Akerman in the cold

After over a decade of being Grand Simplifier, Witchfinder-General and Sir Echo at the Court of King John, Piers Akerman has thrown himself with zeal into the role of the Prince of Peeve. It must be hard after all those years of influence and, indeed, celebrity. You can see for yourself his marvellous objectivity about the 2020 gathering in such pieces as Summit of the smug self righteous and 2020 Summit a meeting of mediocre minds. A bit hard on Tim Fischer and even, dare I say, Bill Heffernan, don’t you think? But I guess if ever there was an expert on mediocre minds it would be Piers.

Today he gets stuck into Rudd’s inflation, forgetful that we are still under the fiscal policy settings of the previous government pretty much. “It is more - more Australian working families, the people who Rudd said he was going to help, the people who believed him and voted for him and who are suffering now.” Sounds good, but only someone off with the pixies would really believe that re-electing The Team last November would have substantially altered the trajectory of the past four or five months. On the other hand, the Rudd government do have a job on their hands, so far as what governments do really does make a hell of a lot of difference, and that is debatable. I believe you will find the FIRST Budget of the new government is next month, Piers. I am sure you can recycle your golden sentences at that time.