Tony Abbott today pointed to the premiere of the ABC's The Hollowmen as an indication of how the Rudd Government has performed in its first year in office. 

Mr Abbott was sentimental about the Howard legacy and quoted Margaret Thatcher as he spoke of his plans for a new book, to be released next year under the working title Conservatism After Howard, outlining his ideas for what he calls 'evolutionary conservatism'.

He said the book would not examine the entrails of the Liberal party in the wake of its electoral defeat last November. 

Rather, it would concentrate on issues such as climate change and a referendum to give the Federal Government more power over the states, as outlined in today's Herald.

He said it is important for the party to have a conversation about what it stands for and present an alternative to what he described as the Rudd Government's 'lack of substance'.

'I just thought The Hollowmen ... no one would have got it 12 months ago because the Howard Government didn't work like that,' he said. 'No Howard Government ministerial office was recognisable in the caricature we saw last night' 

Abbott cashes in on Hollowmen 

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Gus: I nearly fell off my perch!!! ''No Howard Government ministerial office was recognisable in the caricature we saw last night'. Sure Tony, there was only one big Hollowman in the Howard Government —Hollow Howardman himself — and all the others were hanging on to his skirts too frightened to say boo. And to mention the Rudd Government's 'lack of substance'? Brother! In less than six months, Rudd has done more on anything that Howard did in 11 years apart from hitting us on the head with some useless wars, the pestilence of the GST and the rape of working conditions... The collapse of the share market has been the result of Howard, Blair and especially their mate Bush's carelessness across board. Now we're paying for it.
Go back into your little hole... 'Evolutionary conservatism'? A vision of a cemetery from which wandering zombies rise from the graves to take over the night, would be less of a nightmare...