January 18, 2004
BACKWARD, HO!
ALP leader Mark Latham is charging boldly into a bright new past. Column by me in today’s Telegraph.
Posted by Tim Blair at January 18, 2004 11:19 PMThe carburettor joke again? Anyway, I reckon that comment will play well with the rev-head Westies Latham promised to deliver.
Posted by: Robert at January 19, 2004 at 01:05 AMWell, it would, if all of them weren't already running fuel-injected turbo WRXs.
And what do you mean, again? John Howard mentioned "comfortable and relaxed" just once, and every lefty columnist in Australia recycled it 40,000 times. By contrast, I think two mentions of Latham's Holley fetish are justified.
Posted by: tim at January 19, 2004 at 01:32 AMI think one mention of a carburettor hardly qualifies as a "fetish".
Posted by: Robert at January 19, 2004 at 02:43 AMThey were twin carburettors, Rob! He's obviously completely obsessed!
Posted by: tim at January 19, 2004 at 03:29 AMMark Latham - Department of Homeland Security, Green Cards - he sound like some sorta USA arselicker.
Posted by: Mike Hunt at January 19, 2004 at 07:44 AMIf Mark Latham was giving a speech about the war in 1914, wouldn't he have made it in Australia's then capital, Melbourne? Old Parliament house wasn't built until 1927.
Posted by: Kerry Nettle at January 19, 2004 at 07:51 AMWhat on earth is wrong with Mr Howard saying "relaxed and comfortable".
Surely, in a time of global structural change and uncertainty, one of the most obvious tasks for a leader is to help a nation's people to adapt to this changing social and financial environment. The most successful way to do this will always be for the people to accept change and be comfortable with it.
If you compare John Howard's approach with Keating's idea of shouting down and abusing anyone who dared question the Keating vision for Australia, Howard's line is always going to be more successful.
Making people "relaxed and comfortable" with change is obvious change management. Why was this comment an issue - except of course for the columnists who long for the days when anyone who said something inconsistent with the Keating line was a "racist" and was denounced as such publicly.
Posted by: john at January 19, 2004 at 08:15 AMWhat on earth is wrong with Mr Howard saying "relaxed and comfortable".
It makes Fairfax readers shiver because they feel its "distracting" the ho polloi from the real issues: reconciliation, republic, refugees, bike paths...and instead, evil Howard is making people focus on living a relaxed and comfortable life.
Bad news for the guilt industry.
Posted by: Quentin George at January 19, 2004 at 04:27 PMI think the Tele has given you the arse, Tim; the link is deader than Mark Latham's election chances.
Posted by: Habib at January 19, 2004 at 10:53 PMThe whole News Ltd system is down, Habib. I've broken it!
Posted by: tim at January 20, 2004 at 12:25 AM