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

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

whilst the conservative Coalition didn't have a snowflake's chance in hell

Not on the night, anyway. IMHO, as of two years ago they stood a very good chance of winning before they threw it away on factional infighting. I didn't have much time for Brogden, but the way the Right knifed him was ugly enough to hurt the Liberals' chances, and Debnam was hopeless - he should have been able to maul Labor when Orkopoulos and Scully came to grief, and instead he overreached and made allegations against Bob Debus that he couldn't back up. And so on.

I will be interested to see how O'Farrell goes. He's been gearing up for this for a long time; I get the impression he decided to let the Right burn themselves out before taking a run at leadership.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they need something like 12% to win? That's a hell of a margin in anyone's business.

The article in the SMH seems to suggest that O'Farrell will walk it in, although he's also being very clever on how he hands out his deputy positions.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

12% to govern in their own right, 9% to deny Labor a majority.

Yes, it's a lot, but in the last couple of years we've had Carr's resignation, a water crisis, serious public transport and healthcare problems (with major PT outages days before the election), the Cronulla riots, one minister sacked for misleading parliament, another charged with using taxpayers' money to buy drugs and child prostitutes, another MP convicted of assaulting his partner, and an assortment of lesser embarrassments. How much more ammunition could the Coalition want?

[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.

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Someone recently pointed out that Debnam looks just like Frank Spencer*; now I can't help laughing whenever I see him.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Spencer

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Debnam



Spencer


Hmmm... You're right.

...

[imajica-lj.livejournal.com]

wow, that goes a long way to explain the chip on his shoulder.