http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/18169

Last week's results in the United Kingdom's local government elections saw the return of Conservative Boris Johnson as mayor of London.

But Johnson's triumph over rival Ken Livingstone was an anomalous result on a day in which Labour inflicted electoral carnage on the Tories and their coalition partners in national government, the Liberal Democrats. 

On every side, the prime ministership of David Cameron is now in deserved trouble. The economic strategy of shock doctrine austerity is failing, as the UK is now officially in double-dip recession.

The social bargain that Conservatives must always sell to an electorate is that the perpetuation of privilege should be accepted so long as it is associated with wider stability and security, and a rising middle class. This is the deal that Cameron's government is manifestly failing to honour.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3995902.html?WT.svl=theDrum

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The problem is weird... At least in Pommyland the conservative bozzos have "made a mess of the economy" and the public is prepared to "punish" them... In Australia, the economy under Labor is coasting along at 3 per cent growth and no-one is really worse off as incomes have increased in comparison to the cost of living by more than 200 (adjusted) dollars since the days of the previous conservative bozzos government (the Howard years). 

But the people are prepared to believe Tonicchio, a conservative bozzo, a liar extraordinaire, can do better because the MEDIA, mostly under the influence of Uncle Rupe, told them so... Look, Abbott would repeal all the gains made the Labor government in most social areas and then plunge a deft hand in people's pocket by introducing "industrial laws akin to slavery. Climate change policies would be like a smoke and mirror conjuring trick, and the miners would dig faster and faster without any benefit for this country... But most of Australians are masochists, as prescribed by the press.

Now you know...

WESTPAC'S chief executive, Gail Kelly, has urged her fellow business leaders to be prepared to work with Julia Gillard and to put aside the combative approach to policy debate which has been dogging the minority Labor government.

The powerful banking boss also gave an endorsement of the Prime Minister's attempt to reach out to business, even in the face of intense and sometimes bitter criticism over issues ranging from the carbon tax and the rush to deliver a surplus.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/hands-off-julia-gillard-says-westpac-boss-20120507-1y954.html

“A jacket that rides up and creases between the shoulder blades is worse than no jacket at all,” she wrote. The consequence of such an ill-fitting garment, she suggested, could be loss of government: “If Labour [sic] is not to be annihilated in the next election, something has to give… I think Australians are big enough to cope with the sight of their female Prime Minister in shirt-sleeves.”

Really? Do we care that much, if at all? Do we think it has not occurred to Gillard that people notice what she wears? I hadn’t spent a second thinking about her jackets before Greer brought it up: I was more worried about the HSU and the carbon tax. Surely it is more relevant to wonder if Australians are big enough to cope with the sight of a woman in power. Not the sight of her backside.

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/germaine-you-broke-our-hearts-20120508-1yaci.html

We expect better from Greer but then she's become an old bitter bag, unfortunately...