[tdw]

Originally Posted by sailaway21

America will miss steady John Howard and, if what you say of the new Labour government is true, it seems that the overall direction of the country will remain the same. Good economies tend to promote that.

I am somewhat puzzled that you had anti-VietNam protesters in the late seventies, the war having been over for the better part of 5 years at such point. Some in Oz might not have gotten the warning about the brown acid. (g)

Sway, you need glasses. Go back and read that again.

(thankheavansfortheeditbuttonhesighed. )

You are right about the country's direction. Sure there are basic differences twixt ALP and Liberal but if we put total partisanship aside they are somewhat pea poddish these days. Harsh reality is that governments do run out of steam after a few terms and that was definitely the case with the Libs. Labor is more inclined towards fiddling with the status quo than the Liberals who do have a tendency to dwell overly much on the past. This has much to do with the fact that for 24 years we had the same PM, a man who was extremely conservative in his views and was overly British in his outlook. That man, Robert Menzies is still considered to be heart and soul of the Liberal party.

Ref the American alliance, there has only really been one major period of dissension in my lifetime and that was when Whitlam was elected in 1972. Your mob loathed him. Interestingly enough however it was a Labor PM who was most responsible for forging that alliance which was during WWII when Curtin realised that our future was more closely aligned with the US and Asia than it was with the UK and Europe.