The ABC is such a downer

Thanks to Andrew Bolt, I got to read this delicious interview with Alexander Downer.

MONICA ATTARD: But presumably it's a very long way from conversation and dining in the white house to, you know a chat and dinner at the local RSL.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: But it always has been, yeah, I mean when I was the foreign minister I also went to the local RSL, I might you know go to the Macclesfield RSL for their ANZAC service or for the you know, local rotary club meeting. I don't really look at it like that, I mean whether I'll talking to Condi Rice or whether I'm talking to the President of the Mt Barker Rotary Club, I mean they're both people and have different interests and different perspectives but I enjoy both.

MONICA ATTARD: Presumably there's a vast difference in the degree of intellectual stimulation you'd get from either end?

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well that depends very much on who you're talking to, not every foreign minister I've met is intellectually stimulating and plenty of people in Rotary Clubs or wherever it may be service clubs or RSLs or just in the community can be very intellectually stimulating.

Attard is such a complete shocker, I don't know where to begin. To presume that Downer will find it tough now that he only has the "little people" to talk to.... fuck, where does she get off? I've met a fair number of politicians and senior business people and the like, and some are fascinating to talk to, but others are dull as dishwater. Frankly, I have more fun talking to my mates than a minister of state or an ambassador or a Governor. Just because someone has a fancy title, it doesn't automatically make them a stimulating person to talk to.

And just because someone works at say the local butcher, it doesn't make them a complete bore to talk to. In fact my local butcher is 10 times more interesting and engaging than the last Federal Minister that I sat next to at dinner.

If Attard thinks that one will suffer dreadfully from "relevance deprivation syndrome" once one leaves a high powered job like this, then she is going to have a shit time when she leaves marxism, sorry - I mean journalism at the ABC. Just image how tough it will be, being an ex-journo, no longer talking to the rich and powerful on a daily basis, but reduced to chatting to taxi drivers and mums in the supermarket queue. Oh, woe is me, the pain of having to deal with the little people!

Someone really needs to prick the bubble that these pricks at the ABC exist in.