Our own Prince Charlie

Crikey calls him "Dollar Sweetie" but I prefer to call him "Prince Charles". Not just because "Charles" and "Costello" start with the same letter, but because John Howard is starting to get that familiar-comfortability that Queen Elizabeth has. We'll have to reimagine England after her, because without her England has really become unimaginable. Howard's similarly seminal when it comes to the Liberal Party, and getting that way with Australia.

Costello seems to want to wait on "generational change" to hand him the Prime Ministership, just like Charles waits. But in this generation, generational change is not a strong force, because, as Costello knows, we are all living longer, and working until we drop means jamming the younger generations when it comes to taking our jobs. Costello will have his turn at keeping younger talent out, but he might be quite old when it comes.

International politics demonstrates this better than most fields. When it comes to running countries, older is generally seen as better. Pitt the Younger, PM at 24, is likely to continue to hold his record as the youngest English speaking Prime Minister ever partly because we'll never see his times of shortened longevity again. The latest demonstration of this is the Italian election. Romano Prodi was a young 66 to Berlusconi's slightly older 69. So, a few months younger than Howard, Prodi has just taken on the government of Italy for the second time. Not a good omen for our domestic Prince Charles.