Richard Farmer's chunky bits: Abbott should attack Labor on health

Richard Farmer’s chunky bits: Abbott should attack Labor on health

Talk about what he knows. Tony Abbott’s strong suit when it comes to political bridge is surely health, yet he remains strangely on the subject he handled so skilfully as a minister. Yet another example today of how Labor’s attempt to remove hospitals as a political issue has failed. This is surely an area that […]

Talk about what he knows. Tony Abbott’s strong suit when it comes to political bridge is surely health, yet he remains strangely on the subject he handled so skilfully as a minister. Yet another example today of how Labor’s attempt to remove hospitals as a political issue has failed.

This is surely an area that will do the Gillard government more damage than questions of her long passed dealings as a solicitor.

Already suffering from hits to the head. Perhaps those rugby league players objecting recently to the banning of shoulder charge tackles have already had too many, for the evidence keeps mounting linking head hints to brain injury. The latest comes in the form of the December issue of Neurosurgical Focus which is dedicated to Concussion: Pathophysiology & Sequelae.

The guest editors selected 11 articles focusing on methods of diagnosing concussion and evaluating its consequences, structural and functional changes that can occur in the brain following concussion, and changing attitudes and legislation concerning sports that traditionally carry risks of brain injury. It is quite a frightening read for lovers of the bash and bang games.

No room on the mountain so … The French government has acted to ban visitors to a mountain in the French Pyrenees that doomsday cultists claim will be the only place still standing after the end of the world on December 21. To avoid pandemonium on the Pic de Bugarach anyone landing in a light aircraft will be arrested and gatherings of any kind will not be allowed. To compensate my readers thus deprived of salvation on the day of doom as predicted apparently by the Mayan calendar, the best I can offer is this version of a similar event originally performed in Beyond the Fringe:

Practical advice for the festive season. Seven ways to open a wine bottle that has a cork without using a corkscrew:

Bring forth a King Richard. I’m quite sure the early markets have got it all wrong. Surely John does not deserve to top the list on the Crikey Royal Baby Name Selection Indicator but there it is this morning along with Victoria and George. Bring back Britain’s lion-hearted tradition is what I say.