Poles apart

摘要

When asked how he had persuaded Britain's senior doctors to withdraw their vociferous objections to a National Health Service in the 1940s, Aneurin Bevan, the nhs's founding minister, replied: "I stuffed their mouths with gold." Australia's prime minister, Julia Gillard, born like Bevan in south Wales (the old one), this week took a leaf out of his book with her proposal for a carbon price (see page 25). It came groaning under the burden of generous golden giveaways to Australian consumers and businesses.