By sending our submarine building industry to Japan, Tony Abbott is following in a rich conservative tradition begun by former PM Bob Menzies, writes Rodney E. Lever.
WHICH EVER WAY you look at the whole scenario of the Tony Abbott fiasco, there is still an inevitability about it because no leopard can change its spots.
There was a minor rebellion in the Liberal ranks – perhaps for the first time in their lives – but the major rebellion has been in voters' realisation that Abbott is nothing more than a dumb twat who wouldn't know what day it was if Peta Credlin wasn't there to tell him.
Those Liberal voters who watched in horror as their choice for prime minister finally revealed himself as an incompetent clown were just bit players in the whole exercise, but their response as the truth hit home is the real shock.
Liberal voters tend to be people from families who have always voted Liberal, following the habits of their past generations. They don't often pay too much attention to politics, are quite well off and see the working class as ... well ... the working class, wouldn't you know? After all, they are Labor Party people [sniff].
Liberals are not easily shifted from their basic beliefs that old Bob Menzies was a good fellow and not the kind of man who would turn the top half of our country over to the Japanese if they would allow him to keep the bottom half.
"Pig iron Bob" the Labor party called him because he was selling scrap metal to the Japanese so they could build terrifying weapons for the war they knew was coming.
Now we have Submarine Tony.
From the Labor side, Bill Shorten made the best speech he has ever made and not a word of it came from notes. As an "off the cuff" it was brilliant and he would have gone on longer if Bronwyn had not crudely told him he had to stop because he had "run out of time."
She had the power to allow him to continue for a few minutes more. Imagine if Winston Churchill or Adolf Hitler had been told to shut up!
Perhaps the best speech I've ever seen from @billshortenmp #impressive #auspol http://t.co/XscMO5AWAB
— Yesterday's Hero (@usedtobefamous) February 9, 2015
Robert Macklin, writing for Canberra's City News, has written that Tony Abbott has suddenly become 'Labor's greatest asset' and he is dead right.
Abbott is furiously peddling his road bike straight to the slaughter house.
Macklin also wrote that the Rudd-Gillard battles were at least insider revolts at a time when the Labor Party was going through another of their own internecine squabbles, nothing like the 'rebellion of the people' that Abbott was facing.
You can follow Rodney E. Lever on Twitter @RodneyELever.
Can't help wondering if Turnbull would be any better than Abbott. Multimillionaires never make good leaders and have their own priorities.
— Rodney E Lever (@rodneyelever) February 8, 2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
'Tony Abbott appears to have played Sean Edwards like a trout.' @murpharoo live-blogging Adelaide presser #auspol http://t.co/wAppf4ZSkQ
— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) February 9, 2015
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No words can do justice to @TonyAbbottMHR's despicable desperate Submarine Lie. #auspol #burninhell #bluetiewankers https://t.co/Vdj7AOjwm4
— troppobelle (@troppobelle) February 10, 2015
Sub specialist Peter Briggs outlines the positives of an indigenous submarine program in Aus: http://t.co/IENX0ibsYa pic.twitter.com/EpslU5hG34
— Alex Connolly (@Alex_Connolly) January 24, 2015
Former submarine commanding officer Retired Rear Admiral Peter Briggs weighs in on the debate on @amworldtodaypm. #auspol #saparli
— Natalie Whiting (@Nat_Whiting) February 10, 2015
