Richard Flanagan puts his typical over-the-top slant on the downfall of John Howard:
Howard had promised that Australia would be relaxed and comfortable under his rule, yet this year Australians had become more fearful and suspicious of each other than ever, a state of affairs that Howard's government seemed happy to exploit.Er, well with all the water gardening murders going on, it's no wonder:
Every mainland capital city now has a water supply crisis so severe that people have been murdered by neighbours for watering gardens.I think the number of people is precisely "one", isn't it?
Actually, as far as Flanaghan columns go, this one is surprising for actually giving credit that some things he approves of happened under Howard. (Increased immigration, closer ties to Asia, gun laws, the Timor intervention.) Of course, Richard seems to think these happened despite of Howard, not because of him.
Then its back to the bad:
For a decade Howard's power had resided in his ability to speak directly and powerfully to the great negativity at the core of the Australian soul - its timidity, its conformity, its fear of other people and new ideas, its colonial desire to ape rather than lead, its shame that sometimes seems close to a terror of the uniqueness of its land and people.Yeah, that fits in real well with the list of things you just approved of, doesn't it, you dill.
As you would expect, the big worry for Richard is that Rudd is Howard lite:
Was this Howard's greatest victory: the creation of a Labor party in his own image?He might be onto something there.
Of course, you can rely on Guardian readers to join in soon with their own horror stories of the True Character of Australia. There aren't many comments yet, but I like this one:
People evaporated off the street.
That must account for the slightly greasy smudges left all across Australian city footpaths. It's all that remains of the evaporated.
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