Favouring an increase. The Crikey Interest Rate Indicator thinks that there is a 65% chance that the Reserve Bank will increase the official interest by 0.25 percentage points when it meets tomorrow.

Fair and balanced. That’s the motto of Fox News and an example of what it means is that the Fox parent company News Corporation has just made a $US1 million donation to the United States Chamber of Commerce, a business group that campaigns against Democratic candidates.

It follows a $1 million back in August to the Republican Governors Association — which the London Daily Telegraph described as one of the biggest ever political gifts from a media organisation.

Surely the French will protest. Perhaps a strongly worded diplomatic protest by the French will finally put a cap on the madness  being imposed on political life by the kill-joy spin masters who are infecting political life worldwide. The latest outrage of these evil manipulators of public opinion is to order a ban on members of the victorious Conservative Party being seen drinking champagne at their annual party conference.

All those decades of work to make Moet, Krug, Bollinger and Veuve the symbols of celebration are being undone in the name of not upsetting cloth cap wearing English beer drinkers. I am expecting a visiting Tony Abbott to remind these modern day Tories of the horror their decision is to the memory of their former great leader Winston Churchill who declared of champagne “In victory we deserve it, in defeat we need it.”

Tony certainly knows about that second reason.

There was no escape. A retreat from Canberra to the coast for the long weekend brought no escape. The holiday house next door was occupied by a tribe wearing black and white jumpers and the good old Collingwood chorus really did go on forever.

The South Coast blues festival seemed appropriate but the backwoodsmen and women not actually in stripes were feral enough looking to qualify. It is a miserable holiday for a Tasmanian with youthful memories of Darrel Baldock.