REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday, Dec 5, 2007

THE closest thing the Queensland Liberals had to a leader was Monty Python legend Eric Idle.

The previous week the Gold Coast Bulletin likened obstinate Liberal leader Bruce Flegg to one of the famous British comedy team’s characters, the Black Knight.

So it seemed fitting, ironic and not a little surreal that one of the Monty Python comedians stumbled right into the middle of the ongoing and increasingly farcical leadership saga.

The eight-member Liberal team parted after a marathon six-plus-hour meeting without any resolution to their leadership woes; Bruce Flegg was definitely out, however, and the party had to come up with a new leader and deputy to replace him.

The meeting was supposed to break the four-four leadership deadlock which started when Clayfield MP Tim Nicholls announced he would challenge Dr Flegg’s leadership with Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek as his deputy, but they had to find a new contender to consider when they resumed their meeting after Idle jokingly offered himself up as a possible leader. The Liberals attempted to avoid media attention during the meeting by holding it at a “top secret” location, a posh Brisbane hotel which the media managed to find almost immediately.

It just happened to be the same hotel where Idle was staying before he performed in his musical Not The Messiah, He’s A Very Naughty Boy at QPAC.

Idle wandered out of the hotel mid-morning and fronted the waiting media to volunteer to take on the leadership.

“I think I would make a good leader,’’ he said. “I think they need some new blood.”