QUOTE
The real reason Latham is a tossbag is because he is a right wing shit with the most appalling views and disreputable behaviour.
This was what Andy L said in a post in Random Thoughts about Mark Latham, former Aussie PM.
I thought I'd start this thread simply in order to facilitate further discussion on this colourful character and a chance for Andy to reply.
QUOTE
If I was to reply to you, Geoff, this would not be "random thoughts."
I began to wonder how Latham could be described as a right wing shit since I knew him to be Labour. Is Aussie Labour more or less the same as British Labour? Searched and found this Wikipedia article, which helped with my understanding and then found this.a speech in 2002.
Perhaps this points up why Latham might be seen as right wing as much as anything else.
QUOTE
On the backbench, Latham published Civilising Global Capital: New Thinking for Australian Labor (Allen and Unwin, 1998), in which he argued that Labor needed to abandon many of its traditional policies and embrace the aspirational values (home ownership, higher education) of the upwardly-mobile skilled working class and small business class. His policies as the leader of the Labor party were largely derived from the stance taken in this book; which ideologically is described as 'the third way'.
These views alienated him from many Labor traditionalists, but his aggressive Parliamentary style won him many admirers. He once referred to Prime Minister John Howard as an "arselicker", and to the Liberal Party front bench as a "conga line of suckholes" [1].
These views alienated him from many Labor traditionalists, but his aggressive Parliamentary style won him many admirers. He once referred to Prime Minister John Howard as an "arselicker", and to the Liberal Party front bench as a "conga line of suckholes" [1].
Bad language aside it could have been Tony Blair being described here.
The abandonment by both men of traditional Labour ideals seems to have led, in Lathams case, to a truly appalling right wing goverment getting elected and, in the case of the UK, Blair practically shedding all pretence of being a socilaist.