I do not agree with 'Compulsory Voting' I think the first requirement of a 'Democracy' is CHOICE? I would much prefer to have 'informed people' vote, than the present system of 'compulsory' voting and the handing out of 'How To Vote' cards which I find totally anti-democratic!! If you tried that in New Zealand you would be arrested! If voting was NOT compulsory, the politicians would have to be more accountable and work to win our vote. How many countries in the so called 'western world' have compulsory voting? I would really like to know the answer! Keep up the good work.

I have just finished Not Happy, John! and was galvanised to leap onto my computer and participate in our democracy as a citizen. I went to the Webdiary site and was disappointed that there was not provision for me to add my comments to the articles which have been published there (like the Your Say sections of The Age).

I wanted to tell John Howard and the rest of the Liberal party that I am not fooled by their brand of 'look over there...' politics (lesbian mothers, gay marriage, flags in schools 'he punched me 15 years ago!') while the real issues are pushed aside. I am tired of being treated like an idiot with the 'WMD', 'they're all terrorists', 'axis of evil', 'it's not really torture' 'no-one told me' spin that they parrot word for word without thinking. I am tired of the lies that no-one is held accountable for, and a media that loses interest after the sound bite fades.

I want to tell politicians to be brave and not roll over a' la the capitul

Onya Margo. You made me stay up most of the night reading those 400-odd pages. It's compelling and important. Keep at it!

Another big day in the life of NHJ. Thanks so much for your continued comments and emails, both positive, negative, constructive and a hell of a lot in between.

Today's big news is the coverage in the Australian Jewish News (AJN). My Hanan Ashrawi chapter was always going to get certain members of the pro-Zionist lobby hot under the collar. This week, Margo and I lay out our case on Israel/Palestine, the often underhanded nature of the Zionist lobby and illuminate readers to the central issues of the chapter, oh-so-strangely ignored by the paper and Colin Rubenstein in past weeks. I reckon there's an agenda going on here, to not fully engage with the issues raised, but respect to the paper for allowing us to put our position across. The web has only a partial version of the story, so grab the print version.

The letters section

Penguin Australia Marketing Director Daniel Ruffino advises that a second reprint has just been ordered; demand has been 'huge', he says. It's early days yet, but interest appears to be very healthy. Again, many thanks to those readers - pro-JH, anti-JH and everyone in between - who've given the book a go so far...

I picked up you book in the Perth Airport and it really resonated. Several years ago I commented to a conservative friend, JWH is the worst PM in my life time. At the time I didn't realise the extent, or how this would evolve though. Your book filled in even more concerning detail that I wasn't aware of, or only guessed at, and put it all together in one place. Thank you. Every thinking Australian should read it. It has validated my views and motivated me to have more input into helping this country realise its potential. A healthy democracy is a fundemental prerequisite to this, but we as participants do need to work to ensure this is so. In these last few years I have never felt so disempowered and unhappy about the direction of our country.

Can you inform NHJ! site visitors of the funding arrangements for this website?

NHJ! RESPONDS:

Thanks Jack. Damned fine query, if I do say so m'self. What an incredibly astute, sharp, sceptical fellow you are. Why, perhaps you should consider standing for public office! In my unbiased view, you'd make a wonderful, wonderful Prime Min--[OK, OK, put a sock in it, Jack, we can see that this is just a test of the 'Queries' site. Anyway, it was Harry Heidelberg's query, and the rest of us know it - NHJ! Team]

The NHJ! website has been designed and set up at Penguin Australia (and supersidiary Pearson Australia) expense, using in-house IT Human Resources. Sorry, I should say in-house IT people. (Never know when Don 'Say No To Weasel Words' Watson is sniffing about.) As far as the daily maintaining of the site, it's done by the NHJ! Team on a volunteer basis (see 'About This Site'). Beyond whatever extra book marketing function this site may en

NHJ! reader Catherine writes with a truly beautiful idea:

I would like to suggest that once you have read Not Happy, John! that you release it into the wild through Bookcrossing. The more people that read this book before the election the better! Wouldn't it be great if we knew numerous copies were roaming Australia over the next few months.

Fly, NHJ!, fly...

As a resident of Canberra my orange ACTION bus trundles past the house on the hill twice a day, after burying my nose in Not Happy John for the last few days, I now seem unable to look at the Parliament House in quite the same way. Friends who are staffers and staffers who are friends have given me a long standing BS-detector in the political game but to read the background to events such as the Bush visit opened my eyes yet further. Well done Margo, your insightful and witty take on our great Prime Miniature should be required reading in all schools.

His systematic destruction of what constitutes core democracy (or is that currently non-core democracy?) will be a blight on the history of this nation for many years. If we are ever rid of the bloke the legacy he leaves will be one of mistrust, greed, ambivalence and intolerance. It is a shame that a book such as yours will all too easily be overlooked as a partisan work of self-serving denigration, which it certainly is

NHJ! reader Sean Brady fires in a ripper which might - just might, mind you - give us all a bit of a hint as to where Tony Abbott gets his dazzling political ideas from. In Chapter 16 (Australians for Honest Politicians), MK asks Mr A: 'How did the [Australians for Honest Politics] trust get its name? Answer: I chose it.

Ah, but did he? Sean writes:

I think I may have the answer to where Tony Abbott and friends came up with the idea for their group 'Australians For Honest Politics'. Follow the link...and you'll see what I mean - sounds very Abbottesque to me!

NHJ! reports, you decide!

With just over two weeks since the release of NHJ, we're starting to get a pretty accurate view of the reaction it's been creating around Australia. Penguin Marketing Director, Daniel Ruffino, emailed me this afternoon telling me that after originally printing 10K (nearly all sold), then 3K more, now 6K in the last days, that's 19K total. We're understandably rapt and entry onto many number of top-ten charts will only help the message get even further. Word of mouth is key for NHJ so thanks for all your help in reading, writing and thinking about the aims of the book. As ever, this is a book for people to connect, work together and bring positive change to our democratic system.

So what else has been happening? Where to begin, really. After mentioning Bookcrossing yesterday (the idea of buying and reading a book, posting a comment online, leaving the book somewhere, and waiting for the next person to comment and so on), we've already got our here

AND

Richard Walsham, from the NSW Teachers Federation, says Marcus Einfeld used a speech to attack the Federation over a resolution calling for a just, comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: go here

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, well written, well presented. Thanks!

I think though, that this book could have been written about a leader of any stripe or party. There appears to be a real movement towards 'de-democratising' democracies. Perhaps the Iraqis will end up with a democracy while the rest of us drift off elsewhere. I think the big value of your work is in exposing JH as being a non-conservative. I remember Paul Keating speaking to this same subject last year (?). I'm glad you have expanded his comments in the way you have done. I look forward to 'Not Happy Mark (Tony, Peter....?)'

We really need to keep the report cards going on these guys. Thanks Margo.

Seems that NHJ! has snuck onto the Dymock's 'Top Ten' bestsellers list for this week. The other good news is that Penguin have already cranked up the presses for the first re-print.

Not a bad effort for a book on politics in this joint, we're told. Thanks to all buyers for your support from MK and the Penguin team.

I can't begin to tell you how this book made me feel. I thought I knew a bit about how things are in this country and have been getting more and more despairing by the day. But Margo, you have opened my eyes a lot wider to the truth. I have to thank you for showing me Brian Harradine and Pauline Hanson in a new light. I don't know when I have read anything that is so balanced, but at the same time so passionate. It was a privilege to meet you in Bungendore last Saturday, and I hope your book will be read by many, many people.