Comments on: Malcolm Turnbull’s Japanese lesson

By: Charles Richardson

Charles Richardson — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:02:47 +0000

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Michael: I don’t write off the LDP, but I do think its plight is pretty desperate. Sure, it’s been in trouble before, but nothing remotely comparable to this. Parties do sometimes come back from near extinction, but at the very least the LDP is facing some hard questions.

By: AR

AR — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:56:10 +0000

The LDP, like the Menzies clone Howard’s remnants, resemble the Bourbons, they neither forget nor learn. Unfortunately, neither do electorates in the, soi disant, democracies.
PJK parrotted his (alleged) mentor Big jack lang “put yer gelt on self interest, you know it’s trying” - very trying.
The perennial problem for left(ish) governments is that, as soon as their reforms allow hoi polloi to get a couple of zacs to rub together, out goes any thought of equity or redistibution, and the raving BorntoRules come roaring back.
ANyone who’s ever bothered to look at electoral returns, from the early 80s to last week, can see that the Democrats consistently outpolled the Nartionals in the REPS but never had a seat. The Greens, their successors (deservedly after the GST betrayal) have also outpoll the Nats but because of the party list (wot, are we euroids already?) they don’t receive an equivalent representation in the Senate, let alone the Reps.
Anyone who’s observed what a REAL Independent can do, even in the Reps like Peter Andren or Tony Windsor, or the Senate and seen the way people clamourt for the attention of the Xenophons or even, Shaitan help us, the Fieldings, must say to themselves, in the quiet wee hours, “YTF didn’t I, and everyone else who wants their help, VOTE for them last time?”
Maybe NEXT time? Bet a quid they don’t.

By: michael james

michael james — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:39:09 +0000

Funny, other people wrote off the LDP when they lost control of the Diet.

Funny how you neglected to mention that the LDP came roaring back after their opposition made a dreadful fist of their time in government and were summarily voted out by a disenchanted public.

A little history and long term perspective goes a long way with analysis of Japan, something that the pundits here in Australia should consider.

By: Venise Alstergren

Venise Alstergren — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:50:32 +0000

Charles: Thank you for an informative, concise and expert article. Poor old hidebound Oz. Where are the centre-left Parties to form a united front in Australia?
Thanks to our underwhelming interest in politics, we’ve allowed the spirit of Robert Menzies to linger on, long past the conservative party’s use by date. Malcolm Turnbull has shouldered the biggest albatross since the one in the brought in by the wedding guest. This, combined with the man’s total lack of any moral parameters, leaves the electorate without a meaningful opposition.

I’d imagine the odds against a Liberal/National Party Coalition regaining anything close to a winning spot would be on a par with Australia ever becoming a republic.
Not that I’m in favour of the rancid right ever being in power again, not at all. Merely that without an Opposition the Labour Party shows all the desire to become a totalitarian dictatorship. The censorship of the internet is the beginning of the end.