The British Labour firebrand Aneurin (Nye) Bevan was a compelling and witty orator. He possessed an acerbic wit and passion derived from his background in the humble coal-mining heartland of Wales. He was a democratic socialist of the old school, who loathed the privilege represented by the Tory party.

Bevan was instrumental in the establishment of the National Health Scheme, which, despite its manifold bureaucratic problems, has provided accessible healthcare to millions of Britons and been fundamental to the social safety net promised by Clement Atlee, who replaced Winston Churchill in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

A weary electorate decided that, despite his epic defiance of Hitler, Churchill was not the man to lead them into the "broad sunlit uplands" that he had promised as the fruits of victory. In May 1945 Bevan memorably lampooned the government: “This land is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organisational genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time.”

Not since Paul Keating has Australia produced a political leader capable of the same breadth of fiery partisan invective, leavened by exhaustive precise policy arguments, which gives way to genuinely poignant oratory of emotional depth and poetic cadence comparable to Bevan in his pomp.

To paraphrase Bevan, it would require peculiar genius for Bill Shorten to forfeit two Labor seats to an unpopular, divided and divisive government this Saturday. Oppositions simply do not lose byelections to governments, especially one as riven by deep personality and policy divisions as this one. Should Labor lose Longman in Queensland, alone, it will have serious ramifications for the party. A loss there, coupled with defeat in Braddon, would almost certainly be the harbinger of defeat at the next general election and sound the death knell of Shorten’s leadership.