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Continuity AND Change, Tradition AND Innovation, Incompetence AND Malcolm Turnbull

Ya gotta wonder!

Years ago, at someone else’s (OK, my ex-wife, but people get upset when I mention my ex-wife so I’m just going to say “someone” and hope nobody asks who) insistence I watched the first episode of an Australian soap called “Chances”. When it was over, she said that it seemed better than your average soap. I didn’t agree, but I said nothing. Anyway, we started watching it on a regular basis. By week four, she no longer wanted to watch it, but I was hooked. Each week had managed to hit a new low in television writing, and I was of the belief that they couldn’t do worse. Each week, they’d proved me wrong. Surely, week five couldn’t deliver something worse.

Ah, it did!

In the end, I couldn’t decide whether the writers were doing some sort of limbo – “how long can we go?”! Or whether they were using the money for drugs and alcohol and with each passing week, they were consuming more substances and deciding that they might as well turn something in and have one more party before they were sacked, but unfortunately nobody actually bothered to read the script before they started shooting.

What’s this got to do with “continuity and change”?

Well, I guess most of you heard that the Liberals “continuity and change”…

Hey, remember when we hoped that Turnbull would replace the three word slogan? No? Neither do I!

Anyway, I guess most of you heard that the Liberals “continuity and change” was stolen from “Veep” – a comedy starring Julia Dreyfus – about the US Vice President.

To be fair, she does say “change with continuity” while the Liberals used the word “and”, so any suggestion that their speech writers were guilty of plagiarism can be defended on the grounds that only two thirds of it was plagiarised.

However, the question for me is simple: Are the people who write the Liberals three word slogans like the writers of “Chances”? Are they just seeing what they can get away with?

But I guess that for others the questions will be such silly ones as:

1. Did the talking point writers know what they were doing in stealing from a TV show, or where they like Scott Morrison and just out of the loop?
2. Will Tony Abbott claim credit for the fact that Turnbull is just a continuation of his three word slogans, prompting Mr. Turnbull to tell us that his three word slogan has no verb, leading to many expressing the view that similarly, Malcolm lacks “doing words”?
3. Will the next thing be to borrow Obama’s election slogan of “Change you can believe in” and turn it into “Continuity you can believe in”? Or will they try: “Change we don’t believe in”. Or better yet: “Climate change we don’t believe has continuity”. Before finally settling on “Continuity you can’t believe in”…
4. Will the writers of “VEEP” sue the Liberals for a copyright infringement, or will they be happy just to steal ideas from them for future programs?

Whatever, there’s never been a more exciting time to be a writer of satire!

15 comments

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  1. Harry.V.Dirchy

    SOoo, Rossleigh is this (continuity and change election campaign) a show about nothing? Can we expect George Christensen give up the cream puffs and look like Kramer? Will George start sleeping under his desk?

  2. Bronte ALLAN

    STOP THE LIBERALS!! My 3-word slogan! Well written piece as usual Rossliegh!

  3. Susan

    ????

  4. kerri

    I honestly didn’t think Malcolm could sucessfully parody the role of PM?
    The Peter principle for sure. Like the dog who chases the car and like the Tony Abbott dog who was the country’s pet before him Malcolm chased really hard but now he has reached the car…..????????
    I believe the DD election will be a shock to the LNP and MSM alike!

  5. Gangey1959

    I like the image of turdbullshitartist reaching the car.
    He’d look like the big hunting dog on my uncles farm when I was a kid, six inches behind the rabbit, and running 100 mph, when the rabbit ducks down it’s hole between 2 big rocks……….
    Again……

  6. bossa

    Continuity and Change.
    Like yes but nay.
    How can you be purple
    When you are Yellow Mr Turnbull?

  7. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Continuity and Change. Ole Mal wants to convince Aussies that the LNP can fart and chew gum at the same time.

    Unfortunately for Mal, everybody knows that the LNP are even inept at those bodily basics.

  8. cuppa

    Continuity – five syllables. A far cry from Abbott’s three-syllable slogans. “Stop the Debt”

  9. Möbius Ecko

    Malcolm has put foot into mouth to a degree that matches any of Abbott’s verbal diarrhoeadigressions.

    His remarks on the terrorist situation in the EU during his Lowey Institute speech have gone down like a lead balloon, as they should. Linking the attacks to asylum seekers is not only what ISIS wants but is false as all of the EU attacks have come from second or third generation nationals of EU countries, not from asylum seekers.

    This from the Belgian Ambassador:

    “(Malcolm Turnbull’s) comments are dangerous because its precisely what ISIS wants – that we would make a confusion between terrorism and migrants and between terrorism and Islam.”

    Of course Turnbull was playing to a domestic audience during an election campaign, and of course as the L-NP always do, Turnbull was playing the fear card using racism so as to appear only the L-NP are tough and successful on fighting terrorism. Sadly as every poll shows this is the one area a large portion of the people believe the L-NP

  10. Möbius Ecko

    Julia Loius-Dreyfuss has tweeted that “Continuity and Change” was the most nonsensical meaningless slogan they could come up with for the show Veep.

    Yep, nonsensical and meaningless about sums up Turnbull and the Liberals he leads to a tee.

  11. lawrencewinder

    Hmmm.. It becoming a Mantach of a year for poor old Truffles….bashes unions and the Head of the Asx has to stand down for bribery allegations, … says company tax should decrease and ATO releases details of all those same companies NOT paying any tax….criticizes Billy Shortstuff for his Negative Gearing policy and Electoral Office freeze $4.4 millions, apparently given by developers illegally…. sounds more like the slogan should be Business as Usual!

  12. jim

    True “only the L-NP are tough and successful on fighting terrorism. Sadly as every poll shows this is the one area a large portion of the people believe the L-NP” Hey spot on but the real reason for this, is because the LNP have over 70% of the media (in the major cities) singing their tune for them whereas Labor do not. Just how naive can the average Joe be ? more likely the average Joe most likely doesn’t give a rats . nb do the Police etc.. go to sleep or take holidays when Labor are in power?

  13. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Sorry jim,

    the LNP nutters are not tough on terrorism. They are patsies for terrorism. They play classically into the hands of terrorist ploys by talking tough but not following through with uncompromising measures that would not reduce our standard of living.

    If the LNP was fair dinkum, they would whip the AFP and ASIO into shape well before any bad situation like Man Moris in the Lindt Cafe took hold.

    Also, if AFP, ASIO and other secret etc agencies need whipping up to work for alternative governments, then the lazy bastards should be disbanded.

  14. jim

    Your right JMS the Liberals are outright liars it’s been proven umteen times no cuts no cuts no cuts, even if they are better on terrorism which they are not, one thing they are better at is increasing the suicide rate…… Right-wing governments may sap some people’s will to live and result in more suicides, conclude studies in Britain and Australia.

    The researchers speculate that losers are more likely to kill themselves in the individualistic, “winner-takes-all” societies favoured by right wing governments, because they are left to fend for themselves. Wide disparities in wealth also sharpen any sense of hopelessness, the researchers argue.

    “If you fail under that ideology, it would accentuate your feelings of failure,” says Mary Shaw, whose team at the University of Bristol analysed suicide trends in England and Wales over the past century.

    Left wing governments tend to be more “inclusive” and community based, she says, decreasing the isolation felt by people down on their luck. Shaw’s team calculates that over the past century, 35,000 extra suicides occurred when the Tories were in power……https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2817-right-wing-governments-increase-suicide-rates/

  15. Rais

    Yes there’s never been a more exciting time to be a satirist. All you really need to do is plagiarise the pollies – they do it all for you.

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