Chaucer and the modern pardoners

There’s naught will help; all go the same way. Aye,
Then may I say that everything must die….
…Then is it wisdom, as it seems to me,
To make a virtue of necessity”
– Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight’s Tale

“Gillard is making a virtue of necessity” – Michelle Grattan in The Age

“She has now made a virtue of necessity” – Charles Richardson at Crikey!

"Julia Gillard should be congratulated for nipping six months of election speculation in the bud." — Michael Gordon in The Age

Opposition leaders “customarily wait until an election is called, hiding behind the uncertainty as an excuse for concealment. Gillard has just removed that comfortable hiding place … So it works as a political tactic.” – Peter Hartcher in the SMH

… and only seven more months of this to go