A Looming Fall of Shakespearean Proportions

The increasingly frequent prediction that the Gillard government is headed for a defeat of Shakespearean proportions behoves us to revisit Shakespeare’s plays, to see just what to expect. A re-examination of Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 in particular provides an illuminating, occasionally amusing and sometimes uncannily close parallel to events that have unfolded in the halls of Australian government over the last few years. One suspects that Shakespeare is on the money still.

The names may have changed, but the process of disintegration that comes upon a government that has founded itself on betrayal, established no legitimacy, with little idea of any higher purpose, and weak and self-serving leadership, remains remarkably similar. The astonishing and consistent poor judgment; plundering taxes to fund extravagant schemes; a legitimate leader deposed for having lost his way and finally viciously character-assassinated for—well, still being there, really; a guilt-ridden successor…