Every little while, in tracking past obsessions, I sift through dusty files and find in my possession a story in the archive of characters long dead: like bees in summer hives, they once flew round my head. It’s how I read today of Bert, a Labor “pollie” who honed his wilful ways to the point of shameless folly. Though the newspaper has yellowed and its print is not as black this maverick hasn’t mellowed, his ploys come rushing back. As King of the wild West End he fiddled ballot books, said rules were made to bend and went to bed…
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