Tuesday, February 3rd ....

What an exciting few days in politics!  First, the PM has a brainstorm and makes a 'captain's call' to anoint Prince Philip as a Knight.  What was he thinking?  And how out of touch is he with current Australian thinking? 

Of course, this starts the call again for a change of leader of the PLP.  But Tony won't go.  The Government is stalled and there needs to be a circuit breaker.  This story can only get better.

Christopher Pyne, interviewed by Virginia Treoli, says solemnly that it's not a personality competition and that the Australian people are looking for a PM who is competent and has their respect.  I'm afraid we're missing out on both counts.

Then there's the debacle in Queensland with a double digit swing against Campbell Newman.  The interesting thing is one problem feeds the other.  Tony's nonsense about Sir Prince Philip has a negative effect on the Queensland election.  In turn, the Queensland result has a negative effect on Tony's future.  Delicious!

To cap it all, there's the midnight coup against the NT Chief Minister.  The 'new' Chief Minister stands proudly on breakfast TV announcing his elevation but mid-afternoon, the 'old' Chief Minister calls a press conference to announce some inquiry.  'Are you still Chief Minister?' was the first tentative question.  Gilbert and Sullivan couldn't write anything more farcical.

I read an article recently which bemoaned the fact that Australians were too ready to change leaders.  Maybe if political parties gave us leaders we could trust and respect, we would support them.  I think of Billy McMahon, Mark Latham, Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott who all made their way to the top of their respective political trees but none of whom had the personal integrity or personality to be true leaders.  Having said that, Kevin was enormously popular with the public but I'll never understand why.