Come back John Howard, all is forgiven

You know there are severe problems in the Opposition when the leader of the Liberal Party really wanted to be a Labor Party spokesman just a few years ago. Whose values is he promoting? Does he have any values other than the ambition to rule over us? Which reminds me, wasn't his predecessor once a member of the ALP?

Unless the Libs get their act together real soon, we will have at least a decade of unopposed Labor Party government.

From Andrew Bolt:

MALCOLM Turnbull wanted to become Kim Beazley’s shadow finance minister during the second term of the Howard government.

The Sunday Mail has confirmed Mr Turnbull approached at least six senior ALP figures, including former prime minister Bob Hawke, actively seeking their endorsement to join the ALP at the time of the republic referendum.

Speaking for the first time on the issue, Mr Hawke said Mr Turnbull approached him on November 6, 1999, at Sydney’s Marriott Hotel following the referendum’s defeat…

He said Mr Turnbull told him: “Bob, the only thing I can do now is join the Labor Party."…

Former senior ALP staffer David Britton, who founded the Labor lobbying firm Hawker Britton, said Mr Turnbull told him at the time of the referendum he was “deeply pissed off with Howard” and that he had a “very different social agenda” to the then prime minister.

Mr Turnbull told Mr Britton: “Don’t you think Kim Beazley would like somebody like me as his finance spokesman?”

The Sunday Mail has also confirmed that NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca was also approached by Mr Turnbull around the same time about securing an ALP NSW Senate seat.... Senior Labor figures said Mr Turnbull raised his interest in becoming a Labor MP with then ACTU secretary Bill Kelty as well.

Australian voters have a choice between a Labor leader in change of a united Labor party, or a Labor leader in charge of a naturally divided Liberal one. Which do you think they might think the safer bet?

And what does it say about the Liberals that their confusion over values and social policy should be so profound that even a man with Labor’s values could be chosen to lead it?

The result? The Liberals agree with Labor on the very policy that they should fight hardest - and the one that offered them their best chance of victory. An emissions trading scheme is a giant job-killing new tax that even Labor admits could not lower the world’s temperature by a flicker. Why on earth agree to something so stupid?

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