This is a story from Laurie Oakes picked up through Andrew Bolt. It is the best story about the Prime Minister I have come across. It shows that he is someone who knows how to swing a club to get what he wants, the one aspect of Abbott’s character I was less sure he had. And when you get to it, the bit about her being a clergyman’s daughter is absolutely pathetic in its hilarity, but typical of the kinds of anti-Abbott, pro-Labor tear-jerking hypocrisy I am all too used to from the media. If you fall for it, you are as dopey as Oakes thinks you are. Here’s the story.

Rudd alienated many colleagues through incidents of angry, foul-mouthed treatment of others. Abbott, it turns out, can be prone to similar behaviour.

There was an example on Budget night last year involving Danielle Blain, a West Australian Liberal and federal vice-president who intended to run for the party presidency.

Abbott, backing former Howard Government Minister Richard Alston for the job, called Blain to his office in Parliament House and demanded that she withdraw from the contest. Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, a friend of Blain’s, also attended the meeting.

When Blain expressed reluctance to pull out, Abbott became furious, shouting that it was his right to make the decision. Expletives, including the “F” bomb, were undeleted. The Prime Minister then stormed out of his own office.

Yet another “Captain’s pick” that caused problems.

Blain eventually did give way, but — the daughter of an Anglican clergyman — she was understandably stunned at such treatment. Bishop is said to have been decidedly unimpressed.

If hearing F-words in a political environment gives you palpitations, it’s time you found another line of work. I only wish people on my side of the fence concentrated on policy and how things can be achieved. They won’t be achieved, that’s for sure, if Turnbull becomes PM, no more than if we bring Labor back and make Bill Shorten PM. The only reason Prince Phillip is still an issue is because the media is in the hands of our enemies. This is a bizarre turn of events, given we have already stopped the boats, gotten rid of the carbon and mining taxes and attempts are being made, in the face of a very hostile Senate, to fix the economy.