Lyndhurst warning for Vic Labor: expert

I find it interesting the number of people with Greek names such as Kakoulous, Megasomething Economou are either advisors to, or supporters of, the Labor Party. It sort of makes sense of Labor's ability to run deficits.

I think the key point to that article is that the journalists think that the result makes it the closest thing to a hung parliament you will get.
Fact..there was no change in the make of the parliament. The only change in numbers was Labor losing 14% of their support. These lefty journalists will print anything.

Lyndhurst by-election results are here....
http://www.abc.net.au/elections/vic/2013/lyndhurst/result.htm
...the only parties that had a swing against them apart from ALP are those that didn't stand this time around, including LNP candidate.
The fact LNP didn't stand candidate, yet ALP had 15% swing against them is reason why party leader Daniel Andrews couldn't mask the fact it was the (Federal) Labor brand that was behind the rot.
You're doing well Sauce.

@Mac1 | Sunday, 28 April 2013 at 10:17 PM
Inherited thinking, jobs for life and jobs for the boys.

Today "Hundreds of people joined a protest in the streets outside parliament.
The law is a condition for Greece to receive the next tranche of loans worth 8.8bn euros (£7.4bn; $11.4bn).

The new law would overturn what had been a constitutional guarantee for civil servants of a job for life, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens.
The sector has been seen as notoriously bloated since it expanded in the 1970s and '80s as successive administrations employed their own people."

Whew, that`s a good news article. Here we go then.
Giddyup that needed Election.
Thanks for the info Sauce and Mr Smith.
Sounds about right too.
They only have themselves to blame and there is NO valid way labor can or will gain ground now. No way.
It`s liberals by a good lap!

Thompson, Slipper and Shaw - where do we get these dickheads???

Sauce and Jim001 can you tell if there was a large informal vote like the last by election in Victoria where the Liberals did not field a candidate ? I wonder if at the federal election whether there will be a massive informal vote - Labor voters are so angry at the ALP but don't want to vote for the Coaltion. Also there has been much talk on blogs about voter fraud on Election Day. Some have suggested that ID be produced - but you can go to every polling booth in your electorate WITH your ID and cast a vote - it is only after wards that the fraud is realised. Not sure what the answer is, but ID is not it I am afraid.

@RD of Melbourne. I've worked as a temporary employee of the AEC for election days, as I'm sure a few people who comment here have. And one of the questions we have to ask is 'have you voted anywhere else today?' Well you can only rely on people's honesty, got some funny replies, such as 'do you think I want to queue up for 20 minutes again?', which apparently in 2007 in my area where I was working crossing off names, the queue was almost a mile long and we were flat out all day. I actually didn't get home until 11.30pm after all the counting, so didn't know the results overall. As for id's like you not sure if that helps. Actually, come to think of it, don't know what one would do, if someone came over all shifty after you asked the question. I mean you couldn't deny them a vote. Hmm interesting.

For Julie

This may be part of the answer:

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.

See wiki for more. The term was coined in the '90s but it is noted by poets, playwrights, historians and others from about the dawn of recorded history.

Over many years I have come across many examples in the defence forces, public and private sector. The politicians are on display for all to see as are the media and academia. Compare and contrast the differences between Gillard, Swan etc and Tony Abbott whose more thoughtful and intelligent consideration of issues is painted as a weakness. As Alexander Pope wrote in 'An Essay on Criticism'

"A little learning is a dangerous thing;"

and further on

“For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread"

The problem for our present society is that nearly all our important institutions have been so affected by it that we are heading for collapse. I think that it is a major causal factor in the fall of most empires and civilisations of the past. It seems difficult if not impossible to resist let only eradicate.

What can be done? I can only pass on these words of Edmund Burke:

"Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair."

Hi michael,

I meant to post my recent comment in your post "Budget Black Hole".