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A right-wing Phillip Adams?

Judith Brett, author of a forthcoming book on Australian Liberals, in the present issue of Arena Magazine, quoted in today's Australian:

In 1997, accusing the ABC of “too narrow a spectrum of views” on political and social issues, John Howard said: “It is one of my criticisms of the ABC that it doesn't have a right-wing Phillip Adams.” But the problem is that a right-wing Phillip Adams — someone with his capacity to talk intelligently on such a breadth of topics — is not easily imaginable in contemporary Australia.

The ABC has become a symbol to the Liberals of their loss of a constituency which was once their own. Ever since the intelligentsia defected to Labor with the coming of Whitlam, Liberals have viewed the ABC with suspicion...

The progressive middle class is now more likely to oppose the Liberal Party than support it; the commonplace people who share Howard's views are more likely to be listening to the shock jocks of talk-back radio than to the ABC. This is not necessarily an electoral problem, but it is a marked shift in the party's historical position.

Menzies would never have said, as Howard did shortly before the 2001 election: “I am scorned by the elites and held in such disdain.”

Of course the ALP seem to be doing an equally professional job of alienating the intelligentsia, and the Democrats are apparently imploding. It's a bit depressing.

posted Mon 21 Jul 2003 in /issues/politics/australia | link

Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Martin Pool.