What’s wrong with this picture? “Was the Union Jack in the PM’s Australian flag on Wednesday wrong?” wondered Crikey reader Paul Coulter. “I kept looking at Mr Howard during the TV clips on Wednesday night because something there didn’t seem quite right. Then I realised the flag was wrong. The red saltaire cross of the Irish component of the Union Jack was evenly spaced on the white background instead of having a broader white section on the clockwise side. Once I realised what the problem was, it stood out like the proverbial. It was suprising that none of his minders noticed it. A bit of a mistake firstly to get our flag wrong and secondly to put the PM in front of a wongly painted flag, don’t you think?” Indeed, Crikey has the comparison.*

The Howard version.

 

The original.

Have the Libs lost all hope?  This photo was sent to Crikey by an astute tipster. Look closely at the sticker above the wheel…

 

Life is beautiful for the DLP. The Democratic Labor Party launched its federal campaign website with the peculiar theme, ‘Life is Beautiful’ . The cheery site seeks to rejuvenate the ailing DLP on a platform of dignity and self worth – “Life is our focus,” it explains.

Vaile getz gnarly. Who says the Coalition has lost touch? Nationals leader Mark Vaile took to the streets of Tweed Heads on a skateboard this week, sporting a backwards cap and shiny white runners. Click the image below to watch the awkward display.

 

Howard adumbrates on rates. Are we finally witnessing a bit of honesty on the campaign trail? Of his 2004 election promise to keep interest rates at record lows, the PM  reportedly said:

It’s no one statement that totally, well very rarely, is it one statement that totally sort of, adumbrates the whole thing.

It’s the aggregate impression.

Adumbrates?

Adumbrate
adumbrate, adumbrated , adumbrating , adumbrates

    1. To give a sketchy outline of.

    2. To prefigure indistinctly; foreshadow.

    3. To disclose partially or guardedly.

    4. To overshadow; shadow or obscure.


Meanwhile in the Bernie Advocate ….


Kevin Rudd isn’t the only one feeling the effects of the campaign-that-never-ends. Tassie’s Bernie Advocate reports that local hairdresser Natalie Healey – who “talks to a lot of people and has her finger right on a community’s pulse” – reckon the electorate’s sick of campaign07. “Six weeks is too long, and I don’t think the campaign changes many people’s minds about how to vote,” she says.

‘That’ choir incident. Bev Twibell, The president of Devonport Senior Cits’ club – scene of Rudd’s infamous choir run-in– has taken out some space in the Bernie Advocate  to tell the real story behind the would-be PM’s visit.

 

*PIC CREDIT: AAP Image/Paul Miller