Courtesy Alan Moir and Sydney Morning Herald

The difficulty for Howard is that after 11 years as Prime Minister and 34 years in Parliament, he has compromised, sacrificed and dropped so much of what he once believed in that he has come to stand for virtually nothing except self-preservation. -- Jason Koutsoukis, Leaning to the light

What a shame that years ago Bilegrip (or someone else) didn't start a collection of the daily examples of Howard Government mean-spiritedness. By now, the file would be enormous. For not a day goes by that someone in this nasty government doesn't contravene the mythical "fair go".

Take today's Sunday Age. There on page two (PM rejects subsidy for cancer drug), we have the government refusing to place Alimta, the drug that helps asbestos disease sufferers, on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule. Instead, Howard and Tony Abbott are blaming the states, saying in effect that it is up to them. In other words, the blame game continues. Yet, Leigh Hubbard (remember him?), executive director of the Asbestos Diseases Society says:

"The Government has acted unilaterally on other vaccines and drugs and we expect them to support people in need — victims who in some cases are cancelling treatment or whose doctor won't even suggest Alimta because they know they can't pay for it."

How this government loves to play with people's lives and well-being.

Then on page nine, an ostensibly Victorian state issue (Schools 'must act now' to curb racist attacks), can be found to have been exacerbated by John Howard Party policy.

Schools should be teaching students more about religious and racial tolerance to curb a recent worrying spike in racist attacks, Victorian MPs have told parliament.

One Liberal MP told The Sunday Age there should be a greater awareness of multiculturalism taught in schools, just eight months after Prime Minister John Howard dumped the term from his Government's ministerial portfolios.

The Liberals' multicultural affairs spokesman, Nick Kotsiras, said there had to be a greater focus on multicultural awareness in schools, despite Mr Howard having dispensed with the term in January when he introduced a new Department of Immigration and Citizenship to replace the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.

James Merlino, the minister assisting Premier John Brumby on multicultural affairs, said the Liberal Party was divided on the importance of multiculturalism at the state and federal levels. "The Liberal Party constantly attacks multiculturalism and has abolished its use in the Federal Government," he said.

The truth is, John Howard has promoted racism with a vengeance. Like many conservatives, he is an assimilationist. Which is dogwhistling for racist.

But back to the Koutsoukis opinion piece listed at the beginning of this posting, in which he lists Howard's former convictions now flushed down the drain for self-preservation.

Howard once successfully identified himself with the classic doctrine of the "fair go". Yet thanks to his malevolent workplace relations laws, Howard has forsaken this ground and has come to stand for the bloke who took away people's weekends.

The list goes on and is worth your time in the reading.

Finally, among the many excellent articles in the current issue of Dissent (Spring 2007), is one that is on subject here.

Tim Moore explores the peculiar brand of Howard's political rhetoric in The Prime Minister's bad language. In particular the structure of so many of his utterances: reassuring words followed by a sting. Moore gives many examples, but here is the most infamous:

It's about this nation saying to the world 'we are a generous open-hearted people. We have a proud record of welcoming people from 140 different nations' … But we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.

Dissent is one magazine worth subscribing to. Edited by Kenneth Davidson, it comes out only three times a year and sells for $7.70 on the newsstands. The annual subscription fee is a mere $22. Check it out here.

We should add that Harold Hark wrote for some of the early editions of Dissent, but had to bow out because of his inability to condense three months of outrage into one article.

-- Bilegrip Admin