Promisekeepers.
Have you ever dated someone and they have a when-it’s-the-right-time-rule-book for intimacy? Sadly, once, I did. He was older than me and stated that it would be disrespectful to rush straight in. We were to take it slowly and get to know one another first before we became intimate. I was young and I thought, “Ok, this must be how grown-ups have relationships.” After too many of these slowly, slowly dates I just thought Fuck! – Can I get some disrespect here? Discussions, like the decision, were one sided. Needless to say, by that point I wasn’t too clear if it was less about passion and lust and more about power and control. I found a new date.
I very quickly realised that things that are organic should not have non-organic elements super-imposed.
This is exactly what has happened to the leadership speculation between HoWARd and Costello. Our PM is using his power to control what is a natural dynamic of a group- that being the progression of a new Leadership. He is doing this to the detriment of the wellness within his party and the confidence of the voters. The longer it goes on, the happier I am as it destabilises the coalition’s position and we may finally vote them out. The longer it goes on the more we realise just what sort of a person HoWARd is. And isn’t he looking like nothing more than a mendacious, compulsive excuse-maker.
By the time HoWARd and Costello wrestle through the power and control and the “but you promised”- the voters will cease to care and the electorate will be dating someone new.
July 9th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
That’s pretty deep.
July 9th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
Thanks Benno, it wasn’t meant to be… 🙂
July 9th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Suki:
Well put.
However, this is not about Leadership …… it’s about who is Boss …… and, as we have all found out to our cost, there is a world of difference between the two.
July 10th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Ah, I flicked over to comment on relationships, not politics.
Relationships: if you are saying that the ‘holding off’ issue can be a form of controlling, I agree. And it is pointless in the extreme, especially when compatibility in intimacy is so essential to a quality relationship. Beloved and I started pretty much immediately and have been going strong ever since.
Leadership: who knows with those two, its just bizarre. Murdoch seems to have switched alliegances going by sunday’s herald sun whose front page called Howard a liar.
Gee, as if children overboard et al didn’t prove that yonks ago!
July 10th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I think it worked better with the blue apple underneath the ‘normal’ pear. Even though this makes more sense.
July 10th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Hmmm…
Initially the ‘organic’ apple looked good next to the blue one to symbolise the non-organic. Then I realised I had no fruit to represent Julia Gillard.
Her talents and gough’s endorsement were too good not to symbolise.
July 12th, 2006 at 5:55 am
Suki:
Better hope and pray that Julia Gillard becomes prime minister pretty quickly.
By having this I-wannabe-boss squabble immediately after turning the careers of millions into casual or near-casual jobs, immediately after the sacking of thousands of experienced native-born then replacing them with nominally-skilled foreign personnel, immediately after wrecking social security protection instead of reforming it, the Liberal Party has ensured it will never again be elected to form government. No amount of spin-doctoring, no giveaways to gullible voters, no undertakings or deals, no resolution of ambitions, not even a declaratuion of war (a usually reliable distractor) can save the Liberal Party now. Too much manifest callousness and too many blunders have been loaded on the other side of the fulcrum; this petty tiff – unimportant in itself – has tipped the balance and now the beam is starting to swing down, very slowly at first but it will soon pick up momentum and come crashing down. The Liberals are going the way of United Australia …. goodbye Liberals.
The hangover that follows all the celebrations is that Politics, like Nature, abhors a vacuum …… and there are probably some very nasty people well-prepared to fill as much of that vacuum as they can, as rapidly as they can. Talk of bringing back Pauline Hanson to become prime minister is only wishful thinking as are a lot of other suggestions such as amalgamating Liberals and Nationals.
Julia Gillard …. or Kim Beazley or whoever had better move pretty fast.
July 12th, 2006 at 7:45 am
Agreed Graham.
Every time I hear Beazley actually take a stand on an issue I feel less queasy. As for Julia, sadly I do not believe that the electorate is ready for a female leader…
*sigh*
July 12th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Suki:
My view of events is very limited, very local and probably a fair way away from the median …… but if people are talking about parliamentarians Barnaby Joyce and Bob Katter, former parliamentarian Pauline Hanson, businessman Dick Smith, broadcaster John Laws, coaches “Lethal” Matthews and Wally Lewis, etc., etc., as prime ministers then why would they not be ready for a female leader?
Notice that I repeated your term “leader” because that is what people I know seem to be looking for, and what they clearly feel they have not had over these past few years, not from Howard, Costello, Abbot, Downer, Vale, Truss and quite a few ALP luminaries too …… and that yearning is something that could lead to the emergence of a real leader but not necessarily the type of leader you would want to invite home.
If Julia Gillard wants to make prime minister then she had better strike while the iron is still hot …. and that means right now, before parliament resumes, and before the failed Liberals can recover enough strength to stagger on to a full term. Ever hear of a Gordian Knot and how it was unravelled? (No, no, I’m not suggesting anything illegal …. but a bold stroke or two would be nice).
July 12th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Graham, don’t get me wrong, I am ready for the leadership that Ms Gillard will bring! I am however, under no illusions as to what my fellow Australians think about a female Prime Minister.
In 1986, Janine Haines was the first woman in Australia to lead a political party –That’s only 20 years ago!
Powerful, political women in Australia will need at least another decade before they can be presented to the electorate as a potential Prime Minister.
I’ll have a bit more optimism if I see Hilary Clinton get up in the US…
July 12th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Suki:
Disagree. Change, when it does happen in Australia, happens rapidly and comprehensively. For instance, the uptake of TV, the Pill, cremations, personal computers, live-in partners, etc. (That’s one of the reasons I felt so confident saying that Howard and the Liberals have had it – we’re crying out for change).
NZ has Helen Clarke, Ireland had Mary Robertson ….. so I reckon that we’re long overdue for that change. Pity that neither Janine Haines nor Joan Kirner had a crack at the PM’s job.