71 thoughts on “Weekend reflections”

  1. @Megan

    So ‘admitting to having run rough-shod over the electorate’ does not count as saying the government was a bad government? You think it’s possible to say ‘we ran rough-shod over the electorate, but we weren’t a bad government’?

  2. I think it’s possible to admit to having run rough-shod over the electorate, to apologise for that and promise not to do it again if elected in the future.

    I honestly think it is possible to do that.

    It is also possible to include the additional wording you suggest, if someone wanted to add those words. They’re your words, not mine.

  3. J-D

    I see no problem in the ALP admitting it ran rough-shod over its constituency.

    This may be necessary and useful to regain recruitment and to regain focus on the mass of working Australians.

    Your provocations notwithstanding.

  4. @Ivor

    This brings me back precisely to where I began!

    The ALP in Qld, but also in NSW and to a lesser extent federally in 2013, got wiped out at their last elections. They were the government. They initially won government because the citizens were fed up with the LNP. They betrayed, abandoned, sold-out, ‘ran rough-shod’ over the citizens who had voted for them and the citizens who didn’t as well.

    They got wiped out in Qld in 2012 not because the LNP was a great alternative but because the ALP was so bad (I’ve listed some of the reasons above, eg asset sales/privatization).

    The wipe-out was not just the average ebb and flow of electoral discontent – it was a record-breaker. The ALP didn’t win enough seats to technically qualify as the “Opposition”.

    Now, they (and JD) seem to think that behaving as if none of that ever happened and playing the small target would be a better strategy than acknowledging the failings that got the last result, apologizing for them and promising not to do it again.

    In one sense I can understand that strategy. They do not acknowledge that they did anything wrong at all, they are certainly not remorseful and they have no intention whatsoever of doing anything better next time.

    They couldn’t care less about the mass of working Australians.

  5. Yes

    “Small target” electoral/media tactics are a problem.

    “Small target” ALP governments are even worse.

  6. @Megan

    It is obviously possible to say ‘we ran roughshod over the electorate’. I think for any political party to do so would reduce its chances of winning elections in the future.

  7. @Ivor

    If you think that saying ‘we ran roughshod over our constituency’ would help the ALP to gain recruitment, I would like to know what makes you think that.

  8. @Megan

    Now you are attributing to me statements that I did not make. I said nothing about a ‘small target’ strategy.

    However, if you think that ‘acknowledging the failings that got the last result’ (I quote your exact words) would improve the ALP’s chances of winning future Queensland elections, I would like to know what makes you think that.

  10. @Ivor

    If you think that the ALP saying that the ALP ran roughshod over its constituency would help the ALP to gain recruitment, I would like to know what makes you think that.

  11. So Scott Morrison, Minister for Immigration and Border Control, is briefing the national polity on 7.30 Report about the Iraqi gun-running venture as, Andrew Wilkie described it, to the people who are fighting Pres Assad in Syria.

    He is representing the government, but do we have a border with Iraq? Or is domestic political positioning happening, by those who want to replace the hapless Abbott?

  12. J-D :
    @Ivor
    If you think that the ALP saying that the ALP ran roughshod over its constituency would help the ALP to gain recruitment, I would like to know what makes you think that.

    Keating
    Hawke
    Free trade
    Privatisations
    Building and Construction Commission
    Northern Territory Intervention
    Public service efficiency dividends and bargaining
    etc

  13. J-D :
    @Ivor
    If you think that the ALP saying that the ALP ran roughshod over its constituency would help the ALP to gain recruitment, I would like to know what makes you think that.

    Keating
    Hawke
    Free trade
    Privatisations
    Building and Construction Commission
    Northern Territory Intervention
    Public service efficiency dividends and bargaining
    etc

  14. @Ivor

    That is an explanation (or at least a partial one) of what makes you think that the ALP ran roughshod over its constituency, but it does not explain what makes you think that the ALP saying that the ALP ran roughshod over its constituency would help the ALP gain recruitment.

  15. I,am a little surprised that I could not find any comment about the Australian compulsory super, which is just a big fraud set up for the benefit of the 20% of the people as far as income and assets are concerned.

  16. Ikonoclast :I might add, I once bought fruit (for making fruit salad) from one the major supermarkets. I examined each piece of fruit well. It all looked perfect on the outside. I took it with other groceries (overpriced of course) to my elderly parents’ house. They were frail, one had dementia and I knew they were not cooking or eating properly. I made lunch and went to top it off with a healthy fruit salad. EVERY piece of fruit was rotten inside except for a few of the grapes. I had to toss virtually the whole lot out. I was so angry I did not trust myself to go back to the supermarket and make a considered and effective complaint. I simply never shopped there (that chain) again. In fact, I rarely buy fresh fruit except apples.
    Most fresh fruit in Brisbane is garbage. Much of the veg is dubious too. My fresh fruit and veg purchases I now limit to a relatively few varieties of each where I know the quality is passable. I mean does anyone know a good fruit and veg on the Northside? Can’t say I have ever found one myself. Much of Brisbane’s meat leaves a lot to be desired too except for the odd butcher shop that is good. I have travelled and lived in NZ, Canada, UK and much of Europe. Nowhere was the food as bad in Brisbane’s except in Russia. Yes folks, you have to go as far as Russia to find food as bad as Brisbane’s. It’s a disgrace.

    I have worked in the food industry in Europe long ago, what is a problem in Australia that the food inspectors do not do their job.
    I can remember my boss in Europe to offer the food inspector a cup of coffee and some cake; the inspector warned never to make the offer again, otherwise he’ll report him for trying to bribe.
    I’ve lived to long in Australia to know if the Europeans still keep up the standard.
    One problem in Brisbane with fruit is, that anything but tropical fruit has a very short life-span, but that is no excuse for rotten fruit.

  18. @Ivor

    I gather you don’t believe that I’m reading your comments in good faith.

    I find it hard to believe that you’re reading my comments in good faith.

    So how do you suggest the two of us can proceed from that point? or is it an impasse?

  19. Anyone who wants to know why the RDA Act should be set on fire should read about the Rotherham abuse scandal in England.

    It is now absolutely clear that for at least 16 years the left wing media, left wing local council and a compliant police force and welfare agency colluded to allow at least 1,400 mostly white boys and girls to be farmed out for rape and violence by a politically untouchable minority.

    The tiny handful of people who rung the alarm bell early on were invariably accused of racism and undoubtedly an activist Labour appointed judge would have adjudicated likewise.

    The Labour MP for Rotherham explaining in his own words why the children of Rotherham acceptable collateral damage in the Left’s culture of appeasement:

    There was a culture of not wanting to rock the multicultural community boat, if I may put it like that. Perhaps, yes, as a true Guardian reader and liberal Leftie, I suppose I didn’t want to raise that too hard.

    Meanwhile, creepy Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson tells us that it is naughty and racist to call the Islamic State organisation terrorists no matter how many Yazidi heads they cut off; communities they massacre; or women they force into slavery.

    I was rusted on Labor for 40 years but I’ll never vote for the left of centre race traitors again. Since I can’t vote for the Libs either, I think I might put a toenail clipping in the ballot box.

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