THE sun was shining, spring had sprung and all was right with the world. The “unelectable” Tony Abbott had delivered Labor its worst primary vote in 100 years and the crazed vandalism of the Rudd-Gillard years was finally over. The mood of the battered electorate was sobbing relief.

But, as the Abbott government’s first year approaches, the chattering classes delight in calling it an “annus horribilis”.