Monday, September 24, 2012

One Term Ted, Our Supine Premier



SOME things are sacred, like the public’s right to visit and patronise shops and public facilities, although those atop at least two of our local democracy’s purported pillars do not seem to believe as much. A couple of months ago, Magistrate Simon Garnett, another of the former Brumby government’s testaments to the career opportunities in hackery, ruled that a rowdy, aggressive, anti-Semitic mob congregating regularly outside a Jewish-owned store represents neither an attempt to dissuade customers from entering nor a bid to silence its cash registers. This made some people very happy, as a good smiting of the Zionist entity and its Victoria Police puppets always will.

That Premier Baillieu has driven no appeal against Garnett’s ruling, simply asking the police to mull such a move even though the mob invades private property every time the Jew-baiting instinct needs assuaging, serves as a further reminder why he is known around Spring Street these days as One Term Ted. Perhaps thinking of fresh ways to slug decent citizens with speed-camera fines leaves too little time to contemplate the defence of property rights and principle. One Term would not want to be mistaken for a conservative, after all, for such a reputation might encourage hopes that he will winkle out the Labor holdovers white-anting his government’s policies from inside the public service, stop handing grants and prizes to leftist luvvies or remove the cordon sanitaire of gatekeepers and courtiers he has allowed to isolate him from his own ministers.

And One Term isn’t the only thing being isolated. Down Queenscliff way, there is both a lovely golf course (where an in-form Bunyip once shot a very respectable 89 and this hole, twice birdied, is a particular favourite) and an adjoining  island where a breathless report some months ago in The Age led readers to believe all manner of racist and imperialist mischief was being hatched by SAS trainees and operatives.

Your typical ratbag doesn’t need much encouragement to become a greater public nuisance, so the thin gruel of the Age’s report was enough to sustain former Occupists on their journey down the Geelong Road. They are now back and in strength, blocking access to both the SAS base on Swan Island and, as collateral damage, to the golf course as well, which will be closed to the public for at least a week.

This is the way things work in Victoria these days. A spineless Premier appoints a police commissioner whose specialty is running shakedown cameras, and whose supervision of the 3kph-over-the-limit counting house leaves no time to deal sternly with actual lawbreakers. So we end up with an illegally blockaded poultry plant, a CFMEU siege of the CBD and, now, a public golf course the public cannot use.

Two years remain until the next state election. Are no members of the parliamentary Liberal Party prepared to challenge One Term? Is there no one who fails to comprehend that it will be back to the opposition benches if he is allowed to remain?  

UPDATE: We can only imagine what closed-door humiliations were visited on this poor copper, who made the grave mistake of telling the truth about ethnic crime statistics. He makes amends below, never really denying there is a problem with youthful African miscreants, but apologising profusely for having allowed that fact to leak out.


Christine Nixon couldn't have put it better.

18 comments:

  1. Your views on One Term Ted are shared here Professor Bunyip.

    When the Liberals are turfed out in 2 years time, Victorians will struggle to find any evidence that a Baillieu Government even existed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Is there no one who fails to comprehend that it will be back to the opposition benches if he is allowed to remain?"

    Ted is a relatively compassionate Premier for a rightist. If the Libs kick him out they will definitely sign their death warrant for the next election. Victorians won't tolerate the fate of Kevin Rudd being applied to him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, the Liar's Party want Ted to keep his job, so they sent Hammy to start a scare campaign. It's their best bet to reclaim government.

      Delete
  3. I reckon that One Term Ted will have the anarchists' demographic all tied up at the next election. There couldn't be anything in recorded history closer to zero governance than the Baillieu ... I was about to write "regime", then thought of "government" or "administration". None of them works as a descriptor. "Slapstick comedy ensemble" maybe?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Its time we eliminated party politics and apparatchiks. also eliminate state And local councils .A one house National government,and provincial councils .of patriotic people who serve one term of 5years ,then be replaced by other people of good will.No good ever came of a government of politically motivated "batchelors of them yarts"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Professor,

    It is a matter of record that in the 2010 Victorian elections the punters voted with their money on Brumby clinging to power - with a huge 4:1 ratio.

    - Well, not this one: in the only bet ever placed by this punter on an election result, this humble punter happily collected 4 times his original bet on a Baillieu victory. How did this punter predict Baillieu's victory, especially WITHOUT KNOWING A THING about Baillieu?

    Simple: Oppositions do not win power. Governing parties lose it. This humble punter thought he could identify some fatal mistakes that Brumby has done during his last term as Premier and knew Brumby is set for a decent kick in the back-side by the electorate, in spite of the widespread view amongst the commentariat that Brumby's is as safe a Labor gov't as any there is in the land.

    Point being: Baillieu did not win the elections as much as Brumby lost them. It was not his political talent that won him power, but it may be his lack thereof that loses him it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tim Cartwright obviously needs to speak to Simon Overland about how police crime statistics are used.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Terminal Ted, the Timid Tinkler" to you, mate.

    Or is it "Timid Ted, the Terminal Tinkler"?

    I get confused.

    Gobsmacked of Gippsland.

    ReplyDelete
  8. But this is very serious, Prof. It pains me to imagine it - your treasured memories of major golfing triumphs being so disturbed. That excuse for a man at the top must GO, this is a step too far. As for that poor worried-looking cop weaseling away his words. Says it all, really. Plus Hammygar is a Teddy fan. It just can't get any worse than that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. 'the 3kph-over-the-limit counting house' will soon have its activity boosted by the installation of speed, sorry 'point to point' safety cameras, on the Frankston bypass. So hundreds of people die on Victoria's roads, yet the priority 'safety' action is applied to a state of the art freeway which has never so much as experienced a minor collision let alone a fatality. At the same time people continue to die at known black spots without cameras, one can only assume that cost to benefit analysis says some must die. Reeks of the Labor government overfeeding on the similarly state of the art Eastlink.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Perfessor, Swan island is not only a good country course, it's great value for money being so cheap to play. These selfish layabouts have forced the club to endure a week without vital school holiday revenue without green fees. It's a small, struggling, relatively poor sporting club with primitive facilities, yet these idiots and their sycophantic supporters, living in their surreal cosseted bubbles, think it's some kind of hangout for silvertails. The local working people who use the course are furious with these fat, rich, city kids swanning in from Melbourne to disrupt the town.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Professor,
    Perhaps you have forgotten that Ted won by just a handful of votes, when Elizabeth Miller survived a recount. It is very easy for a Kennett or a Newman to perform radical surgery when they have massive majorities. It is a lot harder for a govt. which is a heartbeat away from a by-election in a swinging seat. Have you any idea of how the voters in a seat like Bentleigh would respond if there was a by-election in a few weeks time?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Better to burn out than fade away.......

      Delete
  12. You're joking, right? Winston Churchill said something about democracy being the worst form of government except all those other forms which have been tried from time to time.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Blocking the SAS base?? They're braver than I.

    ReplyDelete
  14. To pick a nit Prof, the SAS base is not on an adjoining island. It shares Swan Island with the golf club.

    ReplyDelete