alex white's picture
Sun, 25/11/2007 - 8:35pm — alex white

My tip for the Liberal leadership is that Brendan Nelson will overtake all challengers.

In other news:

Mr Evans said the source had told him former prime minister John Howard had “desperately” wanted to leave politics four months ago.

“He was coaxed to stay on board, while the feeling for the past few months has been that Costello had alienated himself from the core constituency of Liberal voters,” Mr Evans said.

He said the source told him Mr Costello had been found to have been particularly unpopular with with older voters – those in the 35-60 age group.

Update:

Recriminations begin:

Senator Macdonald says he respects Mr Howard but he should have gone a year ago.

“It’s a tragic way for such an able, committed man and someone who’s been so good for Australia to leave,” he said.

“I think it would have been different had Peter Costello been leading the party for 12 months.”

He says the cabinet ministers should have that ensured Mr Howard went earlier.

“I’m very confident the Coalition would have won had Peter Costello been leading the party,” he said.

“I’m a little disappointed with some of our senior colleagues who didn’t have these discussions earlier in the piece.