Watching Hamlet last night I was struck by how analogous it was to our own rotten federal state.

Gillard as Queen Gertrude is a power-grasper in search of an identity, willing to glom onto whatever faction it takes to maintain her share in the crown, but with no real autonomy or ability to shape events.

Meanwhile poor disaffected Rudd-as-Hamlet wanders aimlessly but maliciously about the court, venting his bitter angst in the most startling and entertaining of ways.

The wait for either Ruddlet or the State Leadership to make a decisive move is excruciating, the court paralysed and sinking into self-infatuated despair as external forces gather apace. But we all know that in a tragedy like this there must be a final reckoning; if it be not now, yet it will come. Bloodily. And the body count will be staggering.