G Khan.  Henry! What? Another Federal election and I have been caught napping?  More to the point I have been trying to work out how to cleanse the waters of my piped water system that gets its supply from the River Murray, what with the alarming possibility that Canberra might take control of this resource.  As water is one thing GK can’t go without, (mainly in its solid form to ameliorate his malt) his distraction ought to be excused.

Last night a debate occurred on Channel Nine between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition together with the WORM. It seems the WORM didn’t like economics or other boring things but came alive when climate change was debated. The WORM is an interesting thing for it reacts before anything is said. How strange.

Andrew Bolt picked this up here and reported “8:29 pm: Rudd opens his mouth to start speaking. Before a syllable comes out – I do not exaggerate-the WORM leaps up in approval.”

GK regards this fact as an indication that the audience was distinctly partisan as well as credulous since this also indicates the existence of the Fuhrer Principle. Remember when GK’s man won over Keating? Then the ALP election motto was “Leadership Matters”. So when the leader speaks, the audience reacts in anticipation. Obviously none of GK’s mates must have been in the audience (such as Gerard Jackson) to balance this worming reaction.

GK also notes much gloating in the UK Newspaper “The Independent” about the PM’s loss to Rudd (65% to 29%) but then the PM lost to Mark Latham in 2004 (67% to 33%) and Beazley (67% to 33%)and where are these august debate winners today? Pensioned off never having been trusted with the helm of the good ship Oz! This also confirms that the lefty journalists still hanging around Channel Nine have no idea about selecting a balanced audience. (And perhaps one reason Nine remains in the TV doldrums).

What concerns GK is this climate change thingy – since he noticed that this activated the worm more than important things like economics. Now it has to be said here that GK is an ignoramus when it comes to the climate-thingy since he has yet to have an accurate weather report from the television, and as he is told that climate is long term weather, then even more cause to be suspicious of it. 

Having asked around, it seems the only way we can meet the "Kyoto challenge" is to wreck our economy. To quote an article in The Oz today “The surest way for a country to reduce greenhouse emissions and accumulate carbon credits is to implement policies which wreck the economy – something at which many former Soviet Union countries excel”.

Now GK is a tad alarmed over this possibility and hopes Henry’s readership, will prefer a vibrant working economy to a wrecked one, and thus vote the PM back in, as well as his guvmint.
 
So GK’s election motto is “Wreck Australia – Vote Rudd!”

K Marx.  Henry, you have disturbed my slumber, and not for the first time.

I have seen a replay of the Great Debate, as you call it, although mercifully without the WORM, as Khan calls it.  Not something used in my day, except to finish the job of hiding the evidence after assassinations.

To my mind, Kevin Rudd trounced John Howard, quite decisively.  They both came to play, that was obvious.  Howard looked under more pressure, and his flashes of temper reminded me of Trotsky when he was under the pump but was unable  for (our sort of) reasons political to order the killing of the offender.

To be sure, "Kevin07", as I am told he prefers to be called, smiled far too much - not a good sign in someone who desires to lead - a scowl, with an occasional wolfish grin, is the preferred facial habit for a serious leader. Kevin seemed relatively unruffled and played better to the audience, except for that Costello fellow who was interjecting from time to time.  In my day he'd have been ejected with extreme prejudice.

No-one who wants to get elected in the modern world can ignore climate change even if he thinks it is all bollocks.  Howard's finest moment came, I thought, when he offered to get his mate George Bush to get his act together on the subject.  This sort of politics I can applaud.  But it is simply nuts to say Kevin Rudd would wreck the economy.  If the ALP bruvvers remember anything it is the years in the wilderness after Gough the Magnificant - as we call him here - did his best to wreck the economy.  Kevin may not be much of an economist, having spent too long on the diplomatic circuit, and the silly grin suggests he drank too much gin in the process.  But he is quite capable of avoiding a train wreck, although if I were him I'd get someone a bit cannier than that nice Mr. Swan onto the case.

Now you have awoken me I shall follow your election with some attention.  Fascinating thing, this democracy.  Fancy thinking about changing a government when the economy is going so well it is wrecking the climate.