News to me

Labor waltzed into Government at the end of 2007 - because little Johnny had overstayed his welcome.

The nation welcomed the change - which was widely viewed as the beginnings of a moderate, progressive and social democratic - Labor government.  It was a refreshing change after 11 long years of conservative class-war, fear and war-mongering and other nonsense.  Kevin and the people seemed to get on famously.  I suspect they still do.

But Kevin and his colleagues didn't get on quite so-well, which is why Labor's "faceless men" boned him and replaced him with Julia in 2010.  That worked OK for about a day and a half and has been seen as a big mistake ever since.  Most of us still don't know why it happened and no-one "in the know" seems interested enough to enlighten us.

All of which is why Labor is headed for the knackers yard on September 14th.  Now I know that none of this is news.

But this is - or at least it is news to me.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has recently addressed the National Conference of the Australian Workers’ Union in Brisbane - and here is some of what she had to say.

I come here to this union’s gathering as a Labor leader.
I’m not the leader of a party called the progressive party.
I’m not the leader of a party called the moderate party.
I’m not the leader of a party even called the socialist democratic party.
I’m a leader of the party called the Labor Party deliberately because that is what we come from.
That is what we believe in and that is who we are.

As I said - news to me and I suspect news to a lot of other Australians.

By my reckoning those six sentences have probably alienated more than a quarter of what was once known as the Labor base.  It's not every day that you will find a political leader who will go out of their way to tell many of their supporters to piss off that they are no longer welcome.  It just boggles the mind.

Where are the Democrats and the Greens when you need them?

PS - Another take here.