Monday, October 17, 2005

Crossing the floor

This Australian Politics Test on the Oz Politics Blog gives one a great deal to think about -- though not as much as a similar test I once did whose results showed that my patched-together DIY belief system made me some sort of default cross between a Quaker and a Buddhist. This new quiz reckons that my answers define me as half Democrat and half Green -- news to me, but there you go.

Mapped on the results graph as one is by a red (!) blotch covering the area from Centre Left to Far Left, it's a relief in a way to realise one has not yet become too rabid or too set in one's ways to be unable to make any approving noises at all about John Howard even when he does something halfway decent. Given the near-absolute power of his party, it's good to see him steadily ignoring his conservative-Catholic Health Minister's random thought-bubbles (as Julia Gillard calls them) about new and ever more insidious ways to stop women having any power at all over their own reproductive functions and activities.

Howard seems to be quite firm in his refusal to wind back this particular clock, as well as to have a relatively open mind on stem cell research and even -- I find this quite amazing -- the possible legalisation of RU-486. Good on the Liberal MP Sharman Stone for her activism on this, and indeed good on what seems to be a fairly extensive network of Liberal Party women at both state and federal level for their solidarity and hard work behind the scenes to make sure the Mad Monk doesn't get his way on these questions.

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