Getting It Eventually

Been watching BBC comedy Yes Minister lately. It was originally screened in the UK in 1980. But by the time it hit the Haynes Household it was the late 80’s / early 90’s. I remember brother Danny watching it incessantly and religiously. I was only about 10 so part of me wanted to be the annoying younger brother by not liking it and bagging it out profusely, just out of spite. Also, his laugh was so loud that it hurt my ears when I dared to step into the same room. Above all that, I just didn’t get it

I wasn’t really into politics at the time and the humour was too grown up for me. The subtleties would usually fly right over my head if I were to try and persevere with a viewing. Also the sets were very dull and dreary, but it was the 80’s.

But now, I thought I’d give Yes Minister another chance, without Danny in the room to at least give my ears a break. I’m into politics a bit more now (in case you haven’t noticed) so the subtleties sink in instead of being lost on me. Most importantly, I am finding it very funny. Probably a reason why it is so funny is that it is closer to the truth than people might think.

For a homegrown version, check out the ABC series Grass Roots. Based on the behind the scenes of a local council.

Give It Up Darcy!

What on earth is this kid doing? Is he being poorly led or is he just very stupid? Perhaps both.

A young man loses his place on the Olympic Swim team after bringing grievous bodily harm onto a former team-mate and expects someone to ruffle his hair and say, “Your not so bad kid, go on, swim your little heart out.”

He was given the boot because he brought the sport into disrepute. Perhaps it’s a bit grey as to what constitutes ‘disrepute’ and I assume that is what he is trying to prove.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has already heard one appeal. They didn’t disagree with the decision by John Coates (Australian Olympic Committee President), they merely deemed that Coates can’t make the decision on his own, it must go back to the entire AOC Executive Board. They met with Darcy and his legal team this week, only to come to the same conclusion as John Coates. Finally, some closure I thought, but no, I was wrong.

Darcy left the meeting explaining his disappointment at the decision and how there was already another appeal in the works. In fact it was in the works prior to their meeting with the AOC. Seems like they were pretty confident of a negative verdict.

On what grounds could he possibly get his dismissal overturned? Surely being intoxicated and not knowing what he was doing is not good enough to win favour. Also, who cares that he has trained for most of his life, this should count for nought.

Swimming brought us tremendous role model such as Kieran Perkins, Susie O’Neil, Sam Riley, Grant Hackett & Ian Thorpe to name a few. In one abhorrent act, Nick Darcy has changed the face of swimming forever. Instead of picturing the fine specimens of humanity mentioned above we now think of a thug who couldn’t control himself in more ways than one. If that isn’t bringing the sport into disrepute I don’t know what is.

The Issue Of Paying Taxes

Had one local preacher man point out that he wishes he could pay more taxes. His reason being that by paying more taxes we would all benefit from better government services such as schools, hospitals and roads. He acknowledged that he was in the minority by taking this view. After some discussion with Dr H I can see why he would be in the minority.

Basically more taxes would result in bigger bureaucracies, not better services. There won’t be any money left after bureaucrats have sunk their teeth. There is no incentive to produce a high quality of product as the money is not their own.

Also, if one wants to pay more tax then there is nothing stopping you. Simply open up the chequebook and make it out to ‘Deputy Commissioner of Taxation.’ All donations will probably be received with shock.

Probably a better idea would be to donate to your local school or hospital, at least your money would be better spent there. There’s even the option of falsifying your tax return to make out that you earn more. That way you will be taxed more. Or if you are lucky enough to receive a tax return, hand it back with a smile. I’m sure the ATO won’t mind.

Taxation on my income is stealing. I didn’t give them permission to take my hard earned. If I didn’t have to pay income tax I could more easily pay for private health insurance, mortgage repayments and car maintenance.

If the government was serious about easing the burden on working families they would spend less and steal less.

Smoke & Mirrors

This is the term that comes to mind when describing most of the Rudd government’s achievements thus far.

According to Wikipedia:

Smoke and mirrors is a metaphor for a deceptive, fraudulent or insubstantial explanation or description. The source of the name is based on magicians' illusions, where magicians make objects appear or disappear by extending or retracting mirrors amid a confusing burst of smoke.

In other words, Rudd is pretending to do something when really he is doing nothing. Take a gander at his latest policy initiatives.

Fuel Watch – He has had to retreat after the revelation that several government agencies oppose the idea and believe it will actually raise the price of fuel. This will not be good for the working families he claims to be assisting. He even tried to make out that the idea came from the opposition when they were in government. I don’t know whether that is true or not, but it’s not a good idea to be stealing ideas from the previous government, unpopular ones at that.

Binge Drinking – Originally I was a fan of the move to tax ‘alcopops’ because I assumed further action would come from it. But it seems now that that was his big move to tackle binge drinking. Apparently evidence has found a decrease in the sale of ‘alcopops’ and a relative increase in other forms of alcohol. So the effect of the tax is negligible when surely a change to trading hours would have a greater affect.

Inflation – Their inaugural budget was supposed to tackle this. Catchphrases like “tough but fair” and “responsible” were spat out ad nausiem by Rudd and treasurer Wayne Swan. Instead their budget still included a heck of a lot of spending. The means testing was also ‘smoke and mirrors’ when some of these welfare programs could have been turfed completely. Now that would have been tough but fair.

20/20 Summit – Purely a ‘gabfest’ resulting in not much other than Mr Rudd gaining a new friend in Cate Blanchett. The costs to the taxpayers that were announced this week were a bit off putting also.

Kevin Rudd was elected on the premise of new leadership and change. But instead we have the same old Labor government and no real change, and it seems the public service who are meant to be working for him are growing tired of him.