1. Boring I am underwhelmed yet not surprised. The WA Budget was largely predictable and left a lot to be desired. Basically a big stamp duty cut, a footy field and a bail out. No funding to fix up PMH and no obvious funding for a pay rise for teachers. The teachers pay rise no-show may hurt them. Already the Union is busing teachers around marginal seats in a cheeky jovial campaign, recruiting the sympathy of the general public. Magoo has dropped the ball yet again and Eric The Ripper has again proven he has the imagination of a rock. 2. Bullies In an amusing article, Shelley Archer, the shy softly spoken wife of that innocent flower Kevin Reynolds has called Alan Carpenter a bully over the latest furore of embryo stem cell research. The archaic legislative council dumped the governments bill allowing embryonic stem cell research with the help of the labor catholic mafia and 'independent' Shelley Archer. How enlightened. Understandably, McGinty was not happy. So he and Karps threatened an early election and gave the catholics a stern talking to. The result was independent Shelly Archer cried 'Bully'. Given her background and her husband, that's a cute call. Back in the early 90's she was a industrial advocate in the Teachers Union. With then President Ed Harken and General Secretary, Kev mate, Peter Quinn (who got her the job), they brought a bit of BLF into the quaint SSTUWA with BLF hard men sometimes brought in to 'persuade' the executive into their way of thinking. Shelley was generally known as 'that mad bitch'. A peruse of The West archives of the period in the Battye Library (top floor of the Alexander Library) in Perth would prove revealing. Anyway in the end she was fired, she then sued and, appallingly, won (Being bat shit crazy is not a good reason for dismissal it seems). It was all rather grubby. Peter Quinn went on to be a ministerial staffer and now is employed by the same lobbying firm as Roger Cook, ex- president of WA Labor and prospective candidate for the new, very marginal seat of Forrestfield. Yes it's a bit of a loose circular spiel, but it demonstrates why Shelley's whinging is a tad quaint and why Kev ain't dead yet.