verging_on_random

Ah the Gold Coast … no feminism allowed

I enjoy reading local newspapers in Australia. They provide a unique insight into the things that really matter to people (I mean let’s face it, most of the stories in the MSM occupy the attention of the bulk of the population for about 35 seconds max. Apart from the sport of course.)

We’re spoilt for choice where I live. There’s the Northern Star, based in Lismore and covering the whole Northern Rivers area, and the Gold Coast Bulletin. Then there’s the Daily News, which nominally covers the Tweed Shire but since even on a broad definition of ‘news’ not enough happens in the Tweed Shire to fill a daily newspaper, it also tends to have lots of Gold Coast stories. The best thing about these local rags is that they don’t even make a pretence of being politically correct. They know they serve a readership that’s mainly old and conservative and they give the customers what they want.

Fortunately, to save having to pay good money for local gossip, there are a couple of free papers that are a kind of compendium of the week’s highlights. Needless to say they’re not online yet but I wanted to share this week’s front page story. The headline (in very large font) is:

The story concerns an argument about pensions - you know, those things that the Liberal party is now desperate to see increased without bothering to explain by how much or why they never got around to it during 11+ years in government. First there’s this nice line:

Since last year’s federal election, the pair are now among the most prominent women in Canberra.

Go on, try to think who TF Elliott and May are without cheating. Well done anyone who came up with Justine Elliott, a junior minister in the Rudd Government, but I doubt if anyone named Margaret May who’s an opposition MP from the Gold Coast. But that’s the nature of local media, they love anyone from the district and if they can boost them into national prominence they’re proud as punch.

But it’s the minor headline that I really loved:

Claws come out as Budget cat fight gets up close & personal

Can you imagine the reaction if Kerry O’Brien referred to an argument between Julie Bishop and Julia Gillard as a ‘cat fight’? But political correctness is pretty generally despised around these parts. If we see a couple of women arguing we pull up chairs and wait for them to start throwing crockery and pulling each others’ hair. That’s just the kind of old-fashioned folk we are.