We knew it was going to happen sometime. Shorten has conceded defeat. Turnbull stays on as a weakened PM.
It’s a Delcon win
For Defcons / Delcons this outcome was close to as good as it gets. How could an unfunded, disorganized group vote for “not Turnbull” without handing the government to a Labor-Green group? Individual voters can’t vote for a “hung weak government”. For a whole glorious week Turnbull has been tortured with calls for his resignation with his faults laid out bare. Several Turnbull supporters were targeted and removed. The antithesis of the hard left (Pauline Hanson) has gained a voice. The Nationals grew stronger and the Liberals were punished.
All this, despite the mainstream media barely mentioning Delcons, and hardly ever interviewing minor party candidates (except for Greens). This result was achieved despite GetUP running a $3m dollar campaign* in exactly the opposite direction targeting Abbott supporters.
Sinclair Davidson (and many in the pro-Turnbull camp) are declaring that Abbott would have lost, but they use polls from a year ago, or polls about a man who didn’t campaign to be PM. And we all know how reliable polls are. Turnbull nearly lost the election because he wouldn’t fight on the issues that won Abbott the landslide victory. His judgement was awful and shown to be so. Shorten was a weak opponent. Just say “Rudd-Gillard-Rudd”, mention the boats, and remind everyone Bill voted for the Carbon Tax lie and expensive electricity. A real small government leader would explain that Shorten debt would drive the nation to rack and ruin and risk Medicare. Throwing away Pink Batts- and-windmills-money means less to spend on environment and health. Waste kills.
Abbott could have outgreened the Greens, and campaigned on achieving more for the environment than Gillard did by being so much more efficient at carbon reduction ($12 a ton versus $5310). He could have skewered their fake environmental concerns by pointing out how they always choose the option of big-business and big-bankers rather than the option that achieves more of their “so called” green aims.
How to guarantee Turnbull wins government? Start with a 90 seat majority.
The Delcons want a conservative-small-government government which means getting rid of Turnbull. This election result makes that so much more likely.
In the UK — motherhood becomes another sacred taboo
One of the two women candidates (the Eurosceptic) suggested “having children made her more qualified to be prime minister.” The overreaction to this debatable but fair remark says it all.
The Sunday Times has learnt that as many as 20 Tory MPs are prepared to leave the party if Leadsom is elected leader. Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, is among those tipped to jump ship.
Leading the attack, Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, said other leaders had “never heard of” Leadsom. He called on her to sign a “clean campaign pledge” to end “the slagging match”.
The employment minister Priti Patel, a leading Brexit campaigner, predicted that Leadsom’s “narrow” appeal would not win a general election. “If we are to govern and to lead the country, you’ve got to be able to carry Britain with you. You cannot be divisive at all,” she said.
Having kids is obviously not necessary to be PM, but the abject fear of the childless and the anti-Brexit camp is on display.
*GetUp funding: “since April, 36,155 GetUp members chipped in to fund the nationwide people powered election campaign with an average donation of $81″ That’s $2.9m.
h/t Pat, Analitik.