So the great tradition is not dead, even if Britain's politicians still have much to learn to reach the standards of Australia, where a future prime minister, Paul Keating, told an incumbent one, Malcolm Fraser, that he looked like an Easter Island statue with an arse full of razor blades.

ECONOMIST: Desiccated calculating bores

On the popular ABC debate programme QandA, a panellist observed that Julia Gillard wore unflattering jackets and had a "fat arse".

BBC: Australia: Year of the women