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Marius - Politics …

In electoral terms, John Howard was as comprehensively excised from the Australian political scene as any government leader ever has been.

He lost power and lost his seat. And in the past two years, Labor has been trying to exercise the traditional prerogative of the winner to be the writer of history.

The Howard Years, in Labor’s telling of history, are condemned as a “do-nothing” time. Donald Horne’s Lucky Country thesis is adapted to portray the 12 years of Howard as a time when a slothful and inept crew rode the dumb luck of the resources boom.

Harnessing history to your contemporary political purposes is one of the key tools of government.

John Howard contrived to reduce the record in economic management of the Hawke-Keating government to a single number: “17%.”

Keating was dragged out as the Ghost of Recessions Past any time the Coalition wanted to give the electorate a pre-election scare.

It’s interesting to remember that the interest rate peak did not immediately cost Labor power: they won the election after the 17% peak. In fact ,you can argue that those rate spikes were more potent in the 2004 vote than after the early 1990’s recession and rate hikes.

Arguably the most significant and remarkable achievement of two years of the Rudd Government has been to establish Labor as the party of better economic management.

Economic management has always been the most gleaming item on the shelf in the Coalition’s stock in trade.

Now Newspoll says Labor is streets ahead on that count.

You could believe that the Howard legacy has been eclipsed by the dazzling dawn of Rudd Labor. But when you listen to the current leaders, it is easy to hear the echoes of a Prime Minister past.

For example, who said?: “I make absolutely no apology whatsoever for taking a hard line on illegal immigration to Australia.”

That’s Kevin Rudd, channelling John Howard.

And on ETS who said?: ” The only issue today is jobs…Australian jobs…is Penny Wong going to make herself a hero by slugging our biggest export industry….?”

That’s Malcolm Turnbull, the former Environment Minister who tried to win his then Prime Minister over, to sign the Kyoto Treaty - now emphasising different aspects of the climate change debate as he tries to find a lead that his Coalition colleagues are prepared to follow.

John Howard may be gone, but he is far from forgotten.

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Mark - Breakfast EP …

I started getting all dewy-eyed and nostalgic a couple of weeks ago, when my colleague Dianne Comrie excitedly mentioned that she had tickets to see Lloyd Cole, the British singer and songwriter, who’s touring Australia later this year.

It brought back happy memories of a fresh-faced student heading off to university on the train listening to “Rattlesnakes” on a cassette on his rather chunky Walkman.

(A younger colleague of mine from the IPod generation, who shall remain nameless, recently saw me with a circa-1990 Walkman and asked in horror “What on earth is that THING?!!”)

For those who don’t know, “Rattlesnakes” is Lloyd Cole and the Commotions classic 1984 album.

The critics initially dismissed it as “student pop” … but more recently NME listed it as among the 100 greatest albums ever made.

It includes the classic “Perfect Skin”, the outrageously catchy opening track which features Neil Clark’s twangy acoustic and electric guitars, providing a nice counterpoint to Lloyd Cole’s deadpan delivery and acerbic observations:

“I choose my friends only far too well
I’m up on the pavement, they’re all down in the cellar
With their government grants and my IQ
They brought me down to size, academia blues.”

It ends with a typical Coleism: “Strikes me the moral of this song must be there never has been one”

Bizarrely, Lloyd Cole - who styled himself as a bit of a detached antihero - became something of a sex-symbol for the “alternative” scene.

(They call them “Emos” these days).

And when the band toured Australia , their concerts sold out in minutes.

I read a lovely review in Melbourne’s “Age” of a Lloyd Cole and the Commotions concert.

As teenage girls in the front row screamed their undying for love for Lloyd Cole between songs, he shyly confessed:

“That’s really very sweet. But unfortunately I can’t actually see any of you. I’m rather short-sighted, and I’m afraid I left my glasses back at the hotel.”