PMs in pain

HAVING spent a week nursing the emotional bruises from Kevin Rudd's final prime ministerial press conference, it was almost too much to bear yesterday when another former PM was left to confront bitter disappointment in public.

HAVING spent a week nursing the emotional bruises from Kevin Rudd's final prime ministerial press conference, it was almost too much to bear yesterday when another former PM was left to confront bitter disappointment in public.

During his interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell, John Howard was as stoic as was possible about his rejection by the International Cricket Council. But it was clear there was a lot of hurt going on, as well as the unspoken possibility of some Robert Mugabe effigy-burning action later on (though it's possible Strewth is over-extrapolating on this final point). So we must express our gratitude to Liberal frontbencher Peter "Star quality" Dutton for his role in Howard's emotional rescue. It happened when Mitchell quoted Dutton's characterisation of Howard's snubbing as a "significant diplomatic and international issue". The former member for Bennelong was instantly cheered up and chortled in disbelief. "Nice of Peter to have put it in those terms," he observed upon regaining composure.

And now for July

ONE of the star performers the night before Rudd's political demise was Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes, who went on Lateline to prosecute with great vigour the case for lopping Rudd. So when Howes yesterday tweeted, "The AWU July intensive begins today", political commentator Laurie Oakes, whose dry, almost sardonic tone translates well to Twitter, was quick to respond: "Wasn't the AWU intensive enough last week?" We can only assume that that was the June intensive; lord knows what they've got in mind for this month.

He's back. Oh good

THE arrival of July means, glory of glories, that the annual Ron Barassi Sr Memorial Debate is nearly upon us. Organised by the Tasmanian chapter of The Lord's Taverners Australia, which raises money to get young and disabled Tasmanians into sport, the debate will be held at Hobart's Wrest Point Casino late this month and will again feature John Elliott. Who can forget Elliott's stellar contribution to last year's debate? It was first reported in Strewth at the time and featured gems such as this: "When I was at Carlton in my 20 years . . . I think we had people who claimed to be raped by our players -- women they were, not men -- on four or five occasions. Not once did any of those stories get into the press because in those days they probably only had 20 people writing in the press and they weren't interested in all that sort of nonsense. We'd pay the sheilas off and wouldn't hear another word." Will Elliott rise to the occasion again? Will he at the very least leave opinion as split as boxing champ Danny Green's lip following his encounter this week with the appositely named, 17-year-old Palm Island pugilist Reggie Palm Island? Just remember, it's all in a good cause.

Is it Ruddish? Yes

WHILE Rudd busies himself with his duties as a local member (which appear to include advertising his address in front of TV cameras), Julia Gillard has yet to shake off his presence entirely. Already we've heard her busily prefacing statements with "Can I say?", but other Ruddish habits have been popping up, such as the do-it-yourself interview. Try this on for size: "Should there be fair rules and, you know, good standards, you've raised the question of importing food, do I believe the food we import should be absolutely safe and we should have good quarantine arrangements and all the rest? Yes I do." That's barely a fairly shaken sauce bottle away from a moment of purest Kev. Meanwhile, the part of Gillard's brain devoted to the provision of whimsically priced shadecloths and dunnies under the Building the Education Revolution might note that the British supermarket chain Tesco is offering a DIY, flatpack, five-room log cabin for the princely sum of pound stg. 9999 ($17,500). Sure, it has more than a touch of Ikea about it, but at one 45th the price of one of those toilet blocks, we could be on our way to surplus.

Help is wanted

FORMER Beattie government adviser Ross Musgrove, one of many embroiled in the vote-rorting allegations of the Shepherdson inquiry, has been appointed opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek's new chief of staff. Musgrove most recently worked for the Queensland Police Union, so Langbroek will be hoping he can help the Liberal National Party benefit from the stoush between Queensland Police and the Crime and Misconduct Commission. But Musgrove and Langbroek would do well to avoid anything that resembles the notorious memorandum of understanding where the conservatives agreed to a union wishlist in exchange for their members' political support. Unless they're really keen to supply Strewth with material.

Chocolate cow snot

DESPITE ranking chocolate's importance somewhere between beer and oxygen, Strewth has been unsettled by some of Cadbury's new posters. Specifically the one that features the Cadbury cow declaring , "I never say no to an encore of smooth and creamy . . ." As she's ramming a tongue deep into her own left nostril at the time, the message is a touch ambiguous.