REVENGE

Some three years ago Julia Gillard, then deputy leader of Australia's Labour Party, organised a palace coup that got rid of her then boss, Kevin Rudd. In doing so, she took over his other job and became the country's first ever woman Prime Minister, a position she has held ever since.

Until today. The problem with Ms. Gillard's plan was that Mr. Rudd wasn't going to take the result lying down, particularly since opinion polls consistently showed that he was the more popular amongst voters. Since 2010 there have been three further party leadership elections, all of them pitting the two against each other once more. The one this spring gave Ms. Gillard a walkover, since Mr. Rudd realised he did not have the necessary votes, and so withdrew. However, with a general election due in September, which Labour is widely expected to lose, some Labour MP's decided to try and save their jobs by switching sides. Today's vote was 57-45 in favour of Mr. Rudd, who thereby becomes Prime Minister again. Ms. Gillard will leave politics for good.

Mr. Rudd probably won't lead Labour to victory in September, but he may well minimise its defeat. However, that is not the real issue. This was a personal, and very bitter, feud between two people who wanted the same job. Mr. Rudd had to wait a long time for his revenge, but he has now got it. Whoever said that politics was a nice business?

Walter Blotscher