Conservatism Down Under Hijacked and Amputated

A most unhappy Australian story that sounds quite familiar.

Hal G.P. Colebatch

It is now a year since the leftist Malcolm Turnbull seized the leadership of the Australian Liberal (i.e. conservative) Party and the Prime Ministership of Australia from the genuine conservative Tony Abbott, in a coup as conscienceless as it was stupid, and proceeded to set both the party and Australian conservatism on the road to ruin. Turnbull’s vaunted political skills, trumpeted by his admirers in the media, have been shown to be a myth. At the recent election a million fewer people voted for him than for Abbott. The healthy Parliamentary majority the party achieved under Abbott has been reduced to just one seat, and unless there is a change at the top the job looks certain to be completed by an outright Labor victory at the next election.

The situation is quite extraordinary — for, I think, the first time in Australian history, a Liberal leader is despised by large and important parts of his own party, and by Australian conservatives and conservative intellectuals and makers of political debate in general......To Read More....