no bull view of the election

The following is from Egoli and is IMO an no bull view of the election





Election Time
7/10/04 By: David Nelson

By this time next week it will be all over, it may be a close call and I doubt whether there will be a hung parliament as this is very rare indeed. There will be a winner and a looser and the shaping of our policy destiny for the next three years will be underway. Some will like the policy shaping whilst others will cry in despair. However life must go on and that is the way that I have called it for the past 40 years.


"This Old Turtle" commenced his working life as an employee in the early part of the 60’s and then went to the other side of the fence and became an employer from 1974 and is still in that position today. Liberal and Labour Governments have come and gone over the period and so have Prime Ministers and in casting my mind back to the early days I can still recall election speeches by Menzies. If I choose to delve into the deeper part of my brain I will probably find that I can recall snippets of the policy speeches of the 8 prime ministers whom have gone to the polls since the time of Menzies.

Time has taught me some valuable lessons about parliamentary elections and here they are:
Pork barrelling giveaways and promises tend to be at their greatest when the incumbent believes the election may be a close call.
If electoral promises are going to be broken, more tend to be broken in the first year of a government and I believe the premise behind it is, that it gives the electorate two years to get over it before government goes back to the polls.
The first year of government after an election tends to see a deficit rather than a surplus as the "pork barrelling" had to be paid from somewhere.
Most politicians tell a version of the truth but it can often be bent according to the platform or the agenda being addressed. Hence you have to learn to "Read between the Lies".
Politicians whom believe they are invincible have a tendency to eventually fall from grace and on their sword. The halls and corridors of parliament are littered with the faded memories of them.
Our senior citizens are a powerful force within the electorate and can make or break political aspirations. The "Grey Vote" has hindsight and can very easily see through the rhetoric of electoral spin with the economic myths that tend to get bandied about at election time.
Our equity market as a whole tends to do okay under either a Liberal or Labour Government. It is specific sectors that do better under, one or the other.
So, on Saturday, this Old Turtle will cast his vote, and knows that his single vote does not account for much in the in the political sea. However he will cast it for the party that he believes will serve in the best interest of Australia as a whole and not the self interest WIFM (what’s in it for me) radio listeners that believe parliament should be looking after them.

This Old Turtle also knows there is no point in losing sleep if the tables turn against the way he voted, as 40 years in business and the equity markets has taught him to go with the flow and not fight the policies of the government of the day, but to understand them and go to capitalise/profit from whatever opportunities that they may bring.