard was very successful in achieving one of his primary aims when he became PM in 1996. He wanted Australian’s to become ‘relaxed and comfortable’. With inflation under control, unemployment at multi-decade lows, interest rates low – we are far more relaxed and comfortable than we were under Keating’s watch.

By: sw’as » The end.

sw’as » The end. — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:52:50 +0000

[...] Quiggin1 posted “John Howard: a political political obituary” which sums up my feelings about the Howard Government very [...]

By: Terje (say tay-a)

Terje (say tay-a) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 13:33:36 +0000

The gun laws went too far. They also demonstrated that competitive federalism is broken in Australia. Like the recent NT intervention in aboriginal communities the gun laws were enacted in an air of crisis with little in the way of real sober public debate. Whilst some people think this is the best way to pass legislation I’m inclined to disagree.

By: jack Strocchi

jack Strocchi — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 02:30:52 +0000

jquiggin Says: December 2nd, 2007 at 9:12 am

ken at #18 is a fine example of post hoc, ergo propter hoc. The economic success of the past 15 years predominantly reflects the fact that we havenâ€™t had a recession. NZ, which reformed even more than we did, had bad macro policy and correspondingly bad outcomes.

On the money. Moreover NZ went further down the New RIght micro-economic reform track, so beloved by Howard and the Scrooges in the LN/P, than we ever did or would do. Their economic results were distinctly underwhelming. We dodged a bullet when Keating did Hewson like toast in 1993, Economics is vastly over-rated as a tool for improving national welfare. Ecology, biology and technology are far more important.