The Bishop on political strife at home and a broad

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA―The Bishop was caught somewhere between aghast and bemused to read the latest developments in the John Brogden im-brog-lio. Hoping to get his campaign for the next state election off to a pre-emptively flying start, the New South Wales opposition leader took a cue from his federal counterpart, Prime Minister John Howard. Noticing that Howard’s policy of jailing immigrants has earned him much electoral success, Brogden felt certain that calling former premier Bob Carr’s Malaysian-born wife a mail-order bride ought to net him at least a few points in the polls. His resignation and suicide attempt followed shortly thereafter.

In a further ‘twist’, Brogden’s method of choice in not-quite-successfully taking his own life was reported as ‘self-inflicted stab wounds’. Which means that, if nothing else positive comes out this affair, at least we now know why the New South Wales Liberal Party is so damned inefficient.