Comments on: Kevin Andrews to challenge Malcolm Turnbull

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:39:24 +0000

Update: New thread on Abbott's resignation.

By: Paul Burns

Paul Burns — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:35:25 +0000

Mark @ 135,
No worries mate. The business of history is the interpretation of events of the past on surviving evidence. I don’t believe in The Truth. There’s either too little or too much evidence for an historian to discover it. As for its relevance in prediction – ain’t history’s business. We’re into understanding humanity by a study of the past. Even with military history, where military strategy is assessed by accepted doctrine, eg to not concentrate forces leads to defeat in detail, (eg Greene’s southern campaign in the war of American independence) the doctrine is not necessarily right. ( Ultimately Greene didn’t win many battles, but he laid the groundwork for Cornwallis’s defeat at Yorktown). And if there is one lesson to be learnt from military history, battle plans almost never work out the way commanders envisage them.
All the historian can do, and this applies to politics as well, is discover general trends, which can be applied to the present. The future in unknowable, especially in the day to day antheap of politics. Hell, with all the stress he’s going through (look at his face) Turnbull could die of a heart attack tomorrow. Or he might not.
Who for example would have predicted Abbott’s apparent intention (I haven’t seen the latest news) to resign from the front bench? He seemed to be going the other way.

By: You can wash it down the drain / Or make it your own

You can wash it down the drain / Or make it your own — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:34:35 +0000

No, DI(nr). I always retain a minimum of 15% of my dignity, and falling on my arse in the rhododendrons would have broken the bank at that point.

By: David Irving (no relation)

David Irving (no relation) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:33:18 +0000

(hugs self with excitement)

Unfortunately I missed most of yesterday’s excitement on the 7:30 Report, as I had a prior engagement, but I’m really looking forward to it tonight.

By: You can wash it down the drain / Or make it your own

You can wash it down the drain / Or make it your own — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:32:23 +0000

Harrumph. I did make contact. Though one of his minders put me to shame with a lovely return stab pass. And there was definitely a glimmer of something behind the "get-away-from-me-you-Dockers-supporting-FREAK!!! Don't taint me with your loser germs!!!" expression. A certain crystallisation of a certain steely resolve. Well, iron-rich sphere-y resolve, at least. My chemistry ain't what it used to be.

By: Leinad

Leinad — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:29:05 +0000

Abbot resigns, says it’s a policy not a leadership issue, isn’t clear if Minchin is gone too but both visited Turnbull’s office and called for a delay.

This is a joke. Something is definately up.

By: David Irving (no relation)

David Irving (no relation) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:27:10 +0000

I hope it included an epic prattfall, FDB. That’d really stick in his memory as an inspirational moment.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:27:00 +0000

Abbott has quit.

By: Fine

Fine — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:17:02 +0000

It’s what every PM should stand for, Liam. Especially a Labor one.

By: Liam

Liam — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:15:37 +0000

I bet Rudd remembers the occasion well

Heh.

People ask me in the street, Barrie, where I get my inspiration from. And I tell them, Barrie, I get the strength to lead a Labor Government because a drunk in Melbourne took an airswing at a football. That’s what I stand for…