Labor Wins

What a fantastic result.

Today's result more than makes up for the disaster that was the 2004 election, that followed the wake of lies that started with the Tampa. Howard's gang of fearmongers and war merchants deserved to be kicked out on their arse 3 years ago. Instead they won over the electorate on the lie that the economy is more important than an unjust war in which hundreds of thousands of people are dying. Not only were the Liberals returned, of course, but they won control of both houses. How little did we know at the time that that was the beginning of the end. Without full control they wouldn't have introduced WorkChoices. And without WorkChoices, they might have won today. I wonder if Honest John is ruminating on the advice of St Teresa: there are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.

I dropped in to the Goodbye Party at a Holborn pub around 1pm, but still ringing with victory. The party was jointly organised by the London-based volunteers for Labor, the Greens and the Democrats. I looked around the bar tables, littered with empty Veuve Cliquot and Moet & Chandon bottles, and wanted to ask if there were any champagne socialists in the house... Everyone was in very high spirits, including, I noted, a staunchly right-wing friend of mine who braved the event, and later conceeded "they deserved to go".