As Above, So Below

Political events here on the mainland are being reflected in one of the colonies. The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, has managed to achieve the worst poll ratings for a major federal party in almost forty years. "We've got a plan which we are working through to deliver, which we did not have at the start of my prime ministership," Gillard told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, in what was either an uncanny echo or an ill-advised parroting of the line being taken by Daveybloke's Cuddly Coalition about being Strong and Having A Plan.

Gillard has attained this laudable near-Britishness by combining the more endearing attributes of our own Liberal Democrat party and our former excuse for a prime minister, Gordon Brown. Gillard overthrew her predecessor, as Brown occasionally dreamed of doing; and once the coup was complete Gillard appointed her predecessor as foreign secretary. Brown, of course, did much the same thing, placing Tony Blair at the Foreign Office in the humane, truthful and morally courageous shape of David Miliband. And, like the Liberal Democrats, Gillard made a promise when out of office which she promptly broke upon gaining office; although, unlike Wee Nicky and his fellow stooges, Gillard does not have the excuse of being worried that the local Bullingdon Club will kick her out of bed.