People who watched the first series of Yes Minister might remember a fringe character called Frank Weisel, a young man of little apparent promise much loathed by Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby. For Humphrey, finding Frank in the minister’s office was like finding an ant in his whisky and soda.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has set his sights on government departments, saying he will significantly restrain spending and streamline their operations if he wins the next election.

How amazing. In all Australian television in the past year, only one presenter is so evil that they must be hounded off air.

Well, two actually, but more about me later.

I'm talking, of course, about Yumi Stynes - now the target of a hate campaign by fat-bottomed moralists who offend me even more than she did.

Until Tuesday last week, most Australians did not even know Stynes existed, let alone that she was a host of the Channel 10 morning chat show, The Circle.

But on that fateful day Stynes made a mistake that comes from not knowing much but having much time to fill with babbling.

While the military establishment and the opposition are busy jumping ugly on the Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, a few points have been overlooked.

Kate, the alleged victim of the Skype scandal, is no longer at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Through no fault of her own, her presence there has been rendered untenable and she is back in Queensland trying to continue her fledgling military career.

Of the two alleged perpetrators, one has quit and the other is still at ADFA training to be an officer.

What if there was an energy source that could meet half our needs by 2030 (but was not coal seam gas)? A source so cheap it could halve your energy bill (but was not coal), so clean it had zero emissions (but was not wind or water), with no capital costs?

Surely such an energy source would sit at the heart of our national energy policy, argued Chris Dunstan of UTS's institute for sustainable futures at a recent forum run by the Australian Alliance to Save Energy. Stupid not to, right?

The Coalition is not discounting the Australian dollar hitting $US1.25 as it shapes policy proposals for those industries which would be most affected.

When Julia was accused of lying about the Carr affair, I decided to look at the details of the process and analyse... 

I could be totally wrong of course....

According to a documentary broadcast on BBC Radio 4 last night, the French cheated on us during the Falklands War by helping the Argies while they were pretending to help us.

No one is suggesting that President Mitterand was anything other than wholehearted in his support for the UK. He ordered an immediate and complete embargo on supplying or assisting the Argentines. Vital technical data on the French-made anti-ship Exocet missile was made available to the Ministry of Defence, the French having sold five to the Argentines before the war.

Barry and Clover...

from Crikey .....

Eventually reality will hit the opposition's fiscal frolic

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

FISCAL POLICY, JOE HOCKEY, PAID PARENTAL LEAVE, TONY ABBOTT