Luckily for the cynical, bitter, washed-up old hacks who compile this column, they always keep a supply of feathers handy in their mezzanine-level research hub at Bug HQ to knock themselves over with whenever they hear totally unexpected news from the media world.

So it will probably come as no surprise that none of those feathers were reached for when they read that The Sydney Morning Herald has called for the return of the LNP government at tomorrow’s NSW state poll.

That’s right! Did anyone not see that coming? That after 12 so-so years of very average governance with pretty dire books of accounts despite flogging off all sorts of public assets and with more than just the hint of corruption by the LNP, the masthead owned by Nine Entertainment Co, chaired by Peter Costello, has editorialised that Premier Dominic Perrottet should be given four more years to see what he’s made of!

But with a rider, mind. The SMH is promising to get stuck into the LNP bigtime in March 2029 – to reduce them to a smoldering ruin! – if they fuck up! (Readers are invited to insert their own loud and prolonged canned laughter here!)

The SMH editorial (at top) ends with this.

A fourth Coalition term is a big ask. But Perrottet is a premier with promise. He has exhibited more political bravery than Minns on the key economic and social issues including pokies reform and the Herald believes the ability to come up with – and implement – good policies is more important than ever. It would be a shame to not see what he could do with more time. If the Coalition squanders the opportunity it would deserve to be wiped out at the next election.

There is a considerable case for change now. But, on balance, the Herald believes Perrottet should be given the chance to show the people of NSW what he’s capable of. The ultimate decision, though, is yours alone to make.

Maybe this should have been added at the end as an electoral commission requirement: Written for the Liberal Party of NSW by Bevan Shields with Peter Costello standing behind his chair.

While it’s true that the editorial makes some scathing comments about the last term of government – so much so that it makes the endorsement of the LNP quite bizzare until you remember how far to the right the SMH and The Age have drifted in recent years under Nine ownership – it ignores the fact that ex-Premier Gladys Berejiklian and ex-Deputy Premier John Barilaro both praised porkbarreling as legitimate government activities. Barilaro was happy to be called Porkbarilaro. Any political party that believes the disgusting, criminal, misuse of public funds is okay deserves time on the Opposition benches to reflect on such beliefs.

And respected journalism elder Quentin Dempster also makes the point that the editorial completely ignores Perrottet’s role in the iCare scandal and the attempts to hide transport operational costs “off budget”. Dempster believes both should be sackable offences.

The bitter old hacks who compile the MGH agree. For that and many other reasons, they’ve got their fingers crossed that the Australian mainland will be fully red by late tomorrow night.

And is that because they’re dreadful lefties? Not really. Okay, partly. But a Labor win will be further proof that Newscorpse shitrags such as The Daily Telegraph and The Australian and its dreadful Sky News and the Nine radio station shockjocks no longer sway public opinion and haven’t for quite some time.

It will also show that Australians at federal and state levels have now well and truly abandoned that old malarkey spread by fossils like John Howard in his last-gasp letter to west-Sydney voters – that only LNP governments can be trusted to run economies. It’s a concept that is now long dead, buried and cremated.

It’s now very, very, clear that Australians believe Labor and the LNP at all levels of governance are both equally capable of running good economies or fucking them right up.