Has Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's inner bogan been outed by reports of his in-flight tantrum at being served a non-vegetarian meal?
And do we easy going, incense burning, peace-loving vegetarians need such bad publicity from the PM? I can't imagine Kurma Das, the jovial Hare Krishna host of "Cooking with Kurma" getting snippy over a lack of in-flight vego tucker, or fashion diva Stella McCartney chucking a vegan wobbly at a hostie.
Usually it's the hapless vegetarian who cops a tongue lashing over their dietary preferences. Do we have to be so damn difficult? Can't we just pick out the meaty bits from a salad or pasta? Can't we shelve our precious principles just this once and co-operate by eating that grilled slab of slaughtered cow on our plates?
The majority of us take the view that manners maketh a good ambassador for the vegetarian cause. So we’re more inclined to smooth things over with a flight attendant who’s hovering in the aisle with a meaty meal poised over our tray by asking if we can have a couple of pieces of fruit instead. Or perhaps some cheese and biscuits?
But the PM once described himself as "a determined bastard." So it seems settling for a banana or a couple of Jatz crackers wasn’t an option on that VIP flight home from Papua New Guinea. Or was that the flight?
The PM's memory of his red-meat rant seems as hazy as his recollections of his visit to a New York strip club or his invite to dine with former West Australian premier, Brian Burke "As I recall it…. I had a discussion with, I think, one of the attendants about the provision of food," he told reporters at a G20 press conference in London.
Oh come on! Does a young female flight attendant in tears sound like the result of a discussion about food provision?
Those of us with squeamish sensibilities might not wish to be reminded of the PM's ear wax incident. Say what you like about the Nationals, they know eating your own ear wax isn't the kind of bogan behaviour that goes over a treat at a Rotary Club fund raising night for the rural fire brigade.
In the lead upm to the 2007 Federal election, a left-wing green website countered the "Kevin 07’" election campaign by dubbing Rudd the "Bogan with the slogan." Their concerns were primarily about coal-fired power and climate change, but the PM has yet to convince the voters that – unlike NSW Premier Nathan Rees – he's a bloke who can quote 17th century poetry.
But Mr Rudd did pay a homage, of sorts to that great Australian cultural icon, Barry MacKenzie, when he described his gastric condition after an encouter with a dodgy party pie – or was it chicken kransky - as "driving the porcelain bus."
Let’s not forget his warning of a "political shitstorm" during a pre-recorded interview on national television and his g-dropping when talkin' to the soldier-blokes who were goin' overseas to do some fightin'.
In his book "Howard's End", academic and political biographer Peter van Onselen described Rudd as a "potty-mouthed" politician who has a repuation for “expletive-ridden rants’’ when things go wrong.
Should there be any further in-flight rants over his meatless meals, we might remind flight staff of a quote by British comedian and vegetarian Marty Feldman. "I won't eat anything that has intelligent life," Feldman said. "But I'd gladly eat a network executive or a politician."
Source: Canberra Times
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