Kevin 11. Almost.

Malcolm Turnbull triumphant, is the Liberal spin on today’s events. He was re-anointed, we are told, by a ‘convincing’ margin. The 48-35 victory over Kevin Andrews has the ostensible appearance of being ‘convincing’ – it is after all three times larger than the margin by which Turnbull defeated Brendan Nelson in the last spill. But closer investigation undermines the very fabric of the Liberals’ credibility as an alternative government.

Andrews’ fame and career, as I see it, is marked by three key events: the private member’s bill that overrode the Northern Territory’s voluntary euthanasia laws; WorkChoices; and his role in cancelling the visa of Mohamed Haneef. The last two issues were, to be blunt, poison for the Coalition in the lead up to and during the 2007 federal election. Therefore, it is unlikely Andrews could ever have been considered (even by Nick Minchin) as a credible, viable Leader of the Opposition. But with Hockey, Abbott and Robb all sitting this stoush out, Andrews was the only alternative proffered.

Yet fully aware of the fact that there was only one other candidate for the leadership and, presumably, cognizant of the electoral risk that the said candidate posed, only 48 out of 83 electors preferred Turnbull. In other words, 35 members would have preferred a leader that would have led them to electoral suicide over the continuance of Turnbull’s leadership. Furthermore, those 35 believed a failed minister, responsible for policies that failed the Coalition at the last election, would be a better Prime Minister than a man who, for all his failings, has demonstrated a sincere love and affection for the Australian polity. Those same 35 thought an ideological popularity contest to be more important than the survival of their own party at the ballot box.

We must question what aspects of the nation’s welfare, in the minds of those 35 men and women, could be justifiably sacrificed in the name of their ideological struggles and follies?

Suddenly Turnbull’s majority just does not appear so convincing.