Sir Johannes Belke-Petersen, a corrupt populist.

[Matilda]

Quentin Demptser tells it like it was:


"Sir Joh Belke-Petersen was a corrupt populist who exploited the
superficiality of the media and for many years, the incompetence
of his political oponents."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/s1348134.htm


You can substitute almost any populist leader's name in that last
paragraph, starting with Howard, and it just about sums up the
political situation today. The more things change .....

[rooboy]

1. Sir Joh was the grandfather of BushSpeak.

Nothing he said EVER made sense. Nothing. And he was as partisan as one could ever be.

[Djinn]

2. Beattie's reasoning for speaking at his funeral made me ill

to say "whatever he wsa history wont forget him" what the fuck is that about? history wont forget plenty of arseholes doesn't mean I'd give them a eulogy.

To be honest I don't think you could substitue Howard's name in there, I detest the man but he DID win elections without a gerrymander and he hasn't proposed the sort of fascist legislation in regards to protest and dissent and Bjelke did.

[Matilda]

3. I was thinking principally of the "superficiality of the media"

and the incompetence of the Opposition.

No news outlet has really bothered to run with the lies that Howard
has told - they're mentioned, but quickly forgotten. He needs
to be hammered over his deceit and broken promises. Alan Ramsay
is the only journalist who really hits him hard. But most
Australians get their news from Murdoch and Channel 9, and their
opinions from shock jocks.

And the only real opposition comes from the Greens - but the
compliant media ignore them. I guess it's hard for Labor - they
were the ones who brought in mandatory detention, so they can't run
with that, they started the white-anting of the universities, they
were the first to make huge cuts to ABC funding because of perceived
political bias, they weakened the unions by forced amalgamations, and
they relaxed the media ownership rules to allow a foreigner (Murdoch)
to gain control of 70% of the country's newspapers. They couldn't
have set things up better for Howard if they'd set out to do it.

[Djinn]

4. completely agree with you on that one

I think half the electorate figures if they're going to get a conservative government either way why not go with the experts at it.

The only hope that I can see is that Howard takes the whole balance of power thing and goes mad - a distinct possibility for industrial relations - and that causes a backlash.

Unfortuntaely I'm a cynic, give Beryl in Beaumaris and Craig from Cranbourne enough Celebrity Australian Idol Dancing in the Backyard Makeover shows and they don't really give a toss about anything else.

[oscarmitre]

5. BBC world service

noted his passing. Summed up his govt pretty well.

[ballaratocker]

6. From a biased southerner.

He put a stigma on that part of Australia for the longest time. It is only just starting to recover.

[Catamount]

7. Yes, I remember him, the King of the "Gerrymander"

That's how he got all his power, just like Tom Delay!
:spank:

[Matilda]

8. And from brown paper bags.

They just used to land on his desk, full of money. Nothing to do
with favors bought and sold - of course not.

[SweetLeftFoot]

9. The Moonlight State