And so the pond celebrates the reptiles celebrating a change to the tone of the national debate ...

(Above: Moir is flogging copies of this cartoon here, and why not? Toot toot, poop poop, as Toad of Toad Hall would say)

After the recent fuss, there has been much talk of a return to a kinder, gentler polity.

Malware himself has set the tone, and the likes of the Graudian's Lenore Taylor have graciously consented to fall into line in Malcolm Turnbull says he'll end stupid, shouty politics - his critics should too.

This is shocking stuff - how else, when talking about fraudband, can we talk about its creator, except to invoke the notion of Malware?

Happily, even within her piece, Ms Taylor showed how we could deal with recalcitrants and blow-hards like Ray Hadley, a shock jock who makes a a pea look like the gigantic brain you might find inside a dinosaur:

According to Hadley, Turnbull is also “on the nose” with the electorate – which doesn’t really tally with what the polls say. On Friday his bloated self-importance extended to demanding that Scott Morrison swear on a Bible in order for Hadley to believe Morrison’s version of his prior knowledge of the coup.

Bloated self-importance? A kind of puffer fish of radio?

Oh well, if we're allowed that level of shouty politics, the pond will probably get by, though without quite the grand flourishes permitted during the days of the master of the y'artz:

Of course back in the day, the reptiles of Oz thought this sort of stuff, and the feeble excuses about not being able to read that accompanied it, was just part of the rich political discourse, a vigorous but perfectly allowable stiff arm of the kind celebrated by Ray "thugby league" Hadders and other men with thick or no necks ...

It therefore becomes all the more poignant to dip into the bunker headquarters of the reptiles to see a plea for peace and tranquility and an end to reptile bickering:

Hmm, so how calmly is the Bolter taking it all? He wouldn't approvingly quote a Liberal staffer shouting an obscenity at Malware, would he?

Oh he would, he would... h

Hmm, speaking of stupid shouty politics ...and what's the chance that the Bolter is thoroughly on side with the thugby leaguer?

Oh he is, he is ... take that, prideful speaker in tongues ...

But it's easy to see why, back at reptile bunker HQ, the tone of the debate has begun to alarm the reptiles.

It's one thing to abuse the shit out of Labor and the greenies, but quite another, and quite a grave thing, to see the reptiles doing it to each other and to Liberals, no matter how they try to wipe the wetness from their ears ...

Oh what to do, bunker reptile, what to do?

And that's why the pond just loves the reptiles of Oz.

Where else would you get such a profound insight into the way the Bolter, the parrot and the thugby leaguer are "off to the right of mainstream opinion."

They're off the bloody planet, you silly goose, and yet when things were going well, you regarded with tremendous equanimity the cuckoos in the Murdochian nest and their stupid, shouty ways.

The national debate had to change its tone?

Only when the almost hysterical laughter comes to a temporary pause ...

And speaking of laughs, what a fine Rowe to celebrate the new tone of the national debate ...