RED FACES

David Lipson, Sky News Political Reporter

22 July 2010

There were three acts today.

The first was Julia Gillard, whose face must have gone a positive shade of scarlet when she heard her speech to the Nurses Union was cut off by the man she de-throned.

The Ruddster hit the campaign running this morning, just hours after landing from his jaunt at the UN. He let his media friends know that he was going to tour the Coorparoo State Primary School in his local seat of Griffith.

His timing was either perfectly or woefully timed.

Minutes after Sky started showing Gillard's speech live, Rudd and the school principal ambled right up to the cameras, for a “chat” in the school driveway.

Because it was the first time we'd seen him since the election campaign kicked off, Sky cut from the Gillard speech and went to Rudd live. He'd told us he wouldn't be answering questions. We gave it a go anyway. But he stuck to the script.

It was confected blabber, orchestrated for the cameras, about how great the school hall, built under the much maligned Government BER stimulus program, turned out to be. Whether Rudd knew it would cut off his deputy come boss, is something we'll probably never know.

The second entrant was yours truly.

After racing from Rudd, to meet up with the press peloton, we made it onto the plane with just 2 minutes to spare. I'd been seriously on the go since 4.15am, to the point where I'd only eaten a croissant all day and hadn't even had a chance for a slash for about 6 hours.

I made a b-line for the toilet. While in there, the waft of plane food crept in and made my stomach grumble. I must have been seriously hungry.

When I emerged, there were two very pretty flight attendants standing there. “Smells good!” I said eagerly.

Their combined look of horror prompted me to bumble “Not in there!” pointing to the toilet “I meant the food.”

I tried to wriggle out, but red faced, I had no hope.

The third, was the Hey Hey it's Saturday segment, which, in light of the other entrants, failed to qualify.

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