Contemplating the seeming inevitability of a Tory government after the next UK general election, Charlie Brooker writes:
Clearly some kind of self-defence is in order, which is why I’ve already started mentally withdrawing from the real world. It’s easy: all you have to do is imagine that the whole of life itself is just a low-budget daytime TV show, one you’re watching uninterestedly from the sofa with one eye while reading a magazine with the other.
This aptly describes the way I felt pretty much throughout the Howard years. Occasionally I’d get a bit worked up and shout at the screen - this blog is testament - but most of the time it was numb disengagement and keeping my mind on other things.
Following Australia’s transition to Ruddocracy, right-wing pundits pondered what the chattering classes would have to whinge about without their number-one hate figure. And the relatively infrequent postings on this blog in the past six months demonstrate the terrifying reality…
There just haven’t been that many things to get angry about.But that’s changing.
New South Wales Labor daily grows more arrogant, out of touch and incompetent while the state opposition flounders. Big Kev and pals have very poorly handled the transition from symbolic to practical. Their well-intentioned policy measures have been rife with unintended consequences. They’ve gone to jelly on petrol pricing when most punters accept the government can only tinker at the margins. The federal opposition has gone from ineffectual to unconscionable. The commercial media turns more crass, tabloid and trivial by the hour.
I’ve had a bit of a nap. It was a nice dream, but now it’s over and I’m grumpy as all hell.
