Saturday, May 15, 2004
It's not what you know...
[Politics] Thursday night saw Cliffy & I head up to the House to watch the Leader of the Opposition make the Budget Reply speech. I thought the delivery was flat (Latham only got really passionate once; perhaps a heavy West Wing diet has increased my oratorial standards beyond domestic offerings), but I have to give the ALP points for confidence; the speechwriter consistently used language like "Labor will", rather than "would", in outlining their plans.
While we didn't get to sit on the floor of the House, as some did, we did get front row seats in the public gallery on the Government side facing the Opposition (link to the House seating plan). There was much derisive shouting & heckling from the Government the whole way through, with the Member for Indi, Sophie Panopoulos, managing to shout over everyone & being told off by the speaker. Following the speech there was the party in the ALP caucus room, which continued into the 10.30 dinner with staffers at Portia's, the stop in at the pub and finished off at the pollie haunt The Holy Grail (I can't believe I'm admitting going there) somewhere in the vicinity of 2.30am.
Consequently, Friday saw me getting into the office a tad late, but keeping busy got me a second wind at the end of the day that got me to the pub for a beer, a couple of cokes and discussions on Islam and the domestic media scene with regards to a coming election, before a much-needed early crash.
Read or Post a Comment
I'd have to agree with your comments on Latham's delivery being a bit flat - I came away thinking the ideas were allright, but where was the passion?
The "Labor will" thing seems standard though, you'll notice they will all be doing it around election time, no matter how hopeless their chances are.