We’re not dead yet. There’s hope.

Dear reader, in spite of the most recent article in the Guardian, there’s HUGE reasons for hope.

Mayer Hillman when not driving his Hillman Minx.

The 86-year-old social scientist Mayer Hillman, says accepting the impending end of most life on Earth might be the very thing needed to help us prolong it.

“We’re doomed,” says Mayer Hillman with such a beaming smile that it takes a moment for the words to sink in. “The outcome is death, and it’s the end of most life on the planet because we’re so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. There are no means of reversing the process which is melting the polar ice caps. And very few appear to be prepared to say so.” (Guardian)

Well he’s wrong.

He’s so wrong it’s not funny. And for those of us who live in the inner ring suburbs, and may aspire to writing the odd polemic at 86, and still kicking, there’s light.

The Federal Government is about to spend over 500 millon to save the Great Barrier Reef.

The team who can save AUSTRALIA and the PLANET.

That’s 500 million dollars to save it. This is not cheap opportunism. The facts speak for themselves, Though it’s a bit short of the 9 billion spent thus far on the National Broadband Network, which, (if it could be seen from space) would rival the Great Barrier Reef and though it’s not quite as big nor expensive as the detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island, as they cost several billion a year just to maintain and counting, and not any where as near as any major road project in any of the states which cost billions paid for by the taxpayer. And though it’s not even an eenzy weenzy tiny bit as big as the billions gouged out of your compulsory superannuation, it’s still a HUGE SUM. But not quite as big as the Banking Royal Commission.

Almost as must as the Fair Work Commissioners, save the Federal Government by stopping people from lawfully striking. And almost as much as it costs to keep people like Barnaby Joyce in power and having silly elections in marginals and the odd by-election.

In fact we at pcbycp measured it out and it’s a bit like ‘Greening Australia’.

Do you remember Greening Australia?

Course you don’t .

Bob Hawke, talks to Greening Australia team.

Greening Australia was all about spending millions to plant a billion trees. This was way before over eight billion was spent on the Murray Darling plan to see it, (the ecosystem) KILLED OFF.

The billion trees were planted all over the place, and Bob Hawke got credit for doing something. Pity is that climate change killed off a trillion mangroves up the north and the Great Barrier Reef, but the advertising was priceless, and after admin costs, staffing, and executive salaries it really did achieve quite a lot.

The 500 million will go some way to make the Great Barrier Reef look more like this. 12 billion and still counting.

So don’t be cynical the 500 million will go a long way, and ensure that the Great Barrier Reef goes the way of Greening Australia, the Murray Darling Plan and that famous initiative to ensure that “No child will live in poverty’, by 1990.

We love a sunburnt country.

The Gap Revisited

Σας εύχομαι το καλύτερο σήμερα

A recent Dispatch featured one of those Government “we want to hear from you” initiatives … the new Aboriginal Contracting Framework.

In a previous Dispatch I alerted you all to yet another such, the Closing the Gap Refresh https://closingthegaprefresh.pmc.gov.au/.

Both remind me of Eva Cox’ repeated assertion that the Intervention infantilized Aboriginal Society. The colloquial phrase “pissing in the wind” also sprung to mind

Badly Drawn Boy- Pissing in the Wind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgDzCDSLxOg

In my experience the “we want to hear from you” is walka-nyayini (a big lie). Countless times I’ve seen Warlpiri people get sucked in by “We want to hear from you” only to find that when they pour their hearts out they’re met with langa-pati (langa is Warlpiri for ears, pati is hard impenetrable soil)

Thompson Twins- Lies….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6aHo8yy_jc

Goes without saying that the biggest “we want to hear from you” resulted in the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’. And boy oh boy did they listen! Walka-nyayini!

Poirot put it quite succinctly “I hear what you say, I listen to what you mean” (all in that delightful French/Belgian accent)- Ah, if only!

I’ve already mentioned that the Warlpiri verb ‘purda-nyanyi’ means all of hearing, listening and understanding. Any Russian speakers out there might tell me if my suspicion that the Russian verb ‘Panemayo’ (spelling?) works the same way, is correct or not.

Anyway back to the Gap.

On the southern edge of Alice Springs are the MacDonnell Ranges. At the base of the Amadeus Basin there is the Heavitree Quartzite. Alice Springs lies immediately north of Heavitree Gap, the latter having much influenced the very location of the Township of Stuart (since renamed Alice Springs).

Heavitree Quartzite thin section

I am told Heavitree Gap is a sacred site formerly forbidden to and avoided by many Aborigines. No such qualms deterred the colonists from passing through the Gap when erecting the telegraph line.

Under the microscope, quartzite’s derivation from sandstone (in turn derived from sand) is evident. The original granular fabric is obviously discernible as are the quartz crystal overgrowths on the grains. The result is a very hard rock with virtually no porosity.

Quartzite will withstand erosion far better than other sedimentary rocks. Thus was created the cake layer crowning the MacDonnell Ranges.

Just south of Yuendumu there is the admittedly far less spectacular Vaughan Springs Quartzite which is the same age and has the same composition as Heavitree Quartzite. The Vaughan Springs Quartzite is the basal sedimentary formation of the Ngalia Basin. The quartzite scree-slope was screened by Yuendumu Mining Company to produce concrete aggregate which inter alia was used in the construction of the processing plant at the Granites Gold Mine.

As much as I enjoy imparting some geology to you all, I must now turn to that other Gap. What I call the “ethnocentrically defined Gap”. A straw man of Herculean proportions.

Not long ago our Prime Minister presented to the Australian Parliament, the 10^th annual Closing the Gap Report. Jon Altman wrote a well researched Report on the Report
https://newmatilda.com/2018/03/26/gap-widened-refresh-policy-approach-remote-indigenous-australia/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=chris-graham-and-his-dispatches-from-bluesfest-_someonecallthepolice_-john-p-_-2018-04-01-_-09-17-12

Jon Altman observes that each annual report is glossier and larger than the preceding one. He also observes that what was initially aimed at holding the Government accountable to the failed  national endeavour to Close the Gap has metamorphosed into an incumbent Government propaganda tool, complete with tweaked statistical data and aspects of Australia’s favourite political sport: The Blame Game.

If you believe that old English idiom “a picture is worth a thousand words”, then look at the attached picture and read no further.

It is easy to imagine the Heavitree Quartzite and its scree slope in Rod Moss’ painting.

I’ve always thought of the Government’s Closing the Gap deficit model based initiative as being a very expensive monstrous missing of the point. No amount of Refreshing, nor “we want to hear from you” will alter its doomed assimilationist trajectory.

To my mind, it would be far better for the authorities to put their resources and efforts in tackling Bruce Pascoe’s Gulf of Incomprehension, Kim Mahood’s Faultlines and Songlines and yours truly’s Grand Canyon of weltanschauung (world views).

This would require a sincere, intelligent and meaningful “we want to hear from you”, which I fear our leaders are incapable of.

And now a nice song snared whilst trawling Youtube…..
Sona Jorbateh’s Gambia…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtmmlOQnTXM

μέχρι να συναντηθούμε ξανά

Frank

Dear reader, you’re probably wondering what we did for Anzac Day. How did we celebrate the crowning achievement of Australia’s nation-hood?

General Sir Douglas Haig, Killed more ANZACS than any other leader to make the legend ETERNAL!

Well, we ‘d gone to quite a bit of planning. We wanted this, the centenary of the “War for Civilisation” to go down a treat. And forward planning was essential if we were to pull it off and demonstrate that even the contributors of this blog were aware of the nobility, sacrifice and eternal message bequeathed to us as sons and daughters of ANZAC.

WE thought so hard about it, we contacted Donald Trump. As Kitchener, French, Haig, Percival, Allenby, Auchinleck, Slim, Macarthur, Westmoreland, Schwarzkopf, Powell, Petraeus, and Halliburton, had done before, we knew that only an overseas person would be posessed of the foresight and courage to direct our troops to a foreign field somewhere and DIE.

Dead ANZACS on the Somme, Dead and GLORIOUS!

Died to preserve freedoms that most Australians take for granted. And die knowing that their sacrifice was not in VAIN. And we‘d also feel reassured that every thing that makes us civilised, locking people up in foetid detention centres, killing off the biota, and desecrating national treasures would assuage the deep loss for all those men and women who died to maintain our sense of self. And we knew that this, the 100th would be the biggest EVER. And as Kevin Rudd was no longer P.M, there would be no one wise, all-seeing, powerful enough as a globally recognised statesman, to deliver a message that would make us think really deeply about SACRIFICE and the “Reason Why”? Why we build multi-million dollar commemorative centres across the globe so that people like Peter Fitzsimmons can remind us just how bloody good Australian’s were on the field of valour. And to be quite honest, if you look at all soldiery ever, the warriors of Sparta, the Generals of Ancient Rome, the legends, of Empire, Major General Gordon himself, none were better on the feld than the ANZACS. Peter tells us that.

General Gordon. Died at Khartoum so that ANZAC shall be ETERNAL! (no vultures were harmed in the drafting of this image).

That is an unquestionable fact. And if you don’t agree, you may be imprisoned by section 138 B of the “Non-Patriot Act” as promulgated in Parliament by the Gauleiter of “Norstralia” Peter Dutton.

Still, with all this weight of history, we made an effort. Problem was no-one would show. No one could be spared as they were all performing noble self-sacrificing commemorative services elsewhere.

German Dead at Villiers Brettoneux. Died to make the ANZAC Commemorative Centre Glorious!

In truth, we were fucked. On the day, we had a table full of lamingtons, the Hills Hoist had been decked in laurel, and we’d hired a jumping castle and scrawled ‘Gallipoli’ on it for the staff kiddies.

Then the phone call. From a person high up. A respected politician and LEADER. A person who understood the importance of celebrating LOST SOULS. SHE would come to our service and give it gravitas and meaning. WE rejoiced. Anna Bligh as figure-head of the Banking Industry was there to save us. Through her banks she’d bought the dead to life, and they also served who were now DEAD, to save Australia for Banking and Real Estate.

Anna Bligh. Leading the Banks. So that the Dead MAY ALSO SERVE!

We were Safe. And safely we enjoyed Anzac Day. And made it Special. To keep all of us SAFE. And free from introspection, soul- searching and to ask the eternal reason WHY?

Queensland, the empty epicentre of everything.

After the splendour of the Commonwealth Games people the world over have been at a loss to describe the sense of emptiness they feel. The emptiness of knowledge. Knowing that the greatest, fastest, most excellent members of the Greatest Empire the might never had known may win in fields as diverse as Kick-boxing, Bowls and Emptiness. Queensland, the empty capital of the world is soul searching.

From Cooktown to Cowamerup. From the Darling Downs to Devonport, lands cleared of native people and animals lie waiting for the next best thing. They’re pregnant with the weight of anticipation. When the word ‘Emptiness” is never Empty enough. From Armadale the word is “Barnaby”. He rises. To say the Banks Royal Commission is not so bad after all. And to demonstrate balance, Malcom tours Europe to denounce the evils of populism.

” Our greatest, (undoubtedly) Prime Minister EVER”! (K.Rudd)

Deep thought is being sought. And in this crucial era of global catastrophe and cataclysmic enrvironmental change we have no time for pleasantries. Pleasant then, that in spite of all the work being undertaken by the Chinese government to gift micronesian nations with World’s Best Practice conference centres, intergalactic teleports, and Super Broadband Highways as Kevin (soon to be proclaimed, “The magnificent”) Rudd did, that we have something of importance happening in our midst.

Another Royal baby.

Arthur? Albert? Charles? Fred? have been postulated, and the Murdoch press is abuzz with journalistic frenzy.

WE are in a similar frenetic whirl of wonderment. The Barrier Reef may be dead, but there’s new life in Windsor. Morality in Australia as evidenced by the Banks Royal Commission may be stone cold, and there is no hope for democracy. Join a coroporate. ASIC wont go near you, or just go “Team China”.

All is not lost. From the empire of old, something to celebrate.

The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William are having another crack at it. A new baby. And though Hawking hypothesised the meaning of life the universe and everything, we all know we’re more interested in the naming of the royal kiddy. We think that William and Kate will go old school. And grace the kiddy with a sense of Britain’s illustrious past. The pundits point to the Victorian and Edwardian era. When people knew their place. But we at pcbycp say that aint far enough.

CNUT ” I told you not to Leave the tap running”.

We like the sound of CNUT. It’s an anagram that rolls off the top of the tougue. Then, Aelswyth aint bad. And there’s nothing wrong with a dash of the old Harold, for an arrow in the eye of posterity.

We’ve set up a dart board, and dispensed with all the names most favoured by respectable people who like to send their kiddies to proper schools and leave you the reader to ponder our favoured royal names. And whilst you ponder, feel reassured that with another royal, stability reigns over this febrile planet. And that’s reassuring indeed..

Tostig?

Aurelieus Conanus?

Gurguit Babtruc? (not sure if that’s his first or second name)

Eadwig?

Edred?

Fergie?

Or something that’s both contemporary and epithetic of where we’re at in the 21st century, something that illuminates the empire of old and proclaims a clear message.

Anyone for Grenfell??

One in eight birds are destined to be extinct did you know.

The Great Barrier Reef is cactus. We should grow them (cactus) there.

Koala’s threatened with habitat loss.

Kevin Rudd lashes out at Naysayers in second volume of Memoirs, (possibly the most significant second volume of memoir EVER).

Peter Dutton asks to be acting PM for EVER!

This is the noble sactifice a civilised society makes to be CIVILISED!

Kelly O’Dwyer, will see the bankers are punished by being told so. The bankers are trembling.

There’s penetrating findings on the Banking Royal Commission. And we’ve got to say that not since “the terror” have we seen such a grim procession of shabby, implausible, hapless figures in public life. Good thing they’re bankers. In the olden days we’d have em pilloried. But nowadays we just sigh a collective ‘tut tut tut’, to their myriad misdemeanours and hope the whole thing will go away. Seems ASIC, (the amusingly named corporate regulator) was busy doing nothing. At the end of it all we hope that someone quite junior in the banking industry will be PUNISHED!. Just in time for the next election.

Bit like scandals all over really. It’s o.k to do it. You can get a HUGE bonus. But the thing is not to be caught.

This is what a proper apology looks like.

If you get caught it’s game over. It’s the end of the road. It’s the high-water mark. Just as Rupert and James found out. You’ll be landed in purgatory for at least a week. And asked with all probablilty of established fact to APOLOGISE! And made to look pretty SAD. And the admission of GUILT may HAUNT you. And after that, the news cycle will get back onto tracking down the dysfunctonal on the edge of suburbia and worrying about the imposition of Sharia Law in kindergartens.

WE, in the intersts of fairness tried Sharia law the other day at the pcbycp offices.

It al began with a prayer meeting we held right on 11.00 am. We’re not sure if prayers for muslims start at 11.00 am, but we felt that Anzac day and the eternal memory of those who fell to maintain freedoms the world over would appreciate that the eleventh of the eleventh is significant. We should accord them eternal respect. Just as we were about to pause in prayer, Mrs Coldtart came in with the Lamingtons. And one amongst us, couldn’t help (his, her, transgender, it makes no difference to us), grabbing the treats on the tray, so to speak. And in an instant we had a breach of the sacred trust ordained to us by the Great God-head “Anzackery”.

Realising, the appostacy, the lack of respect, the wanton sacriligeous act, we had no recourse, but to punish the offender and Mrs Coldtart. This we did, by restricting their access to the coffee machine and tea making facilities for an entire week.

After that week, with due contrition, they have resigned. And thus we have kept our tradition of noble sacrifice pure.

Tomorrow we prepare for our march. A solemn march down Lygon street, with the order of the Pink Lamington at our masthead. To keep this country pure, and make an example that those who act as deputy God-head, (the bankers), may solemly follow.

Lest we forget.

In deference to Anzac Day (next Wednesday) we make some offerings.

Firstly a song from Leonard Cohen – There’s a Crack in Everything

Fake News

Hallo vrienden,

My mother was heavily pregnant with me when the RAF bombed the Haarlem suburb in which she lived. That was exactly 75 years ago, on the 16^th April 1943.

A friend of my mother’s, Margot Gimpel, was amongst the 85 civilians who lost their lives. No smart bombs, nor GPS back then. Not a single bomb fell on the intended target.

From my dad’s anecdotes (translated from Dutch):

“At great risk, we had a radio mounted under the table. We listened to the Dutch broadcasts of Radio Orange out of London. We were told that the railway works in Haarlem had been totally destroyed…”

Never again was my dad to believe everything he heard on the news or read in the papers.

PHOTO- Destruction in the Teding van Berkhout Street (the street I was born in and where we lived)- The lads in black shorts, helping in the clean-up, are members of the Dutch equivalent of the Hitler Youth, and the photo was used for propaganda purposes.

Dad ‘infected’ all of us with such skepticism. Almost none in our immediate family ever thought that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (How do you move and hide a tunnel?).

Lies and propaganda have been with us for a long long time. These days it is called fake news.

Just a few examples:

The expulsion of Jews from England after the populace was made to believe that child sacrifice was an integral part of Judaism.

The annexation of Czechoslovakia, justified by the alleged mistreatment of the Sudeten Germans.

The bombing of North Vietnam as reprisals for the fictitious Gulf of Tonkin incident.

And who can forget Colin Powell showing those children’s drawings of chemical weapon factories on the back of trucks to a credulous audience at the UN?

Closer to home, John Howard’s re-election on the basis of the throwing of non-existent children overboard.

So what are we to make of the recent chemical weapons attack in Syria?

It is now over a decade ago that in a failed re-election attempt the Northern Territory Emergency Response- The Intervention- was launched. We were told that the sexual abuse of children was an integral part of Remote Aboriginal society. Millions of dollars were spent on trying to prove the existence of alleged paedophile rings, with as much success as locating the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

So when will humanity begin to discern the nakedness of its emperors? When will we ever learn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y2SIIeqy34 Pete Seeger, Where have all the flowers gone?

The spin-doctors have succeeded beyond their wildest wet dreams in inducing Global Amnesia.

Hardly a soul (except for those of us on the front line) knows what the Intervention is, yet the disempowering, assimilationist legislation remains in place doing its dirty deeds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYeMhiWWP8s AC/DC Dirty deeds done dirt cheap…

Tot siens,

Frenk

WOW!! More meaningful, more symbolic, than EVER!

Dear reader, it is well known that this blog eschews the culture of complaint. People understand that from this site, only, measured, dispassionate and balanced views are expressed, Views which truly express the views of right-thinking people world-wide. With this perspective in light, it is bitterly dissapointing to have to comment upon the Commonwealth Games Closing ceremony.

And we should take this opportunity to say how impressed we were with the entire Commonwealth Games. And we would like to thank the organisers in acknowledging that Queensland is the perfect venue for such an event. And the Gold Coast, the spiritual heartland of the singular value Australians stand for UNITED. And that is, (without acknoweldgment of the first Australian’s who never understood it) the value of REAL ESTATE.

Our Deputy head of state tells us what we want to hear.

Not only was the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony a lost opportunity to celebrate Australia’s stunning victories over lesser sporting nations, in fields as diverse, as hopskotch, table tennis, ju-jitsu, synchromised swimming, goat-staring and witch burning. But it was an opportunity for less fortunate nations, (those not gifted with an impeccable sporting pedigree as the world’s “Greatest Sporting Nation” EVER) to join with us in universal celebration of mateship and inclusiveness. To demonstrate once and all that what’s left of the greatest empire the world has ever known, which bought righteousness, bigotry and subjugation to people of colour the world over still exists in the spirit of “Commonwealth”. And we, annointed subjects of the greatest, most enduring, compassionate and fair-minded ruling family EVER, the Windsors, (formerly the Saxe-Coburg Gotha’s) could demonstrate our modest superiority in everything to do with sport and respect for human dignity. Though we did leave that Scots marathon runner lying in the road for an awful long time and our ahletes, wouldn’t stoop to pick him up as Ron Clarke did. Because we have to, (as our cricket team demonstrates so capably) WIN at all costs. That’s the message we like to give to the rest of the world.

Leave em for Dead and WIN WIN WIN GOLD for Australia!!!

So it is with bitter disapointment we couldnt see the footage of our athletes walking victorious into the arena led by the inspirational para-sports veteran Kurt Fearnley carrying the Australian flag.

We were robbed.

Though the spectators found the closing ceremony more banal, yawn provoking and kitsch-enabling than the opening ceremony, we wanted to see it all. We just wanted this chance to revel in the symbolism of it all. As Australians, and (more importantly) as Queenslanders.

Still, there is a chance to redeem ourselves. Come Anzac Day every aussie will march. To signify our unquestionable unity.

For ancient wars we celebrate Aussie mateship. For wars yet to come we celebrate aussie mateship, and for the paltry 500 million to make our war memorial bigger than any other war memorial in the world to prove beyond all resonable doubt that we’ll be at the forefront.

2022 Comonwealth Games will be held in the N.T. Australia leading the world in indigenous incarceration. An un- official games event since 1788.

As a mighty sporting nation.

42.4K views
1:57 / 4:01

Nonsense April 2018

Ntambama enhle abangane bami,

Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay for the 1971 film  “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”

In it, Roald used an old saying to great effect in a scene where each egg was analysed by an “eggdicator” to determine whether it was a good egg or a bad egg:

“A little nonsense, now and then,
Is relished by the wisest men!”

Phil who worked as a clerk for DAA (Department of Aboriginal Affairs) at Yuendumu, was a prolific writer of Letters to the Editor in the Centralian Advocate. Long after he left Yuendumu we would look forward to and relish his letters. He wasn’t the type, but each letter would have us pondering what it was that Phil had smoked or ingested.

His letters were lovely bits of prose which made no sense whatsoever. Nonsense classics.

A former Centralian Advocate sub-editor came to work as a printer for the BRDU (Bilingual Resources Development Unit) at Yuendumu School.

The printer revealed that Phil’s letters were very lengthy but he’d edit them down to fit whatever spare space had to be filled on the Letters to the Editor page. No wonder they made no sense, I said. Oh no! He told me, the whole letter made no sense and which morsel he used made no difference.

We all missed Phil’s contributions after he exited the Land of the Living.

I’m happy to report, that whilst Phil’s style was unique, his spirit lives on.

This recently landed on my virtual desk:

Have your say – Aboriginal Contracting Framework

Lovely picture of a happy native wearing a hi vis vest and pushing a wheel-barrow. What is in the barrow? Might it be BS? (Ed.Note)

Territorians have an opportunity to put forward their thoughts and ideas on the development of a new Aboriginal Contracting Framework for government procurement and grants.

The new framework will be developed through an extensive stakeholder engagement process. Although the new framework will have a wide reach, for infrastructure works, it will replace the Indigenous Employment Provisional Sum policy which ceased in August 2017.

Targeted stakeholders sessions with government, industry, business, Aboriginal stakeholders and non-government organisations will begin next month to identify and consider different ideas for the Aboriginal Contracting Framework…… and on it goes.

I have nothing to add, suffice it to say, that I consider that my complete oblivion when it comes to the existence of the now ceased Indigenous Employment Provisional Sum policy to have resulted in a missed opportunity of gargantuan dimension.

Then there was the Jabberwocky:

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”  … and on it goes.

And then there was a Whiter Shade of Pale:

We skipped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray …and on it goes.

Well may we ponder what Lewis Carroll and Procol Harum smoked or ingested before creating their little nonsense for us to relish.

We might ask the same about the public servant who wrote the “Have your say” piece.

And now for contrast a lovely piece of music for you to relish, even if it makes perfect sense…

mlanjeni Mafikizolo (Meet Me At the River)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQa_8efdiRs

kuze kube yisikhathi esilandelayo

Rupert and James, ” very sorry”, they were found out.

Geoffrey Rush doesn’t eat. He’s in lockdown in his house. His confidence and reputation shot. In the courts the Sunday Telegraph and Rupert’s flunkies fight it out with the STC, ( Sydney Theatre Company) to name the person who leaked.

This is trial by media, and Rupert must be very happy indeed.

We remember the News of the World Scandal. Private telephone conversations hacked, people left to hang in the gallows of public opinion after their private lives were trawled. In the end we had the edifying spectacle of Rupert and James confronting the parliament to say they were very sorry, the culture would change. And it didn’t.

Geoffrey may have touched someone innaproriately under a directors prompting. Was he a Weinstein serial type? We doubt it. Was he a Cosby and Rolfian, (Harris) serial offender? Most assuredly not. And what constitutes the inappropriate? Buggered if we know. You’ll have to ask Mr G from Summer Heights High. All we know is that two careers, the accuser and the accused are down the toilet.

In the end a good actor, some say a very good actor has had his career shot, and the hunt for sex offenders goes off track.

Indeed it was unwise for some well meaning tool to blab to the Telegraph. Someone, in the theatre industry may have forewarned them that Murdoch doesn’t have any one’s health in mind when his flunkies make enquiries. It’s only scandal he’s after. And it keeps the foremost principle of Murdoch’s Empire, (to impoverish the masses with salacious gossip, inuendo and degrading simplification) to keep going. And the cash registers pinging.

Mr G, advice on “appropriate” and “innapriopriate” touching.

The tabloids survive because they trawl the lowest common denominator of the human condition. They do this because the public seemingly have a thirst for the lowest common denominator. And the public, since they removed public hanging, like a metaphorical one.

In America, a shooting can be recorded on anyone’s I phone in graphic detail The blood, the sight of corpses, are daily fare, and no one bats and eyelid. But when an alleged victim of serial fiddler Bill Cosby protests by flashing her naked breasts, the editing departments are working full tilt, to ensure that no one is shocked by the sight of bare breast. We still reward violence as healthy prime-time entertainment, and yet stoop and genuflect to some ancient biblical hang-up up about sexuality by digitally removing a woman’s sexuality as “offensive”.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Corey

We are in strange times. Serge Gainsbourg would be non plussed, and Arthur Miller re- writing the Crucible in a more contemporary vein, because both the victims and the perpetrators are devalued as human beings and sent to purgatory for having any sexuality at all. This is Rush’s crime, to be a bloody good actor, and die on the pillory of this purient and all pervasive fear of sexuality. Whether he touched, fiddled or groped is irrelevant. He was alleged to have (under direction)  an alleged moment, and his life is irreperably changed. And Rupert is richer by half. And we the public impoverished.

And Guilty?

We only have ourselves to blame.