Newspoll: the poll that grabs your attention even when (officially) you’re not reading it

Meanwhile, the antics of our animal friends never fail to delight and divert everybody.

Whatever you do, don’t look at the polls. The Australianeditorialises, September 28:

In the three years between now and the next election there are likely to be 70 or more Newspoll surveys published in The Australian. This gives Malcolm Turnbull ample opportunity to recover in the polls and demonstrate that he will not allow such transient measures to dictate his mood or deeds. But there is, of course, more than enough time for the Prime Minister to fall victim to his own poll-driven political narrative. After all, it was Mr Turnbull who set the benchmark on the day he announced his leadership challenge against Tony Abbott last year. “We have lost 30 Newspolls in a row,” he said. “It is clear the people have made up their mind about Mr Abbott’s leadership.”

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield can’t quite keep his eyes averted from things psephological. Patricia Karvelas’s Sky News show, October 2:

Karvelas: How do you explain Newspoll (48-52 in Labor’s favour)? Because you’ve had a couple of wins — absolutely significant wins in my view. Omnibus bill — absolutely significant. Super changes, backpacker changes that you’ve articulated now. You’re clearly getting some runs on the board but you’re not being rewarded for it. Why not?

Fifield: It’s early days in a new term of parliament. We’re not looking at the polls. What we want to do is good ­policy …

Karvelas: Did you look at the results of that Newspoll into the plebiscite?

Fifield: I saw them in the paper, yes.

Dad jokes reworked as headlines. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food section, yesterday:

O broth, where art thou?

The darling buns of May.

Headlines that make you wonder why you read them. Fairfax Media Daily Life section, yesterday:

Why we can’t stop giving pregnant women advice they don’t want

I love leggings, but this is holding me back from buying more

Wear a ruffle dress for Frocktober.

There’s more to pets than pats. ABC News online, September 28:

Our cities are more densely packed than ever before, with people and their dogs living in smaller dwellings and vying for increasingly limited public space. The urban dog has an emerging political identity and, given its place as humanity’s “best friend”, deserves positive consideration in city planning. (Yet) even within our homes dogs can be perceived as a nuisance: barking, digging, slobbering and annoying neighbours. “Nuisance dogs” are everywhere — even if the dogs aren’t aware of it themselves.

Tony two-ways? Former prime minister Tony Abbott sounds a warning about Brexit in Britain’s The Times,
April 2:

The best course is to continue to demand that Europe change, not to insist that Britain leave … There’s much to dislike about the EU but very little that would be improved if Britain left.

Thanks for your support. Abbott, UK-Australia Chamber of Commerce breakfast, London, Monday:

I’m not sulking because Britons failed to take my advice. Now that it’s happened, I’m quietly thrilled that the British people have resolved to claim back their country.

Abbott’s crush on the Anglosphere goes way back, Battlelines (2009):

(The Anglosphere is) a solidarity based on ideas in common and even mutually shared differences of opinion rather than on race, religion or economic self-interest.