Weed it and weep

PARDON us, but is that ABC News 24 we see trampling all over Strewth's turf?

It felt a little like that the other night when the arm of the public broadcaster dedicated to feeding our insatiable hunger for news around the clock, gave us a story on, of all things, the azaleas and whatnot that grow in Speaker Harry Jenkins's garden at Parliament House. Still, at least they got the heavy-hitting Quentin Dempster to introduce it. But it did get us wondering: would the competition do a petals of politics piece? So we asked. Alas, a Sky News producer (whose modesty prevents us from naming them) suggests it is, rather like the prospect of accidentally dying in an avalanche of kittens, unlikely: "We don't have time to smell the flowers." However, our mystery producer does add this charitable reflection - and we should warn you, in the interest of public mental health and safety, the following line does contain a horticultural pun so powerful it should not be gazed upon with the naked eye for longer than three seconds: "Perhaps the ABC was actually doing an investigative piece and was looking for the [Treasury] leeks in Jenkins's garden."

Don't wrap for PM

QUOTE of the week was surely courtesy of Julia Gillard, who mused during an interview on the wireless: "I'm a substance, not slogans, sort of person. I'm the sort of person who on Christmas Day wants to rip the packaging off and see what the present is. Other people like to look at the wrapping paper and comment on that, so I wanted to get right down to the substance." If this means we will never again be implored to "move forwards" - and we mean never in an Oxford Dictionary sense and not a John Howard-describing-the-prospect-of-a-GST sense - then it would seem Christmas has come early. Thanks, Prime Minister!

Ode to being blue

STREWTH has been quietly amazed these past couple of months, watching mesmerised as the apparent Liberal love for Kevin Rudd continues to grow as profuse and apparently unstoppable as a choko vine up a dunny wall. Think of the outcry from Tony Abbott's team when Rudd was given the chop, an outcry that reverberates to this day, the pain evidently as fresh as the day it happened. Think of the noises they make about Rudd going overseas; what can this be but a barely veiled desire to keep Kev close to the conservative bosom? And, as we discovered earlier this week, even Alexander Downer, who in recent times has been only too happy to share his considered opinion that Rudd is a "f . . king awful person", has changed his tune. All well and good, but what really made us sit up was John Dobinson, one of Strewth's most prolific correspondents and, it's probably fair to say, not a dyed-in-the-wool Labor supporter, who concludes his latest epic poem to us thus: "To thine own self be true, his conscience should say / And a fine minister he would be on the other side, / Leave the scumbags, Ruddee, and kick for the Blues." It makes a change from people suggesting Malcolm Turnbull cross the floor and join Labor.

Nah . . . yeah

A LITTLE earlier this year, our colleagues Brett Clegg and Damon Kitney, as well as The Age's Adele Ferguson, reported on Leighton chief executive Wal King and the prospect of Spanish construction giant ACS launching a takeover bid for King's nemesis: Hochtief, the German construction company that happens to be the major shareholder in Leighton. A couple of weeks ago, The Australian Financial Review deployed Anne Hyland to eloquently pooh-pooh their thesis, saying "the only one pushing this deal is Leighton CEO Wal King". Fast forward to Thursday night in Europe where an all-stock takeover offer for Hochtief was publicly launched by - the envelope of no surprises, please - ACS. As a safety precaution, the Fin's advice is hidden behind a pricey paywall.

A pope with guns!

AS Pope Benedict XVI visits Britain, The Guardian has taken the opportunity to turn papal tours into a competitive sport of sorts, judging by this headline: "Pope's visit: not quite John Paul II, but thousands turn out for Benedict." The Times, on the other hand, pondered what could have been, reminiscing about the time the Pope Mobile almost received a serious beefing up: "Manuel Patin, of American Security and Armouring International, which carried out the modifications, had also suggested adding gun ports. 'That was dismissed by the Vatican,' he said in an interview in 1999. 'It was decided it wouldn't look good for the Pope to fight back.' " Just imagine - a Pope Panzer! Though that might have attracted the wrong sort of convert.

20 years ago today

THEY say time flies when you're having fun, but as much fun as we're having, we're pretty sure time doesn't fly quite as fast as we implied yesterday when we suggested this was the 20th anniversary of the Sydney Olympics, which were of course held in 2000. It was either a fat-fingered or thin-brained moment here at Strewth central. And there were we, thinking how splendidly Cathy Freeman was ageing.