How the ALP must be wishing Thomson was right. Whether or not you agree with Blair on prosecuting the war on terrorism, climate change and tackling world poverty, the British PM's eloquence, delivery and intellect is from the very top shelf.
It's comfortably the best speech The Sketch has heard in the House of Representatives, a depressing reminder that uplifting oratory is as foreign to the parliament as politeness and manners are to the modern cricket field.
What hellish bloody Labor wouldn't do for a genuinely Australian version of Thomson's famously articulate ex-student.
Think so?
Australia is not bereft of eloquent intellectuals. But in an era where our historical anti-intellectualism has returned to its high water mark, who's going to vote for a poncy internationalist with visionary aspirations? We had one of those in the early '90s and he didn't last too long. Now we've got a sneering, simple minded folksey bogan-in-a-suit and he's unassailable.
The collective commentatorati are enjoying making unflattering comparisons between Blair's Labour and Beazley's. But they conveniently leave out that Blair was heavily inspired by Australian Labor under Hawke and Keating.
Keating had his suits, his vision, his policies combining social left and economic right. Damn fine orator too.
And like so many tall poppy smart arses he was chopped off at the knees.
2 comments:
Oh oratory! O tempore, o mores! F**k me, they're WORDS. We get plenty of them and most don't relate to reality. So he strings 'em together in a more mellifluous way. Is that the KPI? No, it's not. We'd prefer the truth, not some fictional parable. Throw the bum out.
All this talk of prime ministers makes me think: who was the best of them all?
I toss up between Whitlam and Keating; Whitlam for his social reform and Keating for his economic inroads.
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