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David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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| Post subject: Mark Latham at the Writers' Festival |  |
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Mark Latham recently departed his job as a (somewhat intemperate) columnist in the Australian Financial Review amid controversy over some questionable Twitter usage. He was invited to speak at the Melbourne Writers' Festival yesterday, with some pretty bizarre results.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/22/mark-latham-in-foul-mouthed-tirade-at-melbourne-writers-festival
http://www.crikey.com.au/live/mwf
| Crikey wrote: | The Melbourne Writers' Festival has signaled its "disappointment" in Mark Latham's appearance this afternoon, saying it was "not the respectful conversation we value".
Now might be a good time to tell readers that Latham made a number of extraordinary statements about various people, which we haven't repeated on the live blog because, well, they could be legally actionable, and we don't want to fly into this blind without thinking about it. Crikey understands at least some of what Latham said is vigorously disputed by those it relates to.
Even when far from defamatory, his calling Jonathan Green a dickhead was really on the milder end of his comments about people. So, we'll sit on this one for now. But that explains why the Melbourne Writers' Festival made the statement.
The response to Latham's abuse was, well, heated.
Several people tried to reason with Latham to moderate what he said, and quite a few got up and walked out. But the vast majority didn't, something Latham clearly relished. "Very few people have left. You're all riveted by this," Latham told the audience.
"It's like watching a car crash," a young man at the back called out.
When actor Max Gillies tried to reason with Latham, telling him he'd always respected his columns and Latham was "better" than the "torrent of abuse" he was unleashing on the audience, Latham told Gillies to piss off.
"My future work in the media will be unflitered -- and this is unfiltered. This is how I talk with my mates down in the pub, and if you don't like it, you can piss off."
"What's wrong with a bit of unfiltered conversation. '****' and '%$^%$£$%' are on the front page of The Australian. They've been legitimised ... so let's use them."
By this time, Green looked furious. He sat, cross-legged, barely facing Latham, clearly rather unhappy with how things turned out. Shortly after the session, he retweeted Age literary editor Jason Steger's rather critical view of the event.
| Jason Steger wrote: | | Mark Latham displayed appalling disrespect for #MWF15, the audience and @GreenJ He likes to use the c word; takes one to know one. |
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Kind of hard to believe that, at one time, he was the 'left' side of politics' major candidate to be prime minister. But then, I dunno, maybe some people still find his (cough) 'plain speaking' style refreshing?
I've never been quite sure what to make of him, to be honest. Even as opposition leader over a decade ago, I remember him seeming like a bit of a loose cannon. But evidently people must have seen something in him, or else he never would have been granted leadership of the Labor Party.
All pretty odd. What do you make of it?
(Some audio excerpts here:
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2015/08/sra_20150823_0905.mp3)
_________________
All watched over by machines of loving grace
Last edited by David on Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:01 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Tannin 
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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More evidence of Labor's messiah complex. Ever since Whitlam, Labor has existed in some sort of dreamworld where unity and good policy and good leadership can't win elections, only a messiah can take them back to the Promised Land.
They find someone with showy strengths and, like a balding, menopausal man falling for a 20-year-old girl, will themselves to believe in the dream, ignoring all evidence that the match is unsuitable and doomed to failure. Latham was merely the first such folly. Thankfully, Australia was too canny to elect him. (Mind you, give that the alternative was the hopeless, banal Howard, you wouldn't think Latham could have been too much worse.) The second time around, Labor pledged its troth to the erratic, self-obsessed, micro-controlling traitor Rudd. The Rudd affair was a disaster waiting to happen. Long before his election as leader, the whole party knew that the only people who liked him and trusted him were the ones who had not met him. But they trusted that the Sky Fairy would somehow make everything work and married the bitch anyway. Fools!
Have they learned their lesson yet? It would seen so, given their choice of the safe but lack-lustre Shorten this time.
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�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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Culprit 
Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Location: Port Melbourne
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| The guy is a loony. I have listened to him on 3AW on occasions and he has lost the plot. Vindictive and it's the woe is me Latham. |
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Wokko 
Come and take it.
Joined: 04 Oct 2005
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I tried really hard to like the bloke when he was Opposition Leader, he's obviously intelligent and had vision and passion for the country. He also however, despite his best efforts to hide it at the time, is as mad as a cut snake.
The thing about being a bit crazy, if you don't make the effort it can quickly turn into a lot crazy.  |
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Dangles
Balmey Army
Joined: 14 May 2015
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| Wokko wrote: |
The thing about being a bit crazy, if you don't make the effort it can quickly turn into a lot crazy. |
True. Some mornings, when I'm not traveling well, I have to ask myself if I'm going to be able to cope at work if I find myself in a high pressure situation.
Even Whitlam said that Latham should've never have gotten into politics and that was years ago. Initially I found Latham's brash style entertaining but when he covered the last couple of elections and acted like a muck racking journalist from A Current Affair, in pathetic attempt to remain relevant, I lost all respect for him. |
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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| How did you feel when you found Latham's brash style entertaining but when he covered the last couple of elections and acted like a muck racking journalist from A Current Affair in pathetic attempt to remain relevant he or she lost all respect for him ? |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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Latham does, however, write well and frequently produces thoughtful, incisive columns with great insight. No-one else does it as well as Latham when he's in form ... and no-one else does it as badly as Latham when he's in the wrong lunar phase.
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�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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| I will mention that to my , to lack the ability to develop emotional connection. |
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Pies4shaw 
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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I guess this is the sort of thing that can happen if you invite loser has-beens to such an event.
The world is brimming with writers, some of whom have talent. Perhaps, next year, they'll contemplate inviting some of them, instead.
He's as likely a guess for a writers festival as Billy Joel would by for a Liszt symposium. |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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Billy might surprise you
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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| You think? |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Location: Between London and Melbourne
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Latham does what a good columnist does - question prevailing wisdom from a different hill, conscious that today's consensus, backed by the armies of social disapproval, is really a flash in the historical pan.
His career as a senior politician was a rather tragic after-shock of Labour's fixation with the unique character of Keating. Labour is a party so riven with factionalism and internal contradictions that it needs a leader of exceptional force to bind its fissile bits together. Recent history has shown that such leaders are virtually unobtainable. I should add that the Libs may have entered the same phase. Perhaps the whole concept of monolithic parties is an artifact of a more orderly past.
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Two more flags before I die! |
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swoop42 
Whatcha gonna do when he comes for you?
Joined: 02 Aug 2008
Location: The 18
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Can't stand this bloke.
Just a bully.
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He's mad. He's bad. He's MaynHARD! |
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Dangles
Balmey Army
Joined: 14 May 2015
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| He's like the Ricky Nixon of politics and about as relevant to politics these days as Nixon is to the AFL. |
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