Tony Abbott, the member for Warringah, currently on a working holiday with wife Margie, Peta Credlin and some other advisers, has made his debut on the rubber chicken circuit. During a speech to the Margaret Thatcher Centre in London this morning, the former PM celebrated the Iron Lady’s virtues and noted that the Abbott government had “at least a hint” of Thatcherism about it.
Thatcher was a success with the occasional failure, and there was a success or two among Abbott’s failures, so a hint is correct.
The speech, in which he warned Europe against following Jesus’ advice to “love your neighbour as yourself” and said compassion towards refugees would lead to “catastrophic error”, gave the UK a chance to see what Australians long ago realised: that Tony Abbott is a very strange man indeed, self-absorbed, wrapped up in a narrative of his own glory. His attempt to reverse-engineer a legacy by using the desperation of Europe’s refugees is a case in point. That attitude was a disaster for him as PM, but it may serve him well on the conservative speaking circuit.
Meanwhile, back in Australia, the rebuilding begins. Malcolm Turnbull has, in three days, appointed a government scientist who believes in a zero fossil fuel society and released the $1.5 billion owed to Victorians for transport infrastructure — and held back by the Abbott government to punish them for voting against the East West link.
So we wish our Lizard of Oz, and his various Totos, well on their travels. Perhaps he might consider returning to the land of Oz for a while, to, you know, serve his constituents in his taxpayer-funded role.
Once again Abbott displays his psychopathy .. this has been an enduring trait throughout his public life from his early days at university and it has ruined him..anyone who has followed his gaffe prone career was astounded that he managed to become Prime Minister..its ironic that the failed Papal wannabe was aided by the unholy trinity of Gillard Rudd and Murdoch in this endeavour..the churches loss was certainly not the countries gain..to quote Paul Keating ..god help us..
I had an “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi” moment of cringe that this is the face of Australia being shown to the world. I console myself only by the fact that Abbott is really a misplaced Pom back where he belongs, amongst conservatives in England. Perhaps he should stay there.
How Embarassment.
To have this semi sentient simian representing this country abroad may at least serve as a warning to when self delusion & certainty can lead.
Having warned us previously about not scraping the bottom out of the moral barrel, he tops(?) even that with the ultimate oxymoron, “too much mercy“.
The capacity of the devout, in particular, and humanity generally, to rationalise away their extant contradictions, hypocrisies, and cognitive dissonances, has no greater examplar than this most holey of men.
What a …………….
well, that would be unchristian of me to say, which is ok, as I’m not a christian.
By next week this man will have convinced himself he was our god-appointed saviour and that Australia would now be desolate and distraught, Whyalla-like, if he hadn’t come along just in the nick of time.
I wonder who the wicked witch is on this jaunt?
A pity they didn’t allow the rubber chicken to give a speech instead.