Knowing how much visitors to The Political Sword have appreciated the writings of Greg Jericho on Grog’s Gamut, this short piece is to thank you Greg for giving us such delight for so long.
Your contribution to political discourse has been outstanding. We have enjoyed your forensic dissection of parliamentary procedures, particularly Question Time. You have the uncanny knack of finding and reproducing the astonishing ‘dialogue’ of QT. Over and again you have captured the ludicrous and the farcical, the nonsensical and the preposterous, the foolish and the stupid, the brilliant and the banal, the stunts and the bizarre humour. Those who enjoy QT marvel at your perspicacity and incisive analysis.
There have been times when you have used graphs and visuals to starkly illustrate your points, often about technical or financial matters. Your capacity to find these data and analyse them so quickly fills us with admiration.
No matter what your subject, you address it with accuracy and care, such that puts many professionals to shame. We prefer to read what you write to most of what appears in the MSM, beset as the media so often is with inaccuracies, misinformation, incomplete information, distorted analysis, groupthink, journalists talking to journalists, partisan agenda-driven rhetoric, and the latter day curse of journalism: ‘opinion as news’.
We know journalists read what you say and if one can judge from the reaction of journalists at The Australian, one of whom thought he had a scoop when he ‘outed’ you as a public servant working in Canberra, you seemingly get up their noses. They seem affronted that a part time blogger, especially a Canberra public servant, could more than match them at their own game. They must have fumed at you being anointed political blogger of the year. You are now widely regarded as one of the most astute political commentators in Canberra.
Those of us who write for the Fifth Estate know how time consuming it is. We have admired your willingness and capacity to write your blog night after night after work, and understand the stress and fatigue that induces.
We were interested to read that you are now preparing to write a book, and that to do that you are taking part-time work. We appreciate that you will not be able to keep up the frenetic schedule of blogging while you do this. We know your output will be reduced at Grog’s Gamut, but we shall look forward to reading what you have time to write there and of course your book when it arrives.
Thank you for all you have contributed to political discourse for so long. We wish you every success in your next adventure.