Mark Latham, You Bloody Idiot!
Before I start this post, let me just say I'm on the record here as having been a staunch Latham supporter in the past.
Latham, mid-2004
That's all over now. Shall we proceed...
Well, Mark Latham, former leader of the Federal Labor party who resigned in January,
four months after losing the election, has published his diaries, basically spewing
venom at Labor, the Liberals, the Federal Press Gallery, and everyone else. Normally for a story like this, I'd have links so you could read all this yourselves, but I must say,
this has been one of the hardest stories to Google that I've ever done. Links are broken or missing (for example, the official Pariliament house website's link titled "Member for Werriwa gives you this), and where active, are often to subscription-only newspaper services.
Now, I haven't read the book yet. No one has; it isn't released until Wednesday, and
excerpts have been tightly controlled. But I have read his From The Suburbs, and
you can find my review in my December archive on the 14th (sorry, no post permalinks) and I wonder if the diaries will have such a turgid style. But I did see the Enough Rope interview last night, and I think that all that needs to be said is there. It's being re-broadcast next Monday at 9:30pm; also there's apparently going to be a transcript on the website, as soon as Legal gives the all-clear (News Limited apparently tried to block the screening last night as they hold exclusive serialisation rights to the diaries over the weekend).
So I'll let you make your own judgements on that. My remarks at this stage (and this will make sense if you've read or seen the interview) is, "Mark, your family is not the entire Universe...you could easily have made a statment after the tsunami. And yes, you have driven people away from Labor. If you hate them so much, why are you still a member?"
Hasn't someone aged?
Latham, September 2005.
Latham, mid-2004
That's all over now. Shall we proceed...
Well, Mark Latham, former leader of the Federal Labor party who resigned in January,
four months after losing the election, has published his diaries, basically spewing
venom at Labor, the Liberals, the Federal Press Gallery, and everyone else. Normally for a story like this, I'd have links so you could read all this yourselves, but I must say,
this has been one of the hardest stories to Google that I've ever done. Links are broken or missing (for example, the official Pariliament house website's link titled "Member for Werriwa gives you this), and where active, are often to subscription-only newspaper services.
Now, I haven't read the book yet. No one has; it isn't released until Wednesday, and
excerpts have been tightly controlled. But I have read his From The Suburbs, and
you can find my review in my December archive on the 14th (sorry, no post permalinks) and I wonder if the diaries will have such a turgid style. But I did see the Enough Rope interview last night, and I think that all that needs to be said is there. It's being re-broadcast next Monday at 9:30pm; also there's apparently going to be a transcript on the website, as soon as Legal gives the all-clear (News Limited apparently tried to block the screening last night as they hold exclusive serialisation rights to the diaries over the weekend).
So I'll let you make your own judgements on that. My remarks at this stage (and this will make sense if you've read or seen the interview) is, "Mark, your family is not the entire Universe...you could easily have made a statment after the tsunami. And yes, you have driven people away from Labor. If you hate them so much, why are you still a member?"
Hasn't someone aged?
Latham, September 2005.
Comments
Post a Comment