Bernard Keane has a pretty good take on the latest machinations on the Pineapple Party, where The Borg has resolutely refused to allow any compromise on the presidency issue, leading some Liberals feeling (correctly) that the whole thing is just a Nationals takeover. He’s also right to highlight the influence of the Santo Santoro faction, who have now transferred their machinations to the Liberal National Party, since they were unable to achieve their aims in the Liberals. That’s very bad news potentially for the merged entity, because that mob are masters of the art of sacrificing electability for self-serving power grabs.
Where Keane’s article isn’t quite so astute is the claim that:
At this point, they may be relying on Nationals intransigence to wreck the deal.
Since Lawrence Springborg knows that he has state Liberal MPs ready and willing to join the Pineapple Party no matter what happens, the dissident Liberals are in a very weak position. It would be very difficult indeed to present a rump Liberal Party as any sort of viable alternative, let alone raise funding. They’d be left with presumably 3 or 4 MPs. It certainly wouldn’t foster the cause of conservative unity, as Keane suggests, but on the other hand, it leaves them with very few options other than to cave in to Springborg’s demands. He’s played a much smarter hand in all this than I’d anticipated.
Off topic here, Mark. If LP do not want some people to comment on some issues, please have the decency to add a “do not bother list” to the bottom of threads, so that those people don’t waste endless amounts of time trying to figure out what is going on.
Ignore BilB, Mark. Some of us are content to lurk and read.
Who are these ‘conservative’ Liberals that would join the new party? Surely they have zero chance of holding their seats against the continuing Liberals?
Not sure what BilB is on about. I’ve noticed that some of his esteemed comments have been getting caught in the spaminator lately. It has a mind of it’s own which is unfathomable. A real person has to go through them and release the false positives, which can delay release for some time. The spam load has been heavier than usual lately and real people do sometimes make mistakes.
Brough has called a meeting for tonight in an effort to delay the National Party takeover of the Queensland Liberals.
Why don’t the Liberals just tie a pretty bow around Liberal Party Headquarters and donate it to the Nationals. After all the Liberal National Executive and the rank and file Queensland Liberals all voted for that and have spent months telling us what a brilliant idea it is.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/brough-seeks-to-delay-merger/2008/07/24/1216492613906.html
The Liberal Party has just decided to postpone the formation of the Pineapple Party.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/24/2313894.htm