The new look of Labor. The kind, caring and compassionate Labor Party has a new look.

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph put it on page one this morning to illustrate the welcome committee waiting for the first boat load of asylum seekers to reach Christmas Island now that the deal has been done with Malaysia.

The Labor Party of Julia Gillard is not the Labor Party I once proudly used to try and get elected.

Having a bet on a double dip. It’s hard to know what to get more worried about — the United States entering territory where a return to recession is quite possible or a Europe where the financial turmoil is spreading apace to Italy and Spain.

While the US government appears to have averted the disaster of running out of money, part of the price being paid by the Obama administration is to further curb spending at a time when the economy is already showing signs of weakening again.

To divert my mind from thinking about the consequences of unemployment going well over 10 per cent again I’ve taken a punt on the country’s economy going into recession again. Paul Krugman this morning put the chances of that happening at 50:50 so I have taken a bit of Intrade’s 29%.

In Europe the price being paid by the Italian Government to borrow money has reached a new high and yields are on the rise again in Spain.