Bluff, Bluster and Bulldust - Brisbane's Battling Bantam Throws His Ego Into The Ring.

Only in Queensland.

Banana-bending in these parts has always extended to rule-bending in the Sunshine State (time for a new moniker?), and we look set to end up with a completely unelected albeit a reputedly competent bloke calling the shots for the LNP opposition from outside the parliament. The `Pie, like many others, wondered at the implications for democracy as we know it (for what that's worth in this neck of the woods), but he is told it is all legally ticketyboo.

Enough has been written about all this hoohah elsewhere, so The Magpie will just allow himself to observe that Campbell Newman seems a bit full of himself. His head is getting big enough to have its own postcode, and it looks to be growing towards getting its own gravitional field which could attract its own moon. 

The Best Of A Bad Lot: Welcome Willy, Thanks For Leaving The Royal Rellies At Home.

The Poms are past masters at coining the most damning of phrases, and The Magpie was always taken with the title of the book about British television called 'The Least Worst Television In The World'. 'The Least Worst' must win the Damning With Faint Praise Award of recent times.

It is a phrase The Magpie is happy to pinch to describe the Royal Visit with which we've been graced in these troubled times. This is because the House of Windsor is looking a bit emotionally winded yet again, with the latest parade of pompous royals  demonstrating a fine belief of entitlement and ignoring the rules - legal and social -  that govern the rest of the us, the great unwashed.

Clicking For Candidates: Election Chaos Looms

The past week has been one to prove that being startled isn't the sole preserve of the leaping gazelle, and if not that, certainly one to induce deep contemplation.

A few things on telly have at least raised the eyebrow. Take, for instance, one Gail Kelly, the boss of Westpac Bank, who appeared on the ABC's Q & A show this week. When Ms Kelly was asked about her whopping $9.5million salary package, she replied `The first thing you have to remember is not to believe all the figures you are told'.

That this came from the head of one of the most gouging, wallet-whacking banks around was startlingly unusual, if inadvertently honest, advice. Should shareholders now wonder about the accuracy of the obscene multi-billion dollar profit result just announced?

The Recommendations and Government Replies on Voting Reform Report.

For those who are interested, The Magpie posts here the 33 recommended changes to voting legislation in Queensland, and the government's reply to each of them. A bit dry and bureaucratic, but now you are informed.

A Tale Of Three Eggs: The Rotten, The Hard-boiled and the Addled.

The question of the week is what do Muammar Gaddafi, Julia Gillard and Peter `Typo' Gleeson have in common? On the evidence of the past seven days, they are all living in their own private Wonderlands and all are wrestling with their own private realities but all are taking their lead from Humpty Dumpty's linguistic dictum.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."
Through the Looking Glass.