Fun with the Pollies

No doubt there are Australians who are deeply distressed by the present side-show involving Tony Abbott. For the sake of those in other countries who have no idea who he is, he is a deeply Conservative politician who was by one vote elected to lead the coalition of right-wing parties in the lower house of the Australian parliament when it was in opposition. By dint of the relentless repetition of childish slogans opposing in particular the carbon tax put in place to lower polution ('this great big tax') and assisted by the insanely self-destructive behaviour of the Labor government, he brought the Liberals (the Conbservatives in Australia call temselves Liberals, a misnomer if ever there was one) to power. Since then he has proved beyond doubt the old adage, 'How could we know he couldn't govern if he hadn't been elected.' He has proved certainly the most inept political leader any Australian political party has ever had, and within the past week (I write on 29 Januatry 2015) has by simple stupidity and stumbling brought himself to a position from which some commentators find it difficult to believe that he can survive.
But the point I wanted to make is - to repeat myself - that no doubt there are Australias who are deeply distressed by all this: certainly this will include members of the Liberal party, faced with the fact that the only way in which they can make ground would be to swallow their pride and dismiss Abbott in favour of Malcolm Turnbull, a more liberal Conservative (for that reason hated by the right wing of his party). Replacing him with those cronies who have pressed their noses firmly against his bottom for the past year simply will not solve the problem. But apart from members of the Coalition, I imagine that serious political commentators and philosophers who actually care about the country and wish to see it well governed (by whichever party) wil be seriously worried by the present state of affairs.
Unlike the rest of us, for whom this is - short of Punch and Judy -  the best free farce we have been able to enjoy for years.