Quiggin wrong

Professor John Quiggin mentioned in September a post he’d written in 2007, in which he predicted that “the Liberal Party will never win another federal election”. Said the egomaniac: “It still looks as if I might be right.”

But Professor Quiggin didn’t link to that initial post. That’s probably because he got everything wrong. Some excerpts:

“The Liberal and National parties are in such dire straits that they can’t continue as they are. They haven’t got enough support, parliamentary representation or ideas for one party, let alone two.”

“It would be better for the conservatives to start a completely new party, leaving their toxic existing structures to collapse.”

“The picture at the State level is far worse. The conservatives haven’t won a state or territory election this century …”

“Of course, things could go badly wrong for Rudd or for one of the state governments. But if they don’t, it’s hard to see the Libs getting back in anywhere before the next NSW election due in 2011 …”

Hopefully Quiggin's understanding of economics, his specialty, is better than his understanding of politics.