Some lovely details of how “Team Blue” blew it last weekend for the Western Australian Liberals – how Colin Barnett’s second-guessing put him into second place.

Liberal MLAs Sue Walker and Paul Omedei have effectively confirmed the existence of the group in their public comments over the past week. All sitting members, it appears, were bound and gagged and told nothing about the campaign strategy or any of the tactics. Barnett’s concession speech also very pointedly thanked his staff, rather than his candidates and colleagues.

The Liberals have their big leadership meeting tomorrow. It has been delayed because counting has been so slow in some seats and results have been up in the air. That, of course, means that there’s been plenty of time for a head of steam to develop. Will it blow?

Meanwhile, a subscriber has phoned in to tell of their very own experience at the hands of the Barnett machine.

They were fool enough to ring Menzies House looking for details of THAT canal. Menzies House told them to ring Barnett’s office. Barnett’s office told them to ring Menzies house. Finally, it was suggested that it might be an idea to look up the home page of Tenix, the defence and infrastructure giant promoting the scheme.

Special marks, too, are being given to Colin Barnett’s press sec. Her contribution to his success, it appears, cannot be underestimated.

Then again, it is being remembered that Amanda Platell, best known for making William Hague the youngest British Prime Minister since the second Pitt (not) also came from the West. What’s wrong with the local hackettes?

The other WA loser

Ben Oquist, Captain Planet. The Green strategy superhero was rushed back to Bob Brown’s side after the party’s hammering in the federal election last year but could not save the Western Australian shrubhuggers.

Meanwhile, a subscriber paddling in the Indian Ocean writes:

“How interesting that you should notice the lack of Greens support in the WA State lection. They did indeed get great support, but from the ALP. At my polling booth the young lady handing out Greens’ How to Vote Cards had to go at 10am. I was shocked when the ALP Booth Captain & scrutineer took off his nice white ALP shirt, donned his own personal Greens shirt and continued to distribute the Greens material until 1pm. Then another ALP Booth worker took over from him till the close of voting. In WA at least it seems a vote for the Greens is indeed a vote for the ALP.”