Toil and trouble and festering bubble ...

Lordy lordy, the festering stew is boiling and bubbling along merrily this day ...

Take a look at the harmonious set of headlines that decorated the Fairfaxians' digital page last night:

Yes, yes, all going along nicely.

It's not just the power bill threat - the pond's last power bill provided direct, comparative, incontrovertible evidence that rather than declining under Abbott's watch, there has been a substantial increase in electricity prices. So much for the carbon tax.

And then there was that infamous tweet, and the super industry itself daring to suggest that maybe pork barreling the rich had gone far enough, but the headline that caught the pond's eye was the one about the "international" airport.

An "international" airport without a rail link.

It says more than anyone needs to know about the Abbott government's attitude to transport.

And meanwhile that gormless eastern suburbs prat boasts how he catches trains all the time, while the government he belongs to - in a senior position - pisses on trains. How he lives with the contradictions and the monstrous stupidities amazes the pond each and every day ...

Of course it's only a parochial issue ...

But doesn't it fit nicely with that backbench revolt?

And  naturally there was more about Bronnie.

Everyone's been piling in - what with the talk of the need to kick her out of her seat forthwith, and the backbench rebellion, and the need to degut the PM so he can't make another disastrous pick. The reptiles honoured the chat with a mention on the front page:

For gawd's sake, someone stop the captain from being the captain.

This faux pas is going to resonate down the ages.

There was the phone bill man waxing indignant:

You don't actually need to read beyond the headlines. "Captain is useless" says it all ...

And dear old Barners, how the pond loves him:

The stroke play is all in the timing, eh Barners ...

And the Bolter piled in and so did the Terror in an editorial ...

Naturally the mischief makers were out in force:

Probably too busy catching a train to Sydney's new "international" airport ... if the ponce could only find one ...

And there was some fun reading - the pond enjoyed the records detailed in Bronwyn Bishop's greatest hits (or misses) as Speaker of the Parliament. (with forced video).

It's times like these that the pond likes to remember all that stuff about caldrons bubbling and toil and trouble:

Meanwhile, Abbott is in Adelaide, opening up the gravy train for a boondoggle and a pork barrel, money if you feel Shakespearean sounds like easy money ditch-delivered by a drab.

Can Abbott save the poodle by trying to buy off the crow eaters with frigates, while snatching the submarines away from them?

Put it another way: will the natives accept a few cheap trinkets and baubles and go away happy?

Are crow eaters that dumb? Is Abbott that clever?

Toil and trouble, cauldron bubble ...

Oh and there was that tweet ...

And naturally the cartoonists were still bathing in the afterglow, with more Pope here, and more Rowe here, and apologies for the trimming in the frame of the Rowe, but that's how it presents on the AFR's useless gallery: