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Samizdata quote of the day “The fluffy stuff you put in your roof for rats to urinate on.”
– Matthew Paris quotes Australian Shadow Finance Minister Barnaby Joyce‘s description of loft insulation. Paris says that politics throughout the West is moving towards the uncouth right. Mr Turnbull’s fate has made him, he says, “shudder”.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
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As opposed to eloquent Left wing totalitarians? Turnbull has ended up where he is because he joined the wrong party.
I think we’re probably dealing almost entirely with cultural differences between Britain and Australia/New Zealand here.
Having moved from New Zealand to London I was continually staggered at how upset people get in Britain at public figures who say even the mildest of offensive things. The constant demands for grovelling apologies and resignations is never-ending.
Australians and New Zealanders simply don’t care as much about this sort of stuff. People don’t care as much if what they say offends others. And the others don’t seem to take as much offense as they do in Britain. Long may it stay that way.
Turnbull has ended up where he is because he joined the wrong party.
And he did belong in the party of Paul Keating?
I think I am with MarkMark on this. Australian politics has always been uncouth in this way. The aforementioned Keating was to the gloriously creative and breathtakingly rude parliamentary insult what Shane Warne was to legspin bowling.
It’s not just politics, too. Some (British) friends of mine now work for the London office of a large Australian financial institution. They were appalled recently when they went to a meeting in which a senior (Australian) analyst told the global head of research (also Australian) to “fuck off” in the middle of the meeting. No offence was meant or taken. In the context it was used, the phrase translated as something like “I disagree mildly with what you just said”.
Labor is no longer the party of Paul Keating. They’re not the workers’ friend, the reformers, the champions of the environment (if they ever were) or progressive. The Labor party under Rudd is a focus group managed team of grey bureaucrats, entwining themselves into every aspect of everyone’s life, while swanning around, spinning furiously, but allowing just enough time to get their snouts in the trough.
Turnbull – I just don’t understand the man. He appears to be some kind of champagne socialist who has been sucked in by the fraud of catastrphic climate change. He won’t do a Howard – and Labor wouldn’t have him now. Game over for him I think.
Being called uncough by Matthew Paris means there is still hope for the Right in Australia; unlike in Britain.
I think the most perceptive sentence in the essay is: “The interesting question for Britain is not whether a Labour Government can survive the drift — it can’t — but whether Mr Cameron’s new Conservative Party can.” Indeed. This will be interesting to watch.
I wonder if he’s talking about the blown recycled newsprint that I have two feet of in each of my attics.
1. That’s why I specified boric acid (aka roach pruf)treated. Fire retardant AND most certainly non-rodent friendly.
2. Squirrels and chipmunks, but NO rats where I live now. Some moonlighting musician got rid of them ALL.
Haven’t seen the kids in a while though.