Simon Rumble’s blog

I've been thinking about the election result this morning. It's very depressing, but has to be done.

If Howard's agenda with control of the whole parliament is as radical as I would expect, things could be good for the next election. Any backlash will only help The Greens, and should see Labor back in. That said, these guys are nothing if not slick manipulators of the zeitgeist, so anything could happen.

The thing that really bothers me is the effect this will have on Labor. Latham had to really push to get his excellent forests package through, particularly against the CFMEU. This huge loss for them is only going to strengthen their hand. I just hope it doesn't see Labor ditching the environment as an issue, arguing it's just a vote loser.

And I find myself strangely hoping that the Liberals win that last seat in Victoria. If Family First win it, we might see the Libs bending over for a bunch of lunatic Xtians. Argh! What a choice!

It's crunch time. The election is on tomorrow and I'll know by London lunchtime whether Australians have goldfish memory.

The result also has a very big bearing on whether I head home to Australia in the next few years. I really don't think I could bear to live in the narrowminded Australia that reelected an unpopular Howard due to the Tampa lies. I think it would be even worse to see him reelected again now that the lie is seen for what it is even by the dimwits who originally believed it.

So get out there and vote for someone who isn't Howard!

After quite a long break over the Summer, I've finally started brewing again. On Monday night I put a Woodeforde's Wherry all malt kit on. I'm gonna keg this one and have it for xmas day at Rachel's place.

Since I started using yeast nutrients (a teaspoon in the water), my fermentations have been a lot quicker starting and seem more vigorous. Must say I'd recommend them.

Bob Brown, to the news that logging trucks were going to blockade Launceston in support of the PM on forestry:

"This is the axles of evil on show".

A beautiful quote from Howard in this article about Labor's long-awaited Tasmanian forests policy.

"It's a grubby preference deal" which is pretty amusing coming from the party that is preferencing right-wing Christian party Family First.

"and if he can break his word to the workers of Tasmania why should any Australian believe any promise he makes to them at any stage during this election campaign." So Mr Howard, is that a core promise or a non-core promise?

Holly and I went hiking in Snowdonia over the weekend with Andrew Allen and one of his mates. Andy, being the gung-ho type, insisted on doing the hardest route via Crib Goch which was more a rock climb than a scramble.

At about 17:00 we started to worry about daylight, and were just working out what we should do when some very experienced hill runners (yes, runners!) came up to us. They advised us to return the way we'd come, which was up a steep, rocky cliff.

With their help, we made it just in time for dusk. We're actually very very lucky that we ran into those guys when we did!

Now, however, we're both incredibly sore. It was probably the toughest "hike" I've ever done. And certainly the scariest.

Photos shortly.

I'm now, clearly, super-famous in blogistan. W00t!

Steve points out an interesting use of Firefox's new "Live Bookmark" feature. Point it at the RSS of your del.icio.us account and you've got instant synchronised bookmarks. This is a problem I've talked about before.

Only problem with this approach is you just get them in chronological order, losing all of del.icio.us's categorisation features. You can painstakingly go and add each category, but there needs to be a nicer solution.

My, isn't this a surprisingly on-message letter to the The Australian Times from one "Cameron Reynolds"