No change in the German elections, but two weeks ago, Australia saw a definite change for the better when Tony Abbott replaced Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia. Mr Abbott, who heads a Liberal/National coalition is a true conservative - both economically and socially. It's hard to improve on Melanie Phillips' excellent article in the Daily Mail two weeks ago (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2415635/The-election-Australias-new-PM-Tony-Abbott-clear-evidence-genuine-conservative-policies-win-elections.html) where she points out that contrary to popular belief, a genuine conservative CAN win elections:-
"Something truly astounding has happened. The best political candidate for a country's future has won a general election", she wrote. "In fact, even more astonishing is the fact that this achievement was something David Cameron and his inner circle had given us to believe was as impossible as . . . well, being reincarnated as an olive. So what is this miracle? That a true conservative has won a general election on true conservative principles."
So while the rest of the western world indulges in the lunacy of legalising gay marriage, Australia will not be following suit. Furthermore, one of the priorities for Mr Abbott's government will be the scrapping of the carbon tax, introduced by his predecessor. He has already abolished the country's climate change commission. With the recovery from the Great Recession still looking rather wobbly, Australia looks like a place that will escape the worst of any imminent downturn, as Mr Abbott has also pledged to reduce taxes. The country, as he put it, is "open for business" and he has the right policies to encourage it.
Admittedly, Mr Abbott was blessed with competing against a shambolic opposition who have spend the last six years falling out with each other, but the bottom line is that the electorate voted for a conviuction politician, and not just any old conviction politician, but someone whose convictions were actually pretty sensible. There are people like him in the UK, but at the moment, they get no higher up than the back benches. How much longer will we have to endure what Nigel Farage of UKIP recently called "cardboard cutout careerists" leading our parties? Hopefully, Mr Abbott will be blessed with a long term in office as Prime Minister during which time the electorate's decision to choose him as PM will be vindicated as their country prospers, while the rest of the world looks on in envy from its bureaucracy-laden misery and the lefties foam at the mouth as they are forced to observe the obvious - that the recipe for being a successful county is to keep as far away from any form of socialism as possible.
His victory and its aftermath begs the question as to whether this is a flash in the pan - freedom's last gasp - or whether it marks a turning point. Could we find in the UK, if David Cameron loses the next election, that if a true conservative in the Tony Abbott mould is chosen to replace him, sich a person could win here too?
I hope we'll have the chance to find out, and preferably before things get any worse. I leave the last wird with Melanie Phillips, who is even more impatient to see a like-minded leader here: "Can we clone Tony Abbott, please, and put him into Number 10 forthwith?"
Amen to that!
"Something truly astounding has happened. The best political candidate for a country's future has won a general election", she wrote. "In fact, even more astonishing is the fact that this achievement was something David Cameron and his inner circle had given us to believe was as impossible as . . . well, being reincarnated as an olive. So what is this miracle? That a true conservative has won a general election on true conservative principles."
So while the rest of the western world indulges in the lunacy of legalising gay marriage, Australia will not be following suit. Furthermore, one of the priorities for Mr Abbott's government will be the scrapping of the carbon tax, introduced by his predecessor. He has already abolished the country's climate change commission. With the recovery from the Great Recession still looking rather wobbly, Australia looks like a place that will escape the worst of any imminent downturn, as Mr Abbott has also pledged to reduce taxes. The country, as he put it, is "open for business" and he has the right policies to encourage it.
Admittedly, Mr Abbott was blessed with competing against a shambolic opposition who have spend the last six years falling out with each other, but the bottom line is that the electorate voted for a conviuction politician, and not just any old conviction politician, but someone whose convictions were actually pretty sensible. There are people like him in the UK, but at the moment, they get no higher up than the back benches. How much longer will we have to endure what Nigel Farage of UKIP recently called "cardboard cutout careerists" leading our parties? Hopefully, Mr Abbott will be blessed with a long term in office as Prime Minister during which time the electorate's decision to choose him as PM will be vindicated as their country prospers, while the rest of the world looks on in envy from its bureaucracy-laden misery and the lefties foam at the mouth as they are forced to observe the obvious - that the recipe for being a successful county is to keep as far away from any form of socialism as possible.
His victory and its aftermath begs the question as to whether this is a flash in the pan - freedom's last gasp - or whether it marks a turning point. Could we find in the UK, if David Cameron loses the next election, that if a true conservative in the Tony Abbott mould is chosen to replace him, sich a person could win here too?
I hope we'll have the chance to find out, and preferably before things get any worse. I leave the last wird with Melanie Phillips, who is even more impatient to see a like-minded leader here: "Can we clone Tony Abbott, please, and put him into Number 10 forthwith?"
Amen to that!