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Wednesday, 2 August 2006
CONTACT Richard Farmer PO Box 613 Tanunda SA 5352 Phone: 0422 083 285
The website The politicalowl.com website contains a broader range of material than is covered in the daily emails.
Passing the Case Test Some years back my brother David developed what he called the bottle test. Could we drink a wine and find that it gained in interest until the bottle was empty? Very few passed. Those that did were subjected to the case test to see if the wine remained interesting when drunk every night for a week. That really did sort out the great from the merely good. Well in the last week we have found one of those rare wine that passed the case test! Dead Wood Retro 55 Barossa Valley Dry Red (Shiraz Cabernet Grenache) 2002
A splendid wine made by Rolf Binder at his Veritas Winery in the Barossa. |
The Political Importance of Pictures A picture is worth a thousand words. Nowhere is that more true than in politics. Hence the shots of John Howard out and about in north Queensland yesterday inspecting the repair work on the damage wreaked by Cyclone Larry. Most people who saw the PM on last night's television news will have no memory of what he actually said. But the pictures will have reminded them of the damage to the banana crop which caused fruit prices to rise which somehow caused the inflation which caused the interest rate to go up on the home mortgage and the credit card. It was a wonderful attempt to use pictures to try and get the idea into the subconscious mind of people that this morning's announcement by the Reserve Bank had nothing at all to do with the Government. Don't blame the power walker, put the quarter of a percent down to forces quite outside his control. Forces like those dreaded Arab oil producers who keep exploiting poor Australian motorists to the point where out Prime Minister is losing sleep worrying about the impact on his people of high petrol prices. Somewhere in the key pictorial department of the government they will be beavering away trying to find a way of illustrating the concern. In an age when most people obtain their impressions of political developments from half watching the television news, the picture is all important. And John Howard is not the only politician who knows it. The trade union movement is proving quite adept at letting the picture tell the story. The ACTU keeps pushing forward ordinary Australians to tell their sad stories of heartless employers ruthlessly exploiting the Government's new industrial relations laws to reduce their take home pay. Now the campaign is to take a new made-for-television turn. The ACTU wants to demonstrate that massive fear and loathing has been caused by Howard's fanaticism. To do that they need a crowd. Yet big demos of workers chanting in the street scare off more people than they impress. Hence the hiring of the Melbourne Cricket Ground – the people's ground – for a rally that can have mass without the aggro. November 30 will see the Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley join union leaders to address the throng at the MCG after warm up acts by entertainers just like at a grand final. A very viewer friendly display of people power that can be finished off with an old fashion march to the Melbourne Trades Hall with banners waving.
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