Comments on: “Are you having a laugh?”

By: Darlene

Darlene — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 05:17:49 +0000

Tony, I guess John’s just a member of the mob now.

By: Mindy

Mindy — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:13:56 +0000

Of course the catch with being a hermit was that your employment contract lasted for 7 years and you only got paid at the end of it. How’s that for an AWA?

By: Tony D

Tony D — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:59:38 +0000

He Who Shall Never Be Named Again = The Ex-Politician (Formerly Known As Howard)

Boom, boom.

FDB is spot on re Rudd’s performance. The other option is to keep him to sound-bites only, let Julia do the talking and then hope no-one notices. Better Rudd speech writing is essential either way.

By: FDB

FDB — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:52:35 +0000

“By our gravity do we rise and by our levity do we fall, FDB.”

Well I must say I’m surprised to hear that from you Anthony. A lovely arse-about metaphor though, which (perhaps unwittingly, or are you 2 steps ahead of me again?) makes the point I was trying to nicely. I don’t need fucking knock-knock gags, just exactly this sort of pithiness.

By: Paul Burns

Paul Burns — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:42:24 +0000

Trouble with these ornanental 18c hermits, they were paid reasonably well as well as paid in kind with food.
Now I’d be prepared to employ Mr. and Mrs. They Who Shall Never Be Named Again so long as they were prepared to sign a collective agreement and undertake to sue me for unfair dismissal if they ever got sacked. I would be prepared to accept them as volunteers, but they would never be so humiliated as to be asked to Work for the Dole. Nor would I breach their Centrelink payments if I had to sack them because of their attitudinal problems to taking orders.If any of this is contradictory, who cares?

By: anthony

anthony — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:22:19 +0000

By our gravity do we rise and by our levity do we fall, FDB.

That said, classic PJK on the news last night with some stunning emplyment of comic timing

“Do you feel any sympathy for the PM?”

PJK:

[looks down,

ponders for a moment,

flexes mouth]

No.

By: FDB

FDB — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:15:47 +0000

I was stoked to the max with the win, then 2 minutes into Kev’s speech I was heckling the projector screen.

I had to wait 15 minutes for a single frickin joke. The man is desperately in need of writers and an acting coach. It probably doesn’t really matter in the washup after the election (although a good time to start), but I hope it gets sorted soon. I’ve been waiting since PJK for a PM who’s actually engaging to hear talking.

By: Darlene

Darlene — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:55:51 +0000

Audrey Apple (using her presumably real name of Clementine Ford) has written an article for The Sunday Mail about Gen Y and Kev. She argues in part (alas, it’s not available online) that:

If you happen upon a successions of horrendously hungover young folk today, drowning in pools of their own despair, chances are that Australia remains under the cold, hard thumb of Howard. If this is the case, expect a mass exodus quick smart as my amigos and I make good on our promises to hightail it straight to New Zealand, applications for citizenship firmly in hand.

Yeah, we pretty much hate living under a Coalition government.

“Mr and Mrs Howard could be employed by the Federal Government on behalf of the people of Australia to live out the rest of their lives at Kirribilli House as hermits.”

Tee hee, not a bad idea, Katz.

By: Paul Burns

Paul Burns — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:04:11 +0000

And I agree with trigtog and Darlene. I get all mixed up here sometimes.

By: Katz

Katz — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:03:20 +0000

Several owners of great estates in 18th century England employed “Ornamental Hermits”

According to one devotee of Ornamental eccetrics, “[n]othing … could give such delight to the eye, as the spectacle of an aged person, with a long grey beard, and a goatish rough robe, doddering about amongst the discomforts and pleasures of Nature.”

Ornamental Hermits were employed to evoke in the minds of persons who gathered to view them a sense of strangeness and otherness, and a sense of the passage of time and the mutability of culture since time immemorial.

I mention this interesting fact because I believe that Mr Rudd has an opportunity to establish a very educational hermitage at Kirribilli House. Mr and Mrs Howard could be employed by the Federal Government on behalf of the people of Australia to live out the rest of their lives at Kirribilli House as hermits.

Visitors to the Kirribilli Hermitage could foregather around the windows of the mansion and witness the antic behaviour of its quaint denizens as they played out the archaic rituals of a long dead world.

And Mr and Mrs Howard can go on living in their happiest place.

By: Paul Burns

Paul Burns — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:02:15 +0000

Ah, EC. Now its our kids and grandchildrens’ turn, and if last Saturday or the campaign against Hanson when she first emerged are anything to go by, they’re going to make us mighty proud. One of the main reasons Howard lost was because the kids didn’t want him. And his nasty little attempt to disenfranchise them didn’t work.
And, while I’m critcal of Rudd, I agree with Karz. Batter any Labor PM than more of He Who Shall never Be Named Again.

By: tigtog

tigtog — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:44:22 +0000

Too true, Darlene. I’d rather he is who he is and has seen off Howard, than be the radical force for social justice who could never have got the LibNats out of government. It’s not ideal, but it’s a lot better than the alternative.

By: Darlene

Darlene — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:11:14 +0000

Ahh, but the trouble is that Rudd has to appeal to “all” (all Australians, where have we heard that before?). If Rudd was radical enough for our tastes, he never would have won.

By: tigtog

tigtog — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:20:50 +0000

Goodness, Sam – it wasn’t that bad. Pedestrian and cliched? Sure. Arrogant and insincere? No: just somewhat uncharismatic, which while a bit disappointing is far from the worst thing in the world. I’m with Mercurius, he needs to stick to the script from some decent speechwriters.

The nods to Bernie Banton and the union movement both got a huge cheer at the pub I was in. Unprincipled? I very much doubt it. Rudd knows exactly what he owes the unions and made sure they got their mention, and Banton deserved acknowledgement and got it as well.

Sure, Rudd isn’t radical enough for my tastes, but we knew that a year ago. There are still some genuine leftie voices in the party – we’ll just have to see how they manage to make themselves heard.

By: sam

sam — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:32:37 +0000

I agree with Tony #48. Rudd’s speech was absolutely awful. The brief happiness one felt after seeing Howard outed, both as PM and in his seat, came to a crashing halt very quickly as soon as Rudd took to the podium. So, this is what Australia’s future looks like: Rudd’s arrogance, cliches, and complete lack of sincerity? He did much to confirm in those brief few minutes why many of us did not want him as prime minister. It was absolutely disgusting that he had the hide to mention Bernie Banton, and once again shows his complete lack of principles.

And now we have Julia Gillard being described in today’s press as the left’s conscience in government?

God help us all.