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Tuesday 10 August 2010

Tight fight down under

Conservativehome International has a good round up of how the Australian general election is poised.  The Labor campaign has misfired, plagued with internal troubles and an underestimation of the appeal of the Liberal Party leader, Tony Abbott.  While the Liberals winning is still a big ask expectations have certainly moved beyond simply getting the Liberals back to a respectable level.

It does appear to raise two interesting questions as regards UK politics.  Rudd trying to avenge his dismissal  has undermined the Labor campaign and the new Prime Minister.  It highlights the risks of knifing a sitting Prime Minister in response to bad polling.  So the 'if Labour had got rid of Brown' argument cannot be viewed as a guarantee of a better result. Considering Brown's reputation comparable behaviour to Rudd would not have been the least bit surprising neither would David Milliband failing to connect with voters like Gillard has so far failed to do.  While Abbott's campaign shows the appeal a 'values' politician can still have even when faced with metropolitan hostility.

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