Let me be quite clear here. I suspect that Anthony Albanese has been a useful idiot to many in the media over the past dozen or so years…

I probably should define “useful idiot” so that you don’t automatically think that I think that I’m somehow brighter than Albo who, after all, did actually make it the office of PM. 

Then again I could just use the definition from Wikipedia which is a useful tool for tools who want to do their own research but can’t be bothered to find more than one or two things on the Internet…

Here we go:

“A useful idiot or useful fool is a pejorative description of a person, suggesting that the person thinks they are fighting for a cause without fully comprehending the consequences of their actions, and who does not realize they are being

manipulated by the cause’s leaders or by other political players.”

Now, I’m not as hostile as this may sound. Normally, I actually will give credit where credit is due, but I don’t have time for that now because I’ve already “personsplained” useful idiot… I would have said “mansplained” but I’m not the sort of person who uses sexist language where I can help it…

Anyway, I suspect that Albo had the odd catch-up with the odd journalist and gave them the odd titbit and they were thankful and he thought that they were on his side and when they wrote the odd story about the odd thing or two that was hostile to the Labor government, he thought that they just helping him to get the leadership and, later on, when they were doing it to his government, they were just doing their job and deep down they still liked him and they were still going to basically support him because, well, he’s not Scottnofriends Morrison…

And yes, well, we did run that story about you buying a house and how dare you buy a house when people like Peter Dutton are struggling to buy another one for their investment portfolio and… any tips for a journalist like me? But we’re still friends, aren’t we? 

So when it was leaked that he told the Cabinet that he thought that News Corp was out to get Labor, we can only consider three possible scenarios:

1. It was a shot across the bows and a warning to his mates in the media that this would be the last leak they’d get from him.
2. Someone else leaked it in the hope that it would make him sound out of touch and he’d be guaranteed to lose the next election, leaving the Deputy to take over the task of leaking to the media.
3. It was a surprise to him which means that he is no longer a useful idiot because anyone that stupid couldn’t be relied upon to be useful.

Whichever, that’s not all that important. The basic problem is that no matter which of those scenarios is true, we’re still at the point where we need to stop reacting emotionally and start thinking about what we want to happen…

All of which brings me to the bleedin’ obvious… 

Now when it comes to Dutton’s new, clear plan (which is very clear), as opposed to his nuclear plan (which isn’t), there’s a lot of stuff out there on what’s wrong and what’s right and who’s independent and who’s doing stuff for free because that just shows how independent one is and how government bodies can’t be considered independent and my modelling is better than you’re modelling and…

I’m just going to put this out there and ask a couple of simple questions…

If I were going to go to an election and try to establish nuclear in this country, I’d try to stick with something simple. I mean, the Liberals have said that they’re “agnostic” when it comes to energy, but I guess that’s a religion and it means we can’t protest when they go to pray at the shrine of Gina…

Notwithstanding that, if I were the Oppositon Leader, I’d say that I think that nuclear is a great option and what I’ll do – if elected – is repeal the ban and let the market take over… If it seems a little too risky for private capital, then I’ll underwrite any sensible proposals as I’d do for any sensible proposal and we need to look at everything… 

Question 1: Why not do this instead of committing to a proposal that is so controversial? It’s a lot easier to sound sensible if you’re not bagging anyone who disagrees with you as having an agenda or lacking objectivity.

Question 2: Why are Labor trying to argue against Dutton’s proposal instead of simply saying this seems reasonable in the long term, but in the short term we need to do what we’re doing because nothing that P.Duddy is going to bring down prices before 2035 even if we accept all they’re most optimistic scenarios and presume that it’ll be built sooner than the carpark in Josh’s electorate…

Of course, when I say “Josh’s electorate” I mean that one that he used to own before it was stolen and for some reason, the police couldn’t press charges, even though the thief was flaunting her ill-gotten gain in Parliament…

sigh<