"BBC [and 'Guardian']...Your man took one hell of a beating!"

Urghh, a gloating blogger! (Please imagine a smiley face). .........

So, Tony Abbott's conservative coalition has crushed Kevin Rudd's Labor Party in the Australian federal election.

The Australian public have spoken, and in very clear terms. 

I can well imagine that a few desperados on the Left here in Britain will blame 'The Dirty Digger' (Rupert Murdoch) for Mr Abbott's convincing win with the Ozzie electorate. They will doubtless be complaining - and I see they already are - about the strident (and, yes, they probably will use such a pejorative adjective) support given by his newspapers to the Liberal-National coalition.  

Oooh, here's an impartial BBC online report about the results. What's it saying?

Under Mr Rudd, Labor initially saw its figures improve. But Mr Abbott, who enjoyed the strident support of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, then widened the gap again.

Darn that Dirty Digger!

Jon Donnison is clearly miffed:

You sense from voters that Mr Abbott's victory is not so much a ringing endorsement as a rejection of Labor. He's a conservative who has promised a tough line on immigration and asylum-seekers. He opposes gay marriage and has been a sceptic on climate change. Kevin Rudd sold himself as the comeback kid. It didn't work. His party now faces a period of further introspection.

Boo-hoo!

Update (17.08): My goodness, and I'm really not imagining this [or am I?], but Jon Donnison's colleague (and blog favourite) Phil Mercer is looking very downbeat about this result on the BBC News Channel at the moment. (Not quite 'bursting into tears', but still 'needing Prozac', I'd say).

He's looking on the bright side for Labor though - Kevin Rudd held his seat, Kevin Rudd is looking happy tonight, Kevin Rudd is talking about a 're-birth', and Labour are hoping they won't have to wait long for a comeback - but, oh yes, he's also saying that Labor aren't happy about the way the "sections of the Australian print media" have treated them. (Darn that Dirty Digger!) I have to say he doesn't look very happy about that himself though.

Oh dear, what a pity, never mind.

P.S. Expect hatchet jobs a-plenty on Tony Abbott. T'was ever thus.