The German election will affect us massively here in the UK, particularly if Chancellor Merkel lost. Fortunately that does not appear likely as the Germans recognise her qualities and tough determination to see Europe through this crisis.
The Australia election is being pored over by political anoraks here as it is a more traditional fight between Labour and Conservatives.
The Australian Labor party have ditched Julie Gillard and reinstated their former leader, Kevin Rudd, as PM; he is, at present, heading for a general election defeat on 7 September to the conservative Tony Abbott, leader of the Liberal-National coalition. For a few weeks after the brutal coup to dump Gillard, Labor was united and the Australian people appeared to be willing to give Rudd another go. But that confidence is ebbing away I am told. Support for Abbott's coalition is at 7 percent clear of Labor = a likely strong win.
That’s not to say that Abbott is universally applauded. I love his George Bush style joke / mistake recently in a speech [trust me when I say to you that all politicians have mader such a mistake at some stage]
He provoked howls of derision when he said that "no one (meaning Rudd) is the ‘suppository’ (instead of the repository) of all wisdom."
But many in the UK would agree with Australiansd disenchantment with Rudd / Gillard's failure to run a country on budget which has left a big-spending and debt-ridden agenda, backed by unions, which has created a $70-billion budget black hole. All elections are different but the Australian one does have parallels.
As one politician once said:
"Eventually Socialists always run out of other people's money"
