Predictions

George Orwell’s deadline came and went. No doubt for many who read 1984 in the years after it was published in 1949, that date represented an unwanted but inevitable appointment with a soulless tyrannical world.

Two years before his deadline arrived, a later generation, not overly concerned with Orwell, found a new future date to consider: 2019. That was the year director Ridley Scott set his 1982 film Blade Runner, depicting life in post-apocalypse Los Angeles.

The scene was this: Earth is largely uninhabitable. People are heading for the new off-world colonies. Those who remain exist in a dying world where nighttime and rain is perpetual; and those who remain are largely the dregs.

Continue reading "Do humans dream of biological sheep?" »

Humble pie is a real food. Modern derivatives of it are mainly sweet, but the original dish was something like shepherd’s pie, only made with animal entrails rather than meat.

So that’s the recipe if you need to serve it up, and there’ll be many ruing their failed election result predictions today. Including me. Offal, yum.

But whatever about numbers of seats there were a range of predictions and arguments about the risks and opportunities in the campaign for both sides that never materialised. So here, totally subjectively, in no particular order and without pointing fingers, is a list of the top 10 campaign theories put about by smartypantses of all persuasions that turned out to be wrong. Please add your favourite wrong predictions and analyses in the comments.

Continue reading "Humble pie anyone? Top 10 furphies of the 2010 election" »

Whilst becoming a journalist holds as much interest to me as being a Liberal MP does for Laura Tingle, I find a great deal of attraction in using my inaugural contribution to thepunch.com.au to make some predictions for the next 12 months in Australian politics.

The golden rule for an MP is not to become a political commentator, and long term predictions in politics are a dangerous business. 

This high risk indulgence is completely irresistible to our competitive friends in the Canberra Press Gallery.  Often they will be based around election timing, leadership and of course who will win the next election.

Continue reading "Libs will win, Rudd will quit, and Gillard will lead" »