Cocktails and Records

I have been resisting the temptation to write about last week’s Australian election results. As a national traitor who abandoned the country at the beginning of the ‘Howard years’ and who barely keeps up with the politics of the nation, I am hardly qualified to go into it.

However, what has been interesting is the British press reaction to the news of the Kevin Rudd and (not very labour) Labor victory over John Howard’s (not very liberal) Liberal party. Has Howard’s legacy been deconstructed and analysed? Is there discussion about whether Rudd will save the country from becoming America’s 51st state? Very little, because the most important question for the British media is, of course, will Australia become a republic?

I really don’t know why anyone here cares. Australia will inevitably become a republic at some point and this is hardly going to have a tremendous impact on Britain when it does. It’s just a matter of pride and identity really and the UK, or more to the point England, is going to have to face up to its crumbling empire at some point.

I say that Australia will inevitably become a republic, but it does feel a long way away. According to some newspoll results I read recently in the Sydney Morning Herald only 45% of Australians support a republic, although the number did rise to 51% if Charles was to be King…

Either way, these are very low numbers and with the complete apathy shown towards the issue by Labor, it’s probably more likely that Scotland will become a bloody republic before Australia does…