On December 2, 2003, Mark Latham defeated Kim Beazley for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party.
9 Responses to “Lest we forget”
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Yes,indeed, let’s not forget. Mark Latham wasn’t a God-botherer; we wouldn’t want a leader like that. Latham had a policy on urban planning: no other party has – in the most urbanised society on Earth. Latham wasn’t a mealy-mouthed ponce who thinks he’s a wunderkind. Let’s remember that Latham resembled too closely that generation past who made all the good things we enjoy today but are rapidly disipating in our laziness and smugness.
Let us not forget that we are the most gutless and unadventurous bunch of conservatives on the planet, with politicians of a type few Western countries would tolerate. Let us not forget that we want mediocrity in all things, especially our politics.
Let us not forget how smug we are in our mediocrity making lest-we-forget remarks about a man who, despite his shortcomings, would have diverted us from the road to Hell we’re travelling as a nation.
Good on you Brett, you’re a breath of fresh air. I liked and respected Latham and I still do.
I don’t know why; I can’t give some academically acceptable list of reasons. Perhaps you said it best in your comment.
Finally. Some people stand up for Latham.
Latham promised something NEW, something different in a political world where mediocrity is the highest prize and where the future is less important than interest rates. He had a VISION for this country, beyond simply white picket fences; he promised to reform education, health, and social welfare in ways that we desperately need. The fact that the man himself displayed questionable tendencies doesn’t detract from his message. And now we have Beazley and Rudd, both squabbling to see who can be most like John Howard. If I wanted to vote for Johnny, I’d vote for the real thing, not some pale caricature on a Labor ticket.
I was wondering how much Latham’s illness affected the last election campaign. Having been in hospital for two weeks before the start, made him look weak. Not suggesting that the ALP would have won, but the result might have been closer if didn’t get sick.
It was only afterwards we learned that he was full of acid (both physically and in the head).
Yeah, I really liked Latham too.
oh come on guys Latho was a eco rationalist psycho killer – the best thing he did was shaft Beasley
I heartily concur with most of the above. Saying anything positive about Latham is considered tantamount to chopping down the Tree of Truth nowadays, but I can’t change what I felt when he was elected: this is it – finally, a new, exciting leader with a lot of great ideas and the potential to transform the electorate. Many of the valid complaints he has since made about the internal workings of politics and political parties, distorted by bitterness though they were, remain unexamined, even though they are the sorts of things that will continue to alienate potential MPs and leaders until they are addressed. It’s not any great love for Howard or any great hate for Beazley that has stymied change – as Latham put it, it’s the `cool anger’ the wider public feels for organised politics. It’s that anger – moreover, that feeling of powerlessness – which is the real enemy of progressive politics.
On the week that followed Latham’s win, applications to join the ALP rose markedly. People suddenly had hope for the party – they were actually excited about what a Labor Government could achieve.
None of the problems were caused by defeating Beazley, and he hasn’t done better with his second chance. He’s got to go.
The only (tenuous) link between Latham and Rudd’s challenges is that they, um, challenged for leadership of the party.
Rudd is about as straight, polite and controlled as anyone could be.
Besides, as parsed at mine, it could well be just a strategic plan to knife him after the likely loss next year and put Gillard in. For at least some of the ‘Rudd’ backers…