Beep, beep: Master's apprentice

Master's apprentice

Of course, before Paul Keating activated the demolition beam on Tuesday night and swung his boot up NSW-Labor-leader-in-waiting John Robertson's chutney, much sport was being had with the freshly revived and even spicier letter he sent to Robbo in 2008. Going back to something you enjoyed so much a couple of years ago is an activity always fraught with risk, so it was a delight to find its many jagged gems as sparkling as memory had insisted; even the "Sincerely" at the end has a barbed magnificence. Fortuitously, it may have kicked off a trend, with former NSW minister Frank Sartor getting a few things off his chest in an open letter to NSW ALP powerbroker Eddie Obeid, published for the greater edification and-or trainwreck titillation of the readers of The Sydney Morning Herald. It bristles with sarcasm -- "Brilliant public policy, Eddie. Well done, mate!" (amusingly, this relates to a pet Keating project, Sydney's Barangaroo development) -- and unminced advice: "Eddie, please go now, and don't pick your successor." Sure, Sartor's got a way to go before he approaches Keating's black-belt standard, but there's real promise here.