Same campaign, different leader

Down a tried and true path. Julia Gillard earlier this week was straight onto the streets of Queanbeyan across the border from Canberra which Kevin Rudd had made his photo opportunity territory. And today it was into the studios of an FM radio station where Julia showed she can be as with it as Kevin in appealing to a youthful audience.

Kyle and Jackie were the chosen ones as she subjected herself to an introductory song Gettin’ Over You by David Guetta featuring Fergie before admitting that the song was not really to her taste as she was really an 80s kind of dag.

And as for the content of the in depth interview, well, we now know that red headed jokes will be allowed but that questioners can “expect to get a response when you do.”

No Christian but still the same view as Kevin. Our Prime Minister might have frankly told the people she is not a Christian but anyone hoping for a new courageousness on social matters is clearly going to be disappointed. There will be no federal Labor Party support for same s-x marriages while she is the boss.

The policy will remain the same as under the Christian man she deposed when the Government refused to allow the Governor General to approve legislation on same s-x relationships passed by the ACT Territory parliament.

“We believe the marriage act is appropriate in its current form, that is recognising that marriage is between a man and a woman, but we have as a government taken steps to equalise treatment for gay couples,” Ms Gillard said this morning.

Meanwhile in Iceland that country’s female Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir on Sunday, the day a new law took effect defining marriage as a union between two consenting adults regardless of s-x, married her long term partner, the writer Jonina Leosdottir, and became the world’s first national leader with a same-sex spouse.

The infection of nonsense is spreading. The Seven Network last night, so I am told, has joined in the opinion poll nonsense with a report of a Morgan phone poll showing the Coalition in a winning position. Thank goodness I made that decision after the outing of that NSW Minister for visiting a gay club of some kind not to watch the Seven News. It saved me upsetting some guests with an undignified burst of laughter.

Putting trust in the indicator. In these pre-election weeks I will put my faith in the Crikey election indicator rather than try and work out what the increasingly different messages from pollsters mean. What the wisdom of the market is telling us is that there has been a relatively minor increase in support for Labor.

A timely reminder. It is not only polls that should be treated with a great deal of suspicion during pre-election madness. What politicians say should largely be ignored as well.

There’s a wonderful example of the lies that voters get told in the United Kingdom at this very moment that should serve as a timely reminder to us all.

During the recent UK campaign the Liberal-Democrats came out with a very effective poster:

The Conservative then shadow and now actual Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was quick to deny any such plan. “The plans we set out” he explained to voters, “involved around 80 per cent of the work coming from spending restraint and about 20 per cent from tax increases … The tax increases are already in place; the plans do not include an increase in VAT.”

Last week Chancellor Osborne announced an increase in the VAT from 17.5% to 20%. Not really a surprise but made all the more outrageous by the fact that the Liberal Democrats now as a Coalition partner in the Government supported it as well. But not to worry.

The Lib Dem spokesman Vince Cable explained yesterday that his lot had only warned voters that Prime Minister David Cameron planned to raise VAT to score political points against the Conservatives. It had not promised to do anything about it.