…is out today. Details here. I’ve received a copy in the mail, and I’ll have a review posted in due course. But in the meantime, there’s some good news for psephological junkies feeling deprived by the absence of The Poll Bludger’s electorate maps. His very spiffy booth by booth 2004 swing and 2PP maps are on the Crikey election website for selected seats. There’s detailed commentary on key marginal seats and a couple of useful guides to the field of play in the House of Reps - an electoral pendulum and matrix.
Disclaimer: Though it’s well known that I write for Crikey, I don’t have anything to gain from people spending their twenty bucks on the election book. Nor will my review be quibble-free, though my overall view is that it’s a great read and an invaluable resource.
Probably good for people to remember that Christian Kerr, the author, has a background as a liberal advisor. He seems , like many, to have a real ‘thang’ about The Greens. He suggested, at one stage, that they were picking on The Exclusive Brethren.
He’s the editor, not the author, joe2, and the commentary is pretty much uncontroversial and not slanted noticeably. The idea of the book really is to be a resource and to stimulate debate rather than an extended op/ed style of analysis. Does that make sense?
Fair enough Mark. He is the editor and not the author.
It is still important for people to realise that it is possible he may not be a fair and balanced reporter on matters that he speaks about, due to previous employment and interest.
Just sayin’
Past may be past re Crazy Chris but just listen to, or read him, on anything even vaguely green hued - he takes leave of his senses. Which is odd because in other areas his analysis is usually good.
There’s something about thatcher’s children,across the angloshere (in amerika they were raygun’s “pop’n'fresh” airheads)-it’s as if they grew up really eager to be Gordon Gecko but by the time they had pubic or facial hair and out of school, their lusted after moment was gone and they are bitterly resentful, constantly toasting the ‘king/queen over the water’.
I’d agree his analysis of the Greens isn’t among his best writing.
There’s a distinction that’s interesting here, I think. People like the punditariat at the Government Gazette assert that they’re objective because of their professional journalistic credentials and the fact that they write for a newspaper, whereas people who write for new media tend to be upfront about their politics (and Kerr’s past employment is mentioned in the contributors’ bio section). But I know which analysis I’d put more faith in!
Bah, I go to buy the damn book and actually pay for something from Crikey for a change, and they don’t accept paypal!
Yeah, paypal is evil, but it’s life when one is trying to shop online without a credit card.
You should get a visa debit card, Kieran. It’d make your online shopping an awful lot easier.
Yeah, have applied.
The book is a surprise - a blog turns to ol fashioned paper.
But most of all it is a disappointment. Only Peter Brent’s chapter comes close to being entertaining or informative. (And Cornwall’s cartoons of course).
So much of the rest is written with cursor fever: instantly dated, often contradictory speculation, then padded out, eg, with curious (but irrelevant) anecdotes from old pollies. My other beef is with the way ideas are routinely taken from others without attribution.
The old Mackerras guides had a purpose: raw data, unavailable elsewhere. This ‘guide’ doesn’t even properly explain the state of the Senate.
Maybe it doesn’t have to since Antony Green and Pollbludger’s inestimable charts and seat by seat analyses are available online, including through crikey.com
I disagree, Graeme - I really enjoyed Mungo McCallum and Richard Farmer’s chapters as well. And I think your expectations for what an insta-book can deliver in terms of commentary (consider the likely lag between final copy and publication) are unrealistic.