Comments on: Richard Farmer’s political bite-sized meaty chunks

By: Michael de Angelos

Michael de Angelos — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Sad news about Alan Ramsey retiring-love or loathe him, he was required reading and brought us a unique view from Canberra. With his going and the sacking of Mike Carlton, both no doubt replaced by lightweights, Saturday’s SMH must have a death wish.

By: David

David — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Rudd must now bite the bullett and promote Lindsay Tanner to the Treasurers position. He gave Swan a chance and while there was an improvement in his performance it was slight. Wayne Swan is probably a decent nice enough bloke, but he just doesnt have it in him to go for the jugular and kick the bastards in the slats. Nice blokes dont usually make for successful pollies, Kim Beasley came close but his nice guy, warm personality beat him finally. Tanner has the mongrel in him and a nice sense of humour to boot, Swanee sadly a comedian is not. The longer Rudd takes to make a change, the more the Opposition will score off the Treasurer. 2010 looked to be a cakewalk for the Government, it could be a lot tougher given the change in playing surface. The PM is not making life any easier for his leading Ministers by continually playing the heavy, he just can’t help himself with a comment here, an announcement there, let them get on with it Kev, noone likes a one man band. If the PM must supervise and beat the drum he should start with banging Communication Minister Conroys tom toms. His communication skills have nothing in common with his portfolio.

By: David Sanderson

David Sanderson — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Alan Ramsay was often worth reading and equally could be a tiresome old curmudgeon. He lost a lot of credibility when he backed Mark Latham so strongly. He let his wholly understandable disdain for John Howard get the better of him and lead him into an unbalanced idealisation of Labor’s most spectacular failure.

By: Valerie Pitty

Valerie Pitty — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I wish you could induce both Alan Ramsay and Mark Carlton to write occasionally for Crikey. These two used to make my Saturday reading really worthwhile.