Ruddy hell
Britons whose knowledge of Australian dining habits is based largely on the bush tucker trial sections of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! will be appalled to learn that this is yet another deception foisted on the public by ITV.
Australians, if the latest hit video on Youtube is to be believed, are shunning locusts and witchetty grubs in favour of something altogether more familiar: ear wax.
Kevin Rudd, the leader of Australia's Labour Party and prime ministerial hopeful in the forthcoming federal elections, has been caught on camera enjoying a nugget of his own waxy secretions during question time in the House of Representatives.
The blond would-be leader is shown in the background inserting his finger into his ear and having a good rummage as a fellow representative attempts to make political capital out of a scandal involving leaflets. With admirable insouciance, he then slips it into his mouth and, after a pause, smacks his lips.
It is unclear whether Waxgate will affect the outcome of the elections, but it is not the first time a leading Australian politico has impressed with his ability to consume. Bob Hawke, who served as PM from 1983 to 1991, entered the Guinness Book of Records for downing two and a half pints of beer in 11 seconds.
I remember watching a clip of retired cricketer Derek Pringle doing the same thing.
Posted by: Mohammed Choudhury | 2 Nov 2007 00:43:43
I never thought I would see the Times publish this type of "news". Isn't that a function of tabloid newspapers?.
Posted by: Menno Aartsen | 1 Nov 2007 14:01:12
In Australia we spell it Labor, not Labour.
Posted by: bjh890 | 1 Nov 2007 04:34:42
Dear Australian Correspondent for the Times,
It has come to my attention that you are lacking in your research skills - a fundamental building block in applying the journalistic trade.
Please visit the following website www.alp.org.au and observe the subtle differences between the spelling of our Labor Party and your Labour Party, and cease all future mistakes.
Perhaps some mention could be made, or a story even written, about your new found knowledge of Australian Politics through real research and fact checking.
Warm regards
Concerned Reader
Posted by: bjh890 | 31 Oct 2007 10:58:15
Isn't the first time somebody important did something gross and embarrassing in public, and it won't be the last.
And the more dignified the guy that gets caught doing something embarrassing, the bigger the hilarity.
(And hey, this is one of the milder "My Most Embarrassing Moments".) Morning drive-time radio this morning has a "Weird News" segment about a guy caught in the public bathroom of a Federal Building with his pants down and an inflatable sex doll handy. Talk about "My Most Embarrassing Moment"...)
Posted by: Ken | 29 Oct 2007 17:20:20
What do you expect from those wild colonial boys?
Posted by: Andrew Milner | 29 Oct 2007 12:37:46
I'm appalled - at The Times! Something like this is not worthy of a quality newspaper, at least one should think.
Disgusting!
Posted by: Julia V. | 28 Oct 2007 22:13:39
Nosegate; This parallels the item available on YouTube of our fearless leader, Brown, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, picking his nose etc on the front bench. Where do we find these people?
Posted by: Derek | 28 Oct 2007 12:13:31
If Kevin Rudd wants to grow his own organic produce and consume a quick snack during boring parliamentary waffle, so be it. The next time Rudd hits the headlines in the Times will be on November 25, when he mercilessly flogs prime minister John Howard in the elections.
Unfortunately for Howard, 'Waxgate' is not as offensive to most Australians as Howard's lying his country into the Iraq War, ignoring $300 million worth of bribes from the Australian Wheat Board being paid to Saddam Hussein, the jailing of immigrant children in desert prisons and his years-long refusal to oppose the torture of Australians held in Guantanamo Bay.
www.theorstrahyun.blogspot.com
Posted by: Darryl Mason | 27 Oct 2007 17:51:49
Wow. That's disgusting. What was he thinking doing it in parliament with the cameras rolling?
This will probably not affect my vote as I am leaning Liberal anyway, mainly because of Rudd's economically illiberal tendencies. But Rudd's other tendencies, or perhaps the fact of his inexplicable lack of discretion with them, might turn off some people.
Posted by: torrentperson | 27 Oct 2007 09:15:30
How long ago was that? If it was when he was leader of the opp, he wouldn't be sitting here.
Posted by: Little Miss Moi | 27 Oct 2007 08:30:02