The tennis world soars with excitement, the political world pales …

How Carlos Alcaraz must love being 22! Everything seems to be aligning around the digits of his age. With his decisive victory against Janik Sinner in the US Open final, Carlos now has two victories at each Grand Slam tournament, except for the Australian Open where he is yet to open his account. He entered the US Open as the second seed and emerged as the world’s no. 1 ranked player and only dropped one set in the two weeks of the tournament. Alcaraz leads Sinner 10-5 in their rivalry.  Between them they have claimed the last eight Grand Slam titles and ten of the last thirteen.

So, why is tennis so supercharged by this rivalry? Why are people drawn to the new superheroes of tennis? Neither Alcaraz’s severe haircut nor his outrageous pink tank top have dented his popularity. Nor has  Sinner’s outfit in the final which made him look like a stick of ‘sinnermon’!

There are many reasons. Both Sinner and Alcaraz are genuinely good sportsmen. They have a modesty that many much lower ranked players should emulate. For tennis fans they have created a new chapter of greatness that few would have seen coming so soon after the sunsets of Federer and Nadal and the gradual ebbing out of Djokovic.

Maybe the most compelling reason is the unbridled energy and verve they bring to the court. No shot is not chased down. No point is not fought for. Their shot making is audacious and inspired. They are the embodiment of electric energy. They commit. They strive. Crowds amass around their arenas of battle to catch a glimpse of the game’s stellar performers.

Sadly, it appears that fewer and fewer are captivated by politics and the possibility of becoming  politicians.  Alcaraz and Sinner are of “the great and good.” Politics around the world is foundering because of an absence of the great and good who bring a ‘star’ quality to our parliaments.

Alcaraz and Sinner are also admired because of their fearlessness. They are energetic, positive and productive.

In Australia, politics is “stale, flat and unprofitable.” Many wonder why this should be the case. Fifty years ago, when Malcom Fraser was swept to power after the dismissal of the Whitlam government, his Liberal-National coalition party from 1977-1981 was gifted with a majority in both Houses of Parliament. Many have argued that Fraser was so affected by the traumatic way he came to power, that he did not use his majorities to forge ahead with his agenda.

Fast forward. Prime Minister Albanese’s Labor party won a near record majority at the May election this year. Yet, Albanese, even without a Senate majority, seems entirely listless and reluctant to use the “political capital” of his emphatic victory.

His only motivation for being in government seems to stay there and exact maximum damage on the Liberal Party.

A productivity roundtable is held in Canberra, yet what has come out of it ? Nothing.

Australia has a chronic teacher shortage and a concern about falling education standards.  What do we hear from the government? A plan to create a new super- sized bureaucratic Department to be named, in North Korean style, the Teaching and Learning Commission.

Where are the plans for having the gifted and intellectual enter the teaching profession and provide the individual flair of Alcaraz or Sinner?  Nothing. Apparently, government officials will be able to create what individuals cannot.

All Albanese seems capable of is demoralising the productive to pay for his profligacy. Proposed taxes on unrealised capital gains are a vicious tax of envy. The productive must continue to pay for the burgeoning costs of government subsidised medicine, welfare, pharmaceuticals, and disability service payments which even the Labor party now acknowledges are riddled with fraudulent claims.

Like so many Labor governments we have a different thought every week. Last week the possibility of four-year term parliaments was raised.  I wonder when we will hear about that again.

The only messianic vision of the government seems to be its commitment to achieving a net-zero emissions target by 2050. Never mind that this is a fantasy. Last year 82% of the world’s energy was generated by non-renewable resources. Canada and England, both homes of progressive Left governments have abandoned a commitment to net-zero. Likewise, America and New Zealand. China and India have not even bothered to commit to anything. Latest costings are that Australia’s energy conversion crusade will cost a mere $530 billion. There is no price this government will not pay to demonise the conservative opposition as climate-change deniers and environmental vandals.

For Australians living in the state of Victoria, things are worse. Victoria’s Labor government is in a sea of debt so vast that it can borrow no more. All it can do is invent new taxes to demoralise investment and promise citizens a legislative right to work from home for two days a week, creating even greater economic failure.

The state of the body politic is equally distressing in France. She may have her 5^th Republic, but the resignation of Francois Bayrou following a parliamentary vote of no-confidence will see France having its fifth Prime Minister in two years.

President Macron, a centrist, is marooned by his inability to play the shots needed to implement the economic reforms he has sought for years. Thatcher once said that those occupy the middle of the road in politics tend to be run over; however, where are the politicians that can make electors realise that sustainable spending only continues until it is unsustainable?

The departing French Prime Minister told the parliament:

"You have the power to bring down the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality,"

"Reality will remain relentless: expenses will continue to rise, and the burden of debt, already unbearable, will grow heavier and more costly," he said.

Yet, no-one seems to be listening.

Across the Channel England’s politics are equally unedifying. Just over a year after storming to electoral victory England’s Labour government has generated levels of unpopularity unknown for a first year first term government. It’s the same old story; a society that has grown dependent on government largesse can not accept that the money runs out if it is not being productively produced. Debilitating debt becomes the default position. Such is the distaste for this acknowledgement that Nigel Farage’s Reform party, a one-trick anti-immigration party that emerged at the 2024 election, is now favourite to win the next election. Populism has begun to erode democracy.

Keir Starmer’s political life has become even more tenuous with the resignation of his popular Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner. A darling of the Labour Party’s storybook with her rise from impoverished childhood, Rayner’s resignation was forced by revelations that she had significantly underpaid taxes due on a property purchase.

Across the Atlantic, politics looks less and less like a representative democracy than government by Executive decree. Around the President swirl endless concerns about probity and decency, not to mention his crass character assassinations of people and his summary dismissal of those who displease him. Then there is his vindictive determination to wage an anti-Woke crusade through an equally shrill trivialisation of social concerns.

Let’s hope the Irish observation “that it is always darkest just before the dawn” is correct in the world of politics. In the meantime, the shimmering swagger of Alcaraz and Sinner reminds us of the gift and joy of human potential.