To my lasting regret I'll not be at Edinburgh to verify the first next weekend, but am optimistic of another such opportunity soon. As to the rest, well, I'm just quoting Gaul without stating that I agree with him. I must confess, though, that while the Kiwi silence on the matter is perhaps understandable, the Aussie agreement is surprising.

Trust is a funny thing; for most, the difficulty of gaining it is matched by the ease of losing it, and the challenge of regaining it the only thing greater than both. Without much desire and diligence by all involved there's little hope, and few are willing to try unless heavily invested in the other person. The increasingly prevalent and popular culture of cynical suspicion makes it nigh impossible for politicians. Such was the allure and is the disappointment of Obama, yet he only got so far because he had no record of dishonesty to overcome. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained, " but once faith is broken, or simply lost, not many are willing to endure the same risk for the same opportunity.

That's further compounded by the truism that in politics a week is a life time. Instant gratification is also increasingly popular, so politicians are continually asked, "what have you done for me lately?" The growth of polling and focus groups have exacerbated the habit of abandoning once staunchly supported policies at the first sign of trouble, and, without knowing more, it sounds like that might have happened with Rudds climate change initiatives. As for the supertax, again, I can only speculate, but being born in a place that went from a respectably large town to the nations fourth largest city in a half century oil boom, I can see the motive. I can also see why the industrys employees, and all whose livelihoods depend on their patronage, would be alarmed by any perceived threat. It's all well to say, "the public deserves a larger cut of the obscene profits made from public land" but the public is unlikely to agree if it might put half the country out of work.

Odds are that's the core of it though; people don't see the subtle connections between what he's done for years and their current prosperity, all they see is the headline today. Meanwhile, as a citizen of one of the few Western democracies farther right than Australia, the choice between "Labor" (at least it's spelled right ) and "Liberal" confuses me a bit, since I'd give my right arm for a major party that represented either.