Left Forum: Care on the Left

My parents were Welsh, and other Left excuses

The Australian has been running a series in its opinion page on where the left is at in Australia and, to be frank, I doubt regular readers have been awaiting each instalment of ideological exposition with nail biting excitement. It has all been a bit "ho hum here we go again". There are now so many areas where the left is indistinguishable from the right, that these terms are pretty meaningless. Even the terms conservative and progressive, which are often employed to describe differences on social issues don’t have a great deal of meaning. I have encountered too many lefties with whom I have more in common on the family and social front than plenty of so called conservatives. I find the libertarian right just as aggravating and immature as the didactic left of my youth. But two contributors interested me. Julia Gillard, undoubtedly the most successful woman in Australian politics and definitely one of the more intelligent whose…