photo credit: Hengest

He’s almost as persistent as his nemesis, John Howard…

PETER COSTELLO will be forced to declare his political intentions by early April, ending months of speculation about the former federal treasurer’s future.

Supporters of Mr Costello are urging him to fight for his seat at the next federal election, saying the Liberal Party needs him more than ever as Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull fails to make headway in the opinion polls.

via Costello tipped to run for seat again – National – smh.com.au.

Is it really possible that he would wait for Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership to crash? There is actually no  firm evidence that Turnbull’s leadership is in real trouble but surely Costello is not seriously thinking that he’ll hang around just in case. And surely the Liberal Party isn’t seriously considering Costello as a leader of the future?

Well, according to this article perhaps he is and they are.

It seems Costello doesn’t get it. He had his moment and he missed it. He trots out this line about not wanting to damage the party – well, that’s already happened. Howard damaged it (and Costello let him) and now the leadership speculation of the last 12 months is damaging the party too.

He doesn’t seem to understand that his time has come and gone. And the only real explanation for his behaviour must surely be payback. He’s enjoying his role as a thorn in the side of the parliamentary party and he’s enjoying making some of the Howardites of the party sweat. Well that’s all well and good, but the time for action was about 18 months ago and he didn’t have the guts then.

So he appears to be back to the old modus operandi of wait and wait and wait. The only problem with this is, like the last time, the time will never come.

photo credit: whoohoo120

Jetsetter PM is losing points with voters

By Sharri Markson

September 21, 2008 12:01am

Rumblings of discontent can be heard across the nation as grumpy voters begin protesting about the extraordinary amount of time the Prime Minister spends abroad.

Jetsetter PM is losing points with voters | NEWS.com.au.

Dear Sharri seems to be making up the news now. There is absolutely no evidence presented in this article that the PM is losing points with voters. Perhaps some friends of Sharri mentioned it to her? Who knows? It’s just another case of News journalists making up the news.

The only source of dissent around the PMs travel has been the opposition leader. Well, what a surprise that he’d be making something of it. It seems that Sharri lacks the capacity for independent thought and so is just parrotting some press release from the opposition.

There is absolutely no evidence presented in the article. If she has it, why didn’t she show it? It’s because she has pulled this piece out of somewhere that the sun don’t shine.

Yet again, the standard of journalism at the Daily Telegraph reaches now lows.

I suggest perhaps Sharri wait for a poll that shows some evidence of disatisfaction with the PMs travel – then she might have an article. At the moment though, she’s making it up as she goes along.