Club Troppo

A Troppodillian referred me to this column by Paul Sheehan.

It is a very truthy column. Yea verily.

Your task, should you decide to accept it, is to point us to another column which is more misguided and ill-informed than it is. As you would know, the Troppo Mercedes Sports has been seized by underworld figures, but when it is returned, the winner will be flown to wherever it is found.

I don’t know much about this picture except that it seems to be begging to have a caption competition about it.  And here at Troppo, we’re never afraid of a challenge. Nothing is too serious to trivialise. So please supply us with a caption.  The winner of the comp will be flown to pick up the Troppo Mercedes Sports which has been garaged in Paris where it has been a stunt double in a movie about Princess Di.

When the boss wins the Christmas raffle it’s customary to draw again, and I wish I could think of an excuse to offer the prize in the election tipping contest to someone else. But you have to hand it to Nicholas for getting the House of Representatives result spot on. Even if Andrew Wilkie ends up winning in Denison, this blog’s most prolific contributor still has the closest prediction. The promised guest post on Club Troppo is all his as well.

Of course, if Labor ends up winning Hasluck, both the prize and the glory will be transferred to either Karl or David Kellam, depending on what happens in Denison.

High commendation goes also to Harry Clarke, who got the outcome right, but didn’t quantify it exactly. Harry’s ambivalent reaction to the election is well worth reading. And Edward Mariyani-Squire earns a very modest commendation for tipping that Labor would just fail to win an absolute majority.

Thus, five people predicted a hung parliament, which means that the four people who made contingent pledges will each donate $250 to the Red Cross’s Pakistan appeal. Thanks very much to Nicholas, John and Jaybee. When we include the non-contingent pledges from Conrad and Harry, that makes a total of $1150 raised from this exercise.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed.

I have no doubt about it. Labor will be returned with an increased majority.

With one week to go, the election campaign has descended to a level of debate at which rational argument is irrelevant. There’s little point in having a reasoned position on greenhouse policy, offshore processing or the efficacy of fiscal stimulus measures, if either (1) the parties are in agreement anyway, or (b) the parties’ most emphatic claims are nothing more than generic scaremongering, for example that Labor/Coalition policies will push up the cost of living, raise interest rates, or threaten jobs. It’s only a short step up from “Gillard/Abbott! Ooogaboogah!”

The contest is of interest only as a sporting spectacle. On that basis, I announce the following competition.

Predict the result of the election for the House of Representatives. Responses should be entered in the comments thread for this post. You should specify which party/parties will win government, and the extent of the majority. At present, for example, the composition is: ALP: 83, Coalition parties: 63, Independents: 4. So the Government has a majority of 16.

Update: The amount pledged for predictions accurate within five seats is now $100 $150 $200.
Update II: The deadline is extended to Thursday Friday. Have a stab, if you haven’t already.
(Continued)

subito constitit ante eltum tegumentum ferreum corporis tam occupatus fuerat in effugiendo e biblioghecca ut non animadvertisset quo iret. fortisan quod tenedbrae erant, haudquaquam agnovit ubi esset sciebat tegumentum ferreum corporis esse prope culina, sed debebat eesse quinque tabulatis altior illis.

Where does this paragraph come from? (And warning, I may have mistranscribed something above. I’m not being paid to work here so you’ll have to cope.)

As usual the prize is a Mercedes Sports of the Troppo editorial board’s choosing (I’ll be proposing to the board that you can have the one Ken’s driving). In addition, the winner will be flown first class to London to receive his Mercedes sports in an awards ceremony from the UK’s latest  Tony Blair clone, smooth new PM David Cameron.

Here’s a chart that appeared recently on the net – so you may be able to go find it or have already seen it. If you haven’t, can you figure out what it might be of?  The prize for winning is the usual (a Mercedes Sports).