Loaded language

Alan Jones writes: Re. “Liberal HQ spy fears force Victorian press gallery hacks out” (Friday). The fact that you refer to the LNP by the Labor oft used and little understood term of Tories shows me that in reality you are not impartial. This is a term used by the devotees of the Labor Party and the illustrious Paul Keating. Crikey, don’t try and pretend you are non biased and holier than thou, when it comes to media coverage of the elections. Terms like this actually show where you’re at.

What are the Coalition’s own policies?

David Edmunds writes: Re. “Keane: manufactured differences fail to get a look in” (Friday). In his summary of the coalition’s policy strangeness, Bernard Keane did not mention that the major expenditure that the Coalition is planning in support of the car industry is the maintenance of structural tax evasion. We are told that this amounts to 1.8 billion, a figure that dwarfs all other proposed assistance. It does seem to me that this has always been a strange policy, in place more by default than intention, but the Coalition has now placed it as the centrepiece of its car industry support. I wonder if it plans to support any other industries through the introduction of structural tax evasion.

Similarly, in the Kohler-Turnbull NBN debate, Malcolm Turnbull stated that the Coalition plans for the NBN were without question technically inferior, would cost $16 billion and would in time be replaced with the full-on Labor proposal. There does seem to be a whole lot of very strange policy around who might actually get fibre before the inevitable wholesale introduction in the not too distant future. For example, if your old copper cable fails, it might be replaced by fibre, while your neighbour is up for $3600, unless she can make hers fail too.

The Coalition has also adopted Gonski, but states that it intends to remove the accountability measures that have become an intrinsic part of Labor’s school policy. The Coalition has adopted most of Labor’s considerable number of major initiatives after raging against them (shades of the Whitlam manifesto),  but it seems that the amendments they plan for them are quite mad. Perhaps Keane might comment on where the Coalition is adding value to the adopted policy, or even if they have some really good ones of their own.

Speaking of Old Etonians …

Patrick Gallagher writes: Re. “Australia loves Boris Johnson, the Tory clown” (Friday). Maybe for the same unfathomable reasons they love another Old Etonian clown, cricket commentator Henry Blofeld, about whom all that needs to be said is that his earlier autobiographical tome was entitled Wine, Women and Wickets.