March 15, 2007

Horse 733 - The Grumpy Lady of Town

Sydneysiders who listen to FM radio in the mornings will have noticed for about the last month a shift in the way the town's Lord Mayor's name is pronounced. Triple M, The Shebang's Marty Sheargold and Fifi Box have taken to Clover Moore's name by rhyming it with Clobber not Rover.

The theory goes that Clovver (for the purposes of pronounciation) had a run in the the Rev. Dr. Doug Mulray on Triple M in the early 90s and has refused to appear on the Ms ever since. Clovver was elected in 1992 and Mulray went off Triple M in 1999, so if anything it would have been while she was still just only the independant MP for Bligh in the NSW Lower House. She was not Lord Mayor of Sydney until 2004.

When The Shebang moved from it's drive slot to breakfast, Marty and Fifi were congratulated by Premier Morris Iemma, former Premier Bob Carr, opposition leader Peter Debenham, and several celebrities but Clovver was nowhere to be found. She'd remained incommunicado and when pushed her office sent an official refusal to Triple M.

The interesting thing here is that this is a personal matter and not one of political bias. In theory because Clovver is an Independant, she doesn't have any political bias other than her own. As Lord Mayor she caused controversy at Christmas 2004 by not providing a budget on PC grounds for Christmas decorations in the city, a practice which had been going on since 1946.

She officially claims to be a Roman Catholic but famously diverted $322,000 to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 2005 and openly supports Gay rights as per her Private Members Bill to the NSW State Parliament in 1993. I don't know if she does happen to be a la-la but she's appalling enough that she may as well be.

Whatever the case, even if she turns out not to be a la-la, Clovver still presents as a cranky lady much like the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher. People will soon start calling out sourpuss and grumpyface.

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