Peter Lindsay and that fridge

My earlier prediction that the Prince of Herbert, Peter Lindsay, would be looking for a smaller fridge after supporting Malcolm Turmoil in the recent successful takeover of the parliamentary Liberal by the ultra conservatives is looking more certain every day.

Shadow Parliamentary Secretary and junior ministry positions are one of the prizes that the Mad Monk can use to reward his supporters in his recent one-point win over Turmoil. To enable him to do so, he will quietly drop Turmoil supporters from the ranks of junior ministers and Parl Secs, including The Prince, and replace them with his own.

That’s how the game is played.
The Prince will be left with a smaller fridge, a smaller postal and staffing allowance and with a party manifesto devoid of a free market solution to reducing emissions. He will have to sell a no-ETS, no pollution pricing or taxing policy while knowing full well that we can’t achieve the necessary changes to behaviour or the economy without them. And there’s every chance he’ll have to sell a nuclear energy policy to boot.

But then, he effectively admitted in today’s Oz what the next election is about for the Libs - shoring-up their core conservative (resistant to change) constituency.

"Abbott will be able to bring them back into the tent," Mr Lindsay said of the Nationals yesterday. "That will stop the political bleeding that's happened in Queensland, and we will better work together."

The problem for Peter is that, on a -0.4% margin, he has to keep that core rusted-on constituency while winning the middle ground – no wonder he needs a hug.

Perhaps he should look at getting an esky rather than a smaller fridge.