Ew, they're proliferating. Get the bug killer.

The Greens appear actually to be worth voting for. And worth negotiating with.

The Christmas Pudding Party can hardly be said to have been put on the offensive by the prospect of a preference deal involving Labour and The Fern's Best Friend. Offensive is their natural state.

And yet Senator Fielding, who is the Little Sprig of Holly atop the Christmas Pudding, is 'outraged'. It is according to Mr Sprig of Holly outrageous "to think that Kevin Rudd would want to preference the Greens". After all, Mr Sprig demands, "Whether there was a deal or not you've got to ask the question why would Labor want to see the Greens holding the balance of power in Australia?"

Why indeed.

Possibly Labor (or Labour, whatever its just spelling) don't want to be responsible for delivering power over the fate of 20 or so million people, some of whom don't actually want to be steeped in doctrine, wrapped up in pages from the bible and steamed in 'christian' orthodoxy for the remainder of our lives.

Curiously Senator Prig has tacitly acknowledged casting a remarkably wide net when it comes to the murky business of gathering preferences and intimated that he's prepared to screw Pauline Hanson's anti-immigration 'United' Australia Party (but only in the political sense) if it will bolster his chances of holding the balance of power.

Would it actually be safe for me to go home. Would I be able to settle. The place seems to be seething with crackpots and nutcases. The ones who garner media coverage are only the stupid ones the press notice. Its the quiet and ostensibly intelligent ones I'm really afraid of. Peter Costello for example and his slightly less effectively surreptitious side kick the Mad Monk.