Bob and Malcolm and John and Julia

OK, consider a brief exercise in a bit of cynicism here. But sometime public figures really become irritating, so please indulge me as I let off a little steam for a few moments. (For those whose sensibilities cannot handle a bit of political humour and/or satire, I urge you to stop reading now.)

Back in 1969 at the height of the counterculture revolution in the US, a film appeared by the name of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. Starring Natalie Wood, Robert Culp, Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon, it had to do with a ‘liberated’ foursome exploring ‘free love,’ and the social-sexual chemistry which took place amongst them.
 
Some folks might recall the movie poster for this film. All four actors were together, naked, in a large bed. In light of some recent events in the political scene in Australia, this film and its famous poster came bouncing back into my mind today.

I refer to the carbon tax madness which continues to bubble along here, and how various eggheads and celebutards have been pimping this tax. We of course expect various trendy lefties, film stars, pop stars, and the Hollywood left to jump into bed with Labor on this one. Of course they will.

What is less expected – or should be – is when people who claim to be Liberals get into the act. But sure enough, a number of people signed a letter of support for the carbon tax, and who do we find showing up? Yep, you got it: former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and former Liberal Leader John Hewson.

Of course this pair of wingnuts has been going off the rails for years now. Fraser especially has repeatedly made public attacks on his own party. It seems every other week we find old Malcolm again on the front page of the Fairfax press attacking the conservatives.

And John Hewson has also been a big fat pain in the neck for the conservative parties for years now. The truth is, both are failed leaders who are full of anger, bitterness and hatred, and they relish any and every opportunity they can get to lash out at their own party.

They have become so twisted and bitter that any time you see them in the media you know what to expect: more attacks on the conservative side of politics. All of which raises the obvious question: why in the world haven’t these two grumpy old men left the Liberal Party years ago?

They clearly do not belong there. They have absolutely nothing in common with conservative values and beliefs. So why haven’t they joined Labor decades ago? Or better yet, why not just join the Greens? They would seem to be most at home in that radical party.

Given that Julia Gillard and Bob Brown have been in the same bed for many months now, it only makes sense for these two disgruntled, arrogant, childish and selfish Libs to hop in bed with them. They obviously belong there, and they certainly deserve each other.

The caption on the 1969 movie poster read: “Consider the possibilities”. That about sums up what we can expect if we got these four together. They basically already are, so why not just formalise the whole sad affair? Why not get it over with?

All I await is for some clever Australian artist to take the original poster and re-jig it a bit, putting the heads of these four current Australian political figures onto the bodies of the original four movie stars. It would be a most telling poster. And of course we can keep the same caption there as well.