BETTER CRANKY THAN CRAZY


Labor treasury spokesman Wayne "Mudsling? Me? Never!" Swan does his best to alienate older voters by likening John Howard and Peter Costello to "cranky old uncles":

"You've all met him: the cranky old uncle forever yelling at the TV news bulletins, telling us how they did things better in the old days," he began.

"How they spend too much time at school teaching kids how to use computers instead of using the strap; how global warning's just a load of old rubbish dreamt up by loony scientists; and that what we really need is to bring back conscription and give the youngsters a good haircut.

"John Howard and Peter Costello are turning into that cranky uncle."

"It's time they turned up their hearing aids to listen to what everyone else is saying - including some of their older and wiser contemporaries - that it's time to let a new generation deal with the realities of the 21st century."

Howard wears a hearing aid after suffering a hearing impairment when young. Costello is 49; crazy old ranter Swan is 52. It looks like early-onset Alzheimer's to me.