IT'S a tough competition to see which of Australia's political leaders can be more disliked but Tony Abbott has now clinched a big lead.

Abbott is more than twice as widely disliked as Julia Gillard, which is quite a feat; while the Prime Minister's net approval rating in today's Herald-Nielsen poll is minus 11, the opposition leader's is minus 23.

''This is the lowest for an opposition leader since August 2009, when Malcolm Turnbull was in the middle of the Godwin Grech affair and it was all falling apart for him,'' says John Stirton, of Nielsen.

Indeed, voters are looking on Turnbull with growing favour to replace Abbott.

Weather pushes allergy and asthma miseries to new level

It's not much use having good schools in Sydney if you can't get to them on buses and trains.

I was shocked earlier today when our (their) ABC headline for an article was quite out of step with what "had been said" by the US administration and by President Obama... Then a few hours later (9 hours and twenty minutes is my estimate) the headline was changed but still carries a certain smirk by placing the word "justice" between single quotes in the heading... The story is more or less the same... 

Shame on the ABC for this blatant finger pointing, whether "revenge" is the case or not. But in any case, the way the ABC headlined it ISN'T news... It is and was an "opinion"...

A FUNDING cut of $1.7 billion for NSW public and private schools has angered parents, teachers, Catholic bishops and government MPs who have been bombarded with complaints.

From Peter Reith

.....

Turnbull calls for better quality in the public discourse. That could start with ABC radio. It put up unionist Dave Oliver and John Buchanan (a supporter of Labor's workplace system) to ridicule a perfectly sensible contribution to the public debate by Gina Rinehart.

....

The article on Richard Dawkins and the Free Church (20 August) is, I am afraid, based upon a false premise. The Free Church did not "take exception" to Dawkins appearing at the Faclan Book Festival in Lewis, nor are we furious at his coming to Lewis. Indeed, we have welcomed him to the island and thank him for raising issues which we consider to be of vital importance.