State Politics, Gaming, Odds and Ends

[tcpip]

Labor wins the NSW state election; whilst the conservative Coalition didn't have a snowflake's chance in hell, I was a little surprised by how minimal the swing was. Much apparently due to the Federal governments unpopular workplace relations laws (despite being a Federal issue). On the other side of the planet, massive swing to conservative separatists in the Quebec elections, but the liberal federalists (Parti libéral du Québec) retains power, albeit with their worst ever result. The social democratic Parti Québécois came in third; leading to three-way split with each major party holding about 1/3 of the votes.

In gaming news have run two games of RuneQuest, one of Traveller: TNE, and the notorious AD&D1e module "Tomb of Horrors" since my last post. Recent reviews include Deities and Demigods (genius and idiocy in one package), Gods of Glorantha (solid content, average production), Spell Law (clear, balanced, but not beautiful) and the AD&D module In the Dungeons of the Slavelords. Oh, and remember the RPGPundit? Get a hold of these comments; Goth women are to be fucked and then mocked, and teenaged goths should be sent to therapists as punishment.

Visited recumbenteer and partner for their Parkville housewarming; most enjoyable, must have them over dinner soon. caseopaya is on a loose end, employment-wise (although I'm sure this will be a very temporary situation); she found a job where the pay, hours, work and people were good but the company wouldn't shell out the $6K that the agency wanted as a finders fee. Today we had an annual house inspection; the estate agents took (literally) thirty seconds. Rogue the rat hurt his foot during the week and spent a couple of days hopping around on three paws; all better now. LUV meeting next week with an emphasis on beginner's talks (new features of OpenOffice and an Introduction to DNS). Gave an introduction to philosophy talk (doc file, will convert later) at the Melbourne Unitarian Church on Sunday; was extremely well received and will be expanded to further discussion topics.

Comments

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

How much more ammunition could the Coalition want?

A competent leader? John Howard's Workplace laws not to be an electoral issue?

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I blame the latter on the former, and the former at least partly on factionalism.

Not that Brogden was much better - even before the "mail-order bride" bit, he always reminded me of our school prefects - but the factionalism has a lot to do with why they didn't get a decent replacement. I don't know if O'Farrell could have managed a 10% swing, but my (mostly unsubstantiated) suspicion is that he'd have come a lot closer than Debnam, if only by having the sense to keep his mouth shut about WorkChoices.

Not convinced

[erudito.livejournal.com]

Over the years there has been a lot of "level shifting" claims on issues, I am always very sceptical. Yes, the NSW ALP had a lot of baggage, but the NSW Libs have been doing very badly for years--it is apparently the first swing to them since 1988. If the NSW Libs simply weren't credible, then even a beleagured government can hold on to much of its vote.

I do think having one side in at one level helps the other at the other, but that is more a generic factor.

Besides, I would be a little suprised if a significant fraction of ALP voters didn't dislike the WorkChoices legislation and took an opportunity to express it to a pollster.

Re: Not convinced

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Besides, I would be a little suprised if a significant fraction of ALP voters didn't dislike the WorkChoices legislation and took an opportunity to express it to a pollster.

I suspect that even that the percentage of ALP voters who benefit from WorkChoices (e.g., white collar technical) would still vote against it.