The Poll Bludger
Analysis and discussion of elections and opinion polls in Australia
The only bit of new polling data I can identify from the past few weeks suggests Anthony Albanese has more than maintained his strong personal ratings over the New Year period.
Having waited rather too long for a new blog post topic to fall into my lap, here’s one that falls back on the regularly updated tracking poll of Anthony Albanese’s approval ratings maintained by US pollster Morning Consult, which maintains the exercise for twenty leaders internationally. While these numbers have been basically steady since June, they suggest that Albanese ended the year on something of a high, with his approval registering at either 59% or 60% after easing to 55% in November, and his disapproval down since that time from 32% to 28%.
As for when the polling treadmill will crank back into action, I note that the Age/Herald had a Resolve Strategic poll in the third week of last year, although that may have reflected the imminence of a federal election. Newspoll and Essential Research took a fortnight longer to resume regular transmission.
William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics. View all posts by William Bowe
Shower thought this morning: In the wake of Jim Molans death, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells might have been smarter to have kept her mouth shut about inadequacies (despite being true) of the Liberal party and Scott Morrison before the election after losing pre-selection for the third spot on the senate ticket.
She would possibly be in the box seat to be his replacement if she had not burnt her bridges. Not that I think she did anything to deserve to be as she is a fruit cake but it is never wise to speak in anger.
UK Cartoons:
Peter Brookes on #happyvalley3 #metropolitanPolice #PoliceBrutality
Martin Rowson on UK ministers blocking Scotland’s gender recognition law #NicolaSturgeon #RishiSunak #GenderRecognitionReformBill #TransRights #CultureWars
Dave Brown on #NicolaSturgeon #RishiSunak #GenderRecognitionReformBill #TransRights #CultureWars
Patrick Blower on #TeacherStrike #Teacher
Christian Adams on #BorisJohnson
There were reportedly 25 Palestinian children killed by Israeli troops in 2022. I doubt this was done ‘for fun’ but it certainly seems like indifference.
I volunteer as a logistics (strong backs and weak minds) person at the Canberra Lifeline Book Warehouse, accepting and processing upwards of two to three tonnes of books per day for Lifeline’s regular Bookfairs that fund the Tele support network.
We have a sweep operating where the winner will have nominated the day and am/pm time that the first copy of “Spare” reaches the warehouse.
I have to report that no copy has yet been donated. I will keep you updated.
I rang a good mate who was in Jim Molan’s class at RMC who said his death was expected but still came as a shock. There is a group of that class who live near and in Canberra that meet for lunch on a monthly basis and apparently Jim was still putting in an appearance but was obviously in declining health.
My mate always spoke of him as a good bloke but , knowing my mates decidedly left leaning politics (despite being a retired Lt Col) I never broached Jim’s decidedly extreme politics with him.
“Voice will not impede normal process of parliament, PM says”
From The Guardian live thread:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2023/jan/18/australia-news-live-updates-chalmers-china-economy-gdp-storm-flood-fire-victoria-queensland-albanese-voice-referendum
The barrage of misinformation, scaremongering and obfuscation about the Voice has started and it’s in full swing. It will be up to the government to keep informing the people (I expect a campaign of TV ads to start soonish, so that the People of Australia get appropriate technical information about this referendum: background, objectives, limits, procedure, etc.).
At this point in time, it’s clear that the Conservatives in the Coalition will oppose it, and other fringe right-wing parties will also oppose it. I expect ALP supporters to vote Yes, I also expect Moderate Liberals (e.g. Teals supporters) to also vote yes. But I am waiting for the Greens to get off the fence and come on board. This is a clear Yes-No proposition about the Voice. Don’t confuse and mix this up with anything else, please!!
I far prefer to win the referendum than to lose it and then hope that the ALP government will do something about the Voice by other means. It’s truly important to have direct majority support from the People!!
Boris Pistorius has been elevated from obscurity to Germany’s new Defence Minister:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/17/germany-new-defence-minister-boris-pistorius-ukraine
Critically, in terms of both achieving and signalling a change in Germany’s direction from dragging its feet to urgently helping Ukraine defend Europe from Russian imperial expansion:
“Importantly for Scholz, Pistorius has spoken out in favour of helping Ukraine defend itself, and expressed his scepticism earlier on in the conflict about the efficacy of sanctions against Russia.”
This is another good development for Ukraine.
America’s blind spots also include religion, American exceptionalism, anything labelled socialist, and a reasonably good TV show starring Jaimie Alexander.
More on Germany’s new Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius:
“Colleagues described him on Tuesday as having a reputation among Germany’s other state interior ministers as a knowledgeable expert on domestic security. His biography indicates time spent doing his military service in the early 1980s, but otherwise he is not believed to have any military experience or expertise. National military service in Germany was scrapped in 2011. Since the invasion of Ukraine, there has been a debate about whether to reinstate it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/17/germany-new-defence-minister-boris-pistorius-ukraine
Sounds like someone with no patience for “escalation ‘BOO!’” dithering over arming Ukraine to defend itself properly.
After 38 degrees yesterday, nice to have fresh conditions and some much needed rain.
@nath: The trouble with that is the sources. Hamas lies; a lot of the NGOs in the area are credulous and just parrot anything Hamas tells them.
I think Israel has certainly become callous and cavalier over the years about “collateral damage”. It is also true that Hamas commonly places terrorist targets in places they know there will be such casualties if Israel strikes, using civilians as human shields.
It’s a shame so much of the progressive community has been firmly in the tank for Hamas for the past 20 years or so because much of the pressure on the Palestinians to change evaporated, while Israel just sees itself under siege from anti-Semites who put their fingers in their ears when Hamas calls for all Jews to be driven into the sea etc, and increasingly doesn’t listen to anyone but its mates in the American right wing (who are pro-Israel either for disturbing evangelical religious reasons or just because they hate Muslims more, and either way are not the best allies to be listening to). Harsh as Israel is, Hamas has always not only accidentally killed civilians but outright targeted civilians with bombings and rockets, and yet people take their side!
In the 90s Israel had a great leader in Rabin and the conflict was on the verge of potentially being resolved. His assassination was one thing that derailed that, but the other was the Palestinians “never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity”.
We all saw how America reacted to 9/11. I have no doubt that if there was a terrorist group bombing Australian school buses, Australians would be very happy to do to their people what Israel does to the Palestinians, so I take with a lot of salt pious pronouncements from here about how callous the Israelis are.
“The British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, will join counterparts from Poland and the Baltic countries in Estonia to mount a final attempt to put pressure on Germany to authorise sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine this week.
The meeting of so-called “Leopard coalition” of countries willing to or keen to see western tanks sent to Kyiv comes a day before a group of about 50 defence ministers assemble in Ramstein, Germany to discuss future weapons shipments to Ukraine.
Defence sources said a purpose of the meeting on Thursday was “to encourage the Germans” if no decision has been made by Berlin before then, although the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is due to speak at the Davos summit on Wednesday afternoon.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/17/ben-wallace-and-eu-defence-ministers-to-press-germany-over-tanks-to-ukraine
Now Berlin has a new Defence Minister who is on the record supporting greater and faster weapons support for Ukraine, they can expect a much more sympathetic hearing than they would have with Christine Lambrecht. If, indeed, the issue is still undecided by the Ramstein meeting.
@Arky, I concur with what more than a few people have said over the years, if the Palestinians had widely adopted passive resistance they would have achieved most of their aims and had overwhelming international support in doing so.
As a “proud” Ngarigo woman and coupled with her public standing, Barty would add a positive voice to the Voice referendum, as would Goolagong Cawley. I hope they’re at least invited to do ads for it.
“Moscow accused the west of waging a proxy war against it”
I think it would be more accurate to describe it as Moscow waging a proxy way against the West in the Ukraine, and the West is proxy defending by arming Ukraine to fight back, but sure.
This whole scenario reminds me in a way of how the Iraq war happened.
Saddam Hussein was convinced that he could play silly buggers with the UN weapons inspectors and act like maybe he did have something he was hiding (which was actually for domestic consumption and consumption of internal threats like the Kurds) because he’d been led to believe he could get away with it by what he was being told by Western diplomats and by how the UN and US acted towards past niggling breaches of UN resolutions.
Had Saddam known in no uncertain terms that Bush and co would go to war on the slightest pretext he would not have given that pretext.
Well, Russia was led to believe by the lack of Western reaction to the Crimea takeover and indeed the lack of Ukrainian response to it at the time (crucially, under a different government!) that they could just take more of the Ukraine when they wanted to.
Had Putin known they were going to get bogged in this situation, I really doubt he invades.
I am not convinced the West would have reacted any more than they reacted to Crimea had not the Ukrainian defence in the early days of the war and public sentiment in favour of Ukraine not shamed Western leaders into helping.
@nath – yes I think it’s a great shame they didn’t do that. Gandhi a better role model than fucking Arafat. Against a passive resistance campaign I don’t think there’s the same fear and hatred in Israel that has driven both the continuing election of Netanyahu and the Israeli brutal military tactics. There’s not the need for things like walls and Iron Dome (this is one of those things that make Israelis ignore outside critical voices – people on the outside decry Israel putting up these barriers on some kind of principled grounds, while Israelis see the evidence that they have saved civilian lives from bombing and rocket attacks and think people decrying them just want to see Israelis killed).
Did anyone listen to the interview between Ben Fordham and the PM this morning wrt the Voice? Peter Dutton has just described it as ‘a train wreck of an interview’. Where ‘the PM didn’t even know the detail himself’. Was it?
Also, Dutton has, sotto voce, just committed to not supporting the Voice and only being willing to support ‘Closing the Gap’. What an absolute bastard that man is. He wants the scalp of the PM. He also doesn’t want Australia to be a better place as a result of rectifying the wrongs of our Colonial past.
Arky @ Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 10:38 am:
“Well, Russia was led to believe by the lack of Western reaction to the Crimea takeover and indeed the lack of Ukrainian response to it at the time (crucially, under a different government!) that they could just take more of the Ukraine when they wanted to.
Had Putin known they were going to get bogged in this situation, I really doubt he invades.
I am not convinced the West would have reacted any more than they reacted to Crimea had not the Ukrainian defence in the early days of the war and public sentiment in favour of Ukraine not shamed Western leaders into helping.”
========================
Arky, a mere “+1” to this does complete injustice to how thoroughly I agree with your take here. The great statement from President Zelenskyy to change the course of this war was, and remains:
“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”
Sceptic at 7.35 am
Changing something so it loses its meaning is a prolonged North American past-time. See:
https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/gild-the-lilly/
‘“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily…” was misquoted in an allusion to this phrase [see below] by the Newark Daily Advocate in 1895, “One may gild the lily and paint the rose” was the misquote and it seems to have caught on: it replaced the original. “Paint the lily” was generally used, even into the twentieth century, but the idiom is now more frequently rendered as “gild the lily” and “painting the lily” is disappearing fast.’
For Shakespeare: ‘The actual reference from the play, King John, Act 4, Scene 2, is:
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily
To throw a perfume on the violet
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.’
According to the fake media in the US, accurate phrasing is pointless in a marketing world.
A standard North American dictionary says Shakespeare’s original wording is redundant.
See: https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/gild%20the%20lily-2008-04-04
There you have it. The Newark Daily Advocate in 1895 mangled the phrase and fake America thinks that’s fine and dandy.
The problem, as explained by the French theorist Paul Ricoeur, is that language and meaning are based on metaphors. Mangle the metaphors and the clarity of Shakespeare is long gone.
For Ricoeur’s book The Rule of Metaphor (1975) see:
http://library.mibckerala.org/lms_frame/eBook/Ricoeur%20-%20The%20Rule%20of%20Metaphor%20(Routledge).pdf
C@tmomma says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 10:47 am
Did anyone listen to the interview between Ben Fordham and the PM this morning wrt the Voice? Peter Dutton has just described it as ‘a train wreck of an interview’. Where ‘the PM didn’t even know the detail himself’. Was it?
Also, Dutton has, sotto voce, just committed to not supporting the Voice and only being willing to support ‘Closing the Gap’. What an absolute bastard that man is. He wants the scalp of the PM. He also doesn’t want Australia to be a better place as a result of rectifying the wrongs of our Colonial past.
________________________________
Even if the referendum goes down, he won’t get Albanese’s scalp. He has put Australia’s prestige on the line in the coming referendum, not the government’s or his own. As I’ve said before, Dutton will gain nothing from opposing the voice and could well lose (or keep lost) a lot of the support needed to retrieve the Liberal heartland. If he keeps going the way he started, I can see a new ‘Liberal’ party emerging as a response to the takeover by McMansion outer suburbanites and religious nutters.
While I don’t know why Albanese gives someone like Ben Fordham the time of day and I’m sure Fordham gave him a hard time, Dutton would look at Albanese walking on water and say “Albo can’t swim!” so ignore anything Dutton says IMO.
Dutton’s response to the Voice is entirely predictable. It’s rather like the Tories’ hyperbole on the overturning of the terra nullius doctrine & the ensuing native title legislation.
Arky @ Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 10:38 am:
“Well, Russia was led to believe by the lack of Western reaction to the Crimea takeover and indeed the lack of Ukrainian response to it at the time (crucially, under a different government!) that they could just take more of the Ukraine when they wanted to.
Had Putin known they were going to get bogged in this situation, I really doubt he invades.
I am not convinced the West would have reacted any more than they reacted to Crimea had not the Ukrainian defence in the early days of the war and public sentiment in favour of Ukraine not shamed Western leaders into helping.”
______________________________________
There are two scenarios in which the west would not have helped Ukraine.
First, if Putin had only sought to take the Donbas region. I suspect that there would have been a bit more hullabaloo than happened in Crimea, but no serious military support.
Secondly, if Putin’s invasion plan had been successful by taking Kiev and decapitating the Ukrainian leadership. That it was not successful was due in substantial part to Russia’s appalling planning and utter ignorance of their own military weaknesses. This allowed a foothold from which the very brave Ukrainian military resistance could take them on, leading to the present situation. That resistance, of course, came from the top down with, as EA has pointed out, the famous declaration by Zelenskyy that he was not going to save his own skin at the expense of his nation (no doubt a major surprise to his people given the venal previous history of Ukrainian Presidents).
Cat at 10.47 am
There seems to be a link here:
https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/pm-downplays-detail-concerns-about-voice-likening-to-sydney-harbour-bridge/news-story/8301053b643e69f996f3d91f217ef13e
The text there does not support Dutton’s mis-timed bombast. Mis-timed because so few people are listening at this time of year. The timing is because Dutton is under pressure to clarify his position in the next week, by Invasion Day. The fence is an uncomfortable perch.
Re Dutton: “What an absolute bastard that man is.” Surely that has been common knowledge since 13 February 2008, when the bastard walked out on Rudd’s Apology speech.
C@tmomma says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 10:47 am
Did anyone listen to the interview between Ben Fordham and the PM this morning wrt the Voice? Peter Dutton has just described it as ‘a train wreck of an interview’. Where ‘the PM didn’t even know the detail himself’. Was it?
Also, Dutton has, sotto voce, just committed to not supporting the Voice and only being willing to support ‘Closing the Gap’. What an absolute bastard that man is. he wants the scalp of the PM. He also doesn’t want Australia to be a better place as a result of rectifying the wrongs of our Colonial past.
____________
Dutton may or may not see our colonial past as containing wrongs. He is certainly playing to an audience who need to believe our past doesn’t contain wrongs. That audience doesn’t believe any change in relations between mainstream Australia and first nations peoples (whom they would never call ‘first nations peoples’) is needed.
Remember Keating’s statement of truth: “Scratch some of those opposite hard enough and you’ll find a great deal of comfort with the White Australia Policy.”
I have no problem with him – or any Opposition Leader – wanting the scalp of a PM. It is part of the job.
I expect the Libs to oppose the Voice (most of them, anyway). I don’t expect the referendum to succeed in Qld, but it might elsewhere.
This issue threatens to reinforce Dutton’s Coalition as a bunch of right wing reactionaries, alienated from middle Australia.
TPOF @ #1119 Wednesday, January 18th, 2023 – 10:52 am
C@tmomma says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 10:47 am
Did anyone listen to the interview between Ben Fordham and the PM this morning wrt the Voice? Peter Dutton has just described it as ‘a train wreck of an interview’. Where ‘the PM didn’t even know the detail himself’. Was it?
Also, Dutton has, sotto voce, just committed to not supporting the Voice and only being willing to support ‘Closing the Gap’. What an absolute bastard that man is. He wants the scalp of the PM. He also doesn’t want Australia to be a better place as a result of rectifying the wrongs of our Colonial past.
________________________________
Even if the referendum goes down, he won’t get Albanese’s scalp. He has put Australia’s prestige on the line in the coming referendum, not the government’s or his own. As I’ve said before, Dutton will gain nothing from opposing the voice and could well lose (or keep lost) a lot of the support needed to retrieve the Liberal heartland. If he keeps going the way he started, I can see a new ‘Liberal’ party emerging as a response to the takeover by McMansion outer suburbanites and religious nutters.
Yes, but I don’t want Dutton to convince enough voters in the referendum, in enough states and territories, to vote ‘No’. Nor do I want the mendacious Lidia Thorpe to convince enough Greens’ voters to vote ‘No’, either.
And, yes, if Dutton et al., succeed in the ‘No’ vote getting up, then he will have the PM’s scalp because it’s the PM who has put so much of his own personal political capital into getting a ‘Yes’ vote.
Arky says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 10:54 am
While I don’t know why Albanese gives someone like Ben Fordham the time of day and I’m sure Fordham gave him a hard time, Dutton would look at Albanese walking on water and say “Albo can’t swim!” so ignore anything Dutton says IMO.
_____________________________________
I think he is trying to reach past Fordham to his listeners. The report in the Guardian suggests that he did not show Fordham much respect in putting Fordham’s dishonest questions and assertions in their place.
Continuing the Israel-Palestine thread because I ran out of edit time on the last post: my position is one or other party needs to unilaterally make the first step towards being “reasonable”. While Israel can say “we are fighting terrorists who want to bomb our children and say they want to drive all Jews into the sea”, and the Palestinians can say “we are fighting callous oppressors” and both sides continually claim to be merely retaliating against the previous misdeeds of the other, the conflict will go forever. And supporting either of them in their actions helps enforce this, which is why I get so annoyed at naive lefties whole-heartedly supporting the Palestinian side and raving about apartheid.
The only way there’s peace in the Middle East is for one side to turn reasonable and then for everyone to pile in and cut off support for the other side until they are forced to comply.
Had Rabin lived I think this may have happened in his time in office, with either successful peace negotiations or Palestinian support cut off had they gone back on the peace process and began the 2nd Intifada as they did in this timeline. Unfortunately, Rabin’s death gave us Netanyahu and Sharon and the failure to take the high road, coupled with Arab world outrage against the West after the war in Iraq to ensure continuing support for the Palestinian cause (which had been waning in the Arab world when it was just whiny Arafat against an Israel that was actually making friends with Egypt and Jordan) and now we’re here.
Thanks, Dr D. 🙂
Though, as I said to TPOF, I just don’t want the ‘No’ collective to succeed.
And I’m pretty sure that Dutton was lying about the ‘train wreck’ of an interview. As my old mum was wont to say, and I’m saying this about Fordham, he probably wanted to know ‘the ins and outs of a cat’s bum’, about the Voice.
Arky says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 10:42 am
‘…
Gandhi a better role model than fucking Arafat.
….’
———————————–
Of the two, I much prefer Gandhi… but…
India was always going to achieve independence. Gandhi may have marginally affected ‘when’. He certainly did not affect ‘whether or not’.
Was it ever possible that Israel would, by way of passive resistance by Palestinians, agree to the formation of a Palestinian state?
That is an interesting speculation and forms part of the frame by which to judge the strategic choices made by Arafat.
TPOF @ Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 11:00 am:
“… the famous declaration by Zelenskyy that he was not going to save his own skin at the expense of his nation (no doubt a major surprise to his people given the venal previous history of Ukrainian Presidents).”
=====================
A history excellently and very popularly satirised during the 2015-2018 series “Servant of the People”, starring guess-who as the fictional outsider President.
Barney in Belair says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 8:38 am
Upnorthsays:
Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 9:41 pm
Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has been ousted and expelled from the Communist Party with charges of corruption.
Phuc mi!
中华人民共和国
Phuc Yu!
https://www.pollbludger.net/2023/01/15/morning-consult-pm-approval-ratings-open-thread/comment-page-23/#comment-4047931
Next, questions about costings, who will pay …?
Mandela tried passive resistance.
He said it only worked against people who had a conscience.
TPOF @ #1126 Wednesday, January 18th, 2023 – 11:02 am
Arky says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 10:54 am
While I don’t know why Albanese gives someone like Ben Fordham the time of day and I’m sure Fordham gave him a hard time, Dutton would look at Albanese walking on water and say “Albo can’t swim!” so ignore anything Dutton says IMO.
_____________________________________
I think he is trying to reach past Fordham to his listeners. The report in the Guardian suggests that he did not show Fordham much respect in putting Fordham’s dishonest questions and assertions in their place.
Ah, so that’s what Dutton classes as ‘a train wreck of an interview’, putting Ben Fordham in his place. 😆
C@tmomma says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 11:04 am
Thanks, Dr D.
Though, as I said to TPOF, I just don’t want the ‘No’ collective to succeed.
And I’m pretty sure that Dutton was lying about the ‘train wreck’ of an interview. As my old mum was wont to say, and I’m saying this about Fordham, he probably wanted to know ‘the ins and outs of a cat’s bum’, about the Voice.
_________________________________
I would be surprised if the questions put by Fordham were not written at least 270km from the 2GB studios.
Dutton’s hysterical language- train wrecks, catastrophes etc… is just his impotence and frustration spewing out. I am not sure he enjoyed the 59.5-40.5 Morgan poll last night either.
This hyperbolic language around race is a replay of the Mabo and Wik responses from the Coalition- where we were all going to lose our homes.
Surely they aren’t going down that road a third time? (yes I know we are).
Alpo, earlier today, re The Voice
“It’s truly important to have direct majority support from the People!!”
——
Yes, and more than that. It plants the Aboriginality of this continent in its constitution. Never mind the limited functional rights it creates; it is that symbolism which colonisers don’t like, consciously or subconsciously.
Nice analogy used by Albanese by the way:
“The way that Noel Pearson has put it is that you’re making a decision over, whether there will be a Sydney Harbour Bridge or not and then you decide how many lanes it will be, which will go in what direction, what the toll will be some of that detail.”
From the guardian blog report.
Boerwar says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 11:05 am
Arky says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 10:42 am
‘…
Gandhi a better role model than fucking Arafat.
….’
———————————–
Of the two, I much prefer Gandhi… but…
India was always going to achieve independence. Gandhi may have marginally affected ‘when’. He certainly did not affect ‘whether or not’.
Was it ever possible that Israel would, by way of passive resistance by Palestinians, agree to the formation of a Palestinian state?
That is an interesting speculation and forms part of the frame by which to judge the strategic choices made by Arafat.
中华人民共和国
I personally like King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam (now Thailand). No other South East Asian Nation escaped European Colonisation but Chulalongkorn kept the Thai’s free (and ended slavery).
Wiki says of “Chula”
Chulalongkorn (Thai: จุฬาลงกรณ์, 20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910) was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, titled Rama V. He was known to the Siamese of his time as Phra Phuttha Chao Luang (พระพุทธเจ้าหลวง, the Royal Buddha).
Chulalongkorn’s reign was characterised by the modernisation of Siam, governmental and social reforms, and territorial concessions to the British and French. As Siam was surrounded by European colonies, Chulalongkorn, through his policies and acts, ensured the independence of Siam. All his reforms were dedicated to ensuring Siam’s independence given the increasing encroachment of Western powers, so that Chulalongkorn earned the epithet Phra Piya Maharat (พระปิยมหาราช, the Great Beloved King).
TPOF says:
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 11:16 am
Nice analogy used by Albanese by the way:
_______
And if he had said there will be $2 tolls and 7 lanes you would be saying that’s so decisive and visionary of him.
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