Thread: Shirt Fronting

It appears, God help us, that Australia has added a new phrase to the diplomatic lexicon - shirt fronting. It's a thing they do in Aussie rules football apparently, but essentially means an aggressive, mostly testosterone-driven "in your face" confrontation.

It's been popularised by our wise and statesman-like Prime Minister Tony Abbot who threatened to shirtfront Vladimir Putin over Russia's role in the plane shot down over the Ukraine recently.

Abbot subsequently did not shirtfront Putin, but I for one would have loved to have seen it as I've been told Putin has a black belt in Judo... I believe one of Abbot's aides must have known this also, which is why our Prime Minister bravely backed away when the rubber hit the road.

So anyway, I propose a new phrase for the diplomats: The Abbot Discrepancy - the gap between blustering in front of your domestic media and your actual actions.

Anyone else got some diplomatic phrases they'd like to make up?

James.