Bill Shorten takes his iron supplement and declares the laddie’s not for turning
Greg Brown on The Australian’s website yesterday:
Bill Shorten has invoked Margaret Thatcher … to declare he would not yield to pressure to amend Labor’s promise to axe cash refunds for franking credits. “We’re not for turning,” Mr Shorten told the ABC.
Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative Party conference in 1980:
To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: you turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning
What other invoking could Shorten do? Thatcher marking her 10th anniversary as PM on May 3, 1989:
You know, if you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything, wouldn’t you, at any time? And you would achieve nothing!
Yet she could be flexible. Thatcher on the BBC on December 17, 1984:
I like Mr Gorbachev. We can do business together.
Up to a point. At a European Council meeting on March 31, 1982:
I am extraordinarily patient — provided I get my own way in the end.
Thatcher interviewed on Italian television on March 10, 1986:
I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.
This one just might not make Shorten’s list. Thatcher on May 20, 1965:
If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.
Also unlikely. Thatcher in Woman’s Own on September 23, 1987:
… they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.
Thatcher, who presumably only spent her own, on February 5, 1976:
Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.
A beautiful friendship begins. Christopher Pyne on Twitter yesterday:
A good idea every 25 yrs is not enough but Kim Carr has now had one — I agree with him that the unis should look to the model of The Conversation to continue the contribution of MUP. It would be a shame to lose that independent publishing voice for all except academic treatises.
Insiders executive producer Samuel Clark on Twitter yesterday after a cameraman collapsed on set:
For those at home worried about our camera operator, he’s on his feet and chatting to paramedics.
Offsiders executive producer Kate Sullivan also tweeting:
(Aussie Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander) gave preliminary first aid waiting to appear on #Offsiders.
And the crucial ingredient? Insiders guest Bill Shorten on Twitter:
I’ve spoken to the #Insiders camera operator and he is doing fine Thanks to the very professional ABC team on this morning.
7 News Brisbane’s Twitter account reshaping the acronym for Royal Australian Air Force on Friday:
Defence chiefs say an R-Double AF fighter jet may have fired the weapon that killed 18 members of an Iraqi family during the battle for Mosul.