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I've broken off from my honeymoon for a short while to write this piece for The Times on the Australian elections. Here's an extract:Tony Blair may be gone, but he is not forgotten. Here in Australia, his 1997 election campaign is serving as a text book for the strategy of the Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, in the current general election.
Since Mr Rudd took over as leader last year, Labor has dominated the polls, entering the election earlier this month with a 16-point lead. Rudd's strategy has been to ditch Labor's unpopular left-wing policies, to portray himself to voters as a man who is not really Labor and to stick relentlessly to the same messages.
Ring any bells? Tony Blair's 1997 campaign was based entirely on what Alastair Campbell called in his diaries