A tale of two Gordons
I'm just back from a break in Britain, where the sniff of political blood has been vying for nostril space with the stench of democratic decay.
The ongoing MPs' expenses scandal, along with the Labour leadership crisis it helped precipitate, has almost completely monopolised the British media.
But there was one day last week when Gordon Brown came close to being nudged off the front pages by Gordon Ramsey - "a low-life" in the headline-grabbing estimation of Kevin Rudd.
When the Australian prime minister weighs in on popular culture, as he did with his gallant defence of the Channel Nine presenter Tracy Grimshaw, he often seems to capture the public mood.
When Gordon Brown does it, as he did after the Scottish songstress Susan Boyle was taken to a clinic following the final of Britain's Got Talent, he's accused of populist gimmickry.
The two prime ministers are good friends, ideological soul-mates and, I'm told, regular texters. What Gordon Brown would give right now for Mr Rudd's still high ratings, political self-confidence and popular touch.
On that front, so much for my pre-holiday prediction that the comedy troupe, The Chaser, might start to dent Mr Rudd's popularity. Instead, the Australian viewing public appears to have declared war on them.
The Chaser team is spending two weeks in the satire sin bin, after ABC decided to suspend the show because of public outrage over the team's Make a Realistic Wish Foundation sketch, which depicted dying children being told to rein in their deathbed wishes.
Mr Rudd said the Chaser team should hang their heads in shame, another soundbite which appears to have chimed with public opinion (although there has been the suggestion that the prime minister runs the risk of "outrage fatigue").
As we arrived back in Australia this morning, we were reminded of the main story of the moment by the health registration forms we had to fill in, the quarantine officials who boarded the flight and the heat-detecting cameras we had to walk past before reaching immigration.
Victoria has been dubbed the "swine flu capital of the world", and a flu expert quoted in The Age has said that up to one-third of Victorians might be infected by the virus.
In other news, as they say, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has resigned after violating the government's code of conduct, thus becoming the first minister to quit since Kevin Rudd became prime minister in November 2007.
Andrew Symonds, the troubled Australian all-rounder, was sent packing after breaching Cricket Australia's code of conduct.
He was being 'too Australian,' according to the former Aussie cricketer, Dean Jones. All he wanted to do, after all, was to have a beer and watch the footie, the State of Origin match between Queensland and New South Wales. Cricket Australia took a dimmer view.
There have been the attacks on Indian students, which has damaged relations with India, and the abandonment of the Rio Tinto/Chinalco deal which will disappoint the Chinese.
So lots of talking points. Did The Chaser go too far? Should Joel Fitzgibbon have resigned? Is Gordon Ramsey, indeed, a "low life"? And is Tracy Grimshaw the early front-runner for Australian of the Year?
And the news just keeps on coming. Peter Costello, the former treasurer and longtime prime ministerial wannabe, has today announced he is quitting politics at the next election. More on than later...
I'm 
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I think that Grimshaw's reaction was a bit over the top. We all know that Ramsey has a foul mouth but we just learn to accept it. If Australia isn't careful, it might see itself gain a reputation for being overly sensitive.
The same applies to the Chaser debacle. Everyone knows that the Chaser team push the boundaries with their sketches, and I think it was unfair to sack the ABC's Head of Entertainment.
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Welcome back Nick. I would put the main news and sports items as...
1. Australia has avoided a 'technical recession'
2. Swine Flu in Melbourne
3. The Socceroos have qualified for the World Cup
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Chasers should keep their focus on public figures: Rudd, Brown, Grimshaw...anyone but those who are actually suffering
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Nick, As an Australian currently living in England I am constantly disappointed with the items that the BBC choose to run as 'Australian news items'. I thought that this blog might open things up a little, especially given the fact that you (Nick) are actually located in Australia. Perhaps I was under the impression that you might be able to give some insight beyond what we might be able to read on The Age, The Australia, Sydney Morning Herald and the BBC news websites. Sadly not. You only manage to pin point any aspect of Australian culture, news, politics that may shed an unfavorable light on the place and people. The sort of stuff I might expect to read in the Liverpool Echo or from Andrew Bolt at the Herald Sun. Perhaps that's the intention of the blog?
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So the australian prime minister watches television, and offers his emotional reaction to television to the press?
Sure. Great. Why not? Why don't we have a special three hour TV show devoted to exhibiting the opinions of Mr Rudd, covering every topic, from what breakfast cereal is healthy to what is the best length for a females' dress?
The guy is a joke. He has his face permanently stuck in a TV camera, and he honestly believes that his role is to act as some kind of moral compass for the nation. Who knows who is really running the country.
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Got to say I loved Rudd's 'fair shake of the sauce bottle mate' quip. In all my time in Australia I haven't once heard anyone use that phrase, let alone 3 times in 5 minutes.
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Well Rudd is a bit of a tool and Australia is a (overly) reactionary and conservative country, a bit to high on the morals sometimes. What else do we expect from the Australian general public with a classic such as the Chasers sketch...? A sense of humour? Sadly not.
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First off, welcome back Nick. Secondly, I have to say that I was watching Good News Week on channel ten last night, and I felt that the comments made on that show about the Gordon Ramsey/Tracey Grimshaw incident got to the heart of the matter. That is, a presenter of A Current Affair getting hurt by aggressive comments. Shooting right past the hypocrisy, Why should K Rudd feel the need to involve himself in this? Or in anything that doesn't have to do with running the country? I can't speak for everyone, but I don't really want to hear his remarkably un-Australian use of language that he uses whenever he makes a comment. Just makes me cringe, really.
As for Andrew Symonds, it seems stupid of him to go and make another slip up after his previous offenses. Likewise, it seems stupid for cricket Australia to get rid of one of our better cricketers during a time when our dominance of international cricket is likely to be lost, judging by the way we've been playing lately. I predict the Ashes (and I can't believe the words are coming out of my mouth sigh) will go to the Poms this time round.
At any rate, I think I've said enough.
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PM Rudds use of the anachronistic and Uber-daggy, 'Fair shake of the sauce bottle', was neither cute nor funny but an alarming demonstration of calculated dishonesty. Go through the mental exercise: imagine how thoroughly convinced K Rudd must be that the electorate would reject him to stoop to such unnatural speech in the false hope of adding `popularity? Only then to repeat the same silly phrase, 3 times, in one interview? Goodness. I suggest a general point is demonstrated by this: the Australian PM so often sounds unidiomatic because what tumbles from his mouth is so often a knowing deception about who he believes he actually is. Great doubt must attach to the character of politicians who take such lengths to hide their true self. To conceive of and perform these bizarre fictions the level of self-absorption must be extreme.
And another thing ... the substitution of `fair suck with `fair shake in the PMs silly rendering of sauce-bottle-slang has to do with whiting-out an extended connotation of the original wording which came to mean a certain sex-act performed on a particular male part. Nothing remotely good can be said about this sort of language coming from a head of national government. It is embarrassing twaddle.
The more I hear from K Rudd the less I am able to listen. It has become genuinely painful.
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Welcome back Nick. As the comments above show, I'm not sure that Kevin is any more adept at summarising popular opinion than Gordon is: it's always cringe-worthy when politicians look to offer opinions on pop culture. Personally, much as I dislike Ramsay, any attempts to expose the low-rent sensationalism of shows like ACA has got to be good. I know customer service isn't always great here, but can there really be enough consumer issues to justify two such programmes multiple nights of the week?
Seems to me the biggest issue has been the completely inconsistent way in which swine flu has been handles. We've had cruise ships refused entry, then allowed in elsewhere, random quarantine for school kids but not other people (including State of Origin players)....all in all not exactly reassuring from a country that prides itself on keeping bad stuff outside of its borders.
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OliviaMelbourne,
If the Liverpool Echo casts negative aspersions on Australia, I must not have read it properly. Practically half the city is in love with Australia due to Tim Cahill. I don't see your point at all in the criticism of Nick's Blog, nor the mention the of the Echo. I think its informative and it certainly gives people a wider understanding of Australia (the Blog that is, not the Echo).
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Old Hermit,
With regard to my reference to the Echo I intend to highlight a certain 'tone' that I read in British papers from time to time. I detect a tendency to bully. The same thing with my reference to Andrew Bolt. I disagree with you that the blog gives a wider understanding of Australia.
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Olivia, I'm not quite sure what you're expecting from Nick's blog. Is it something along the lines of "which beach is best?" ? Nick's generally pretty positive in dealing with what he sees as the current national issues and given that a large proportion of his readers (and those who pay his wages) don't live in Australia, he can't really go into too much detail.
As for your concerns about Aussies being bullied, I'd suggest that would be more valid if it was one-way traffic. There are dumb people in both countries, unfortunately...
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