If anyone ever says to you: trust me, I’m a journalist, start running as fast as you can.
And if anyone should know that is our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
In another life, our dear PM was indeed a working journalist, although “working’’ is stretching it a bit.
So when the press gallery promised him that everything he did and say at the midwinter ball would be off the record, he should have known better.
Another PM, a little more savvy about how the world really works, Paul Keating, chose the same function to make his infamous Placido Domingo knowing full well that it would get out.
History is littered with examples of such famous last words and for some reason I thought the current PM knew his history better than he knows what Bill Shorten will do next.
Well, let’s have a look at some Top 5 of history’s promises and famous last words, from the sublime to the ridiculous:
Number 1. You won’t get a better deal anywhere else – used car salesmen for the past 100 years. To be fair, it must be pointed out that they rate higher than journalists in trust surveys.
Number 2. Peace in our time: British PM Neville Chamberlain’s declaration when he returned home after signing the Munich Pact with Adolf Hitler, which handed Czechoslovakia to Germany but failed miserably to stop the beginning of World War II. Appeasement never works.
Number 3. Exclusive. Label on just about every story in an Australian national newspaper. Pull the other.
Number 4. We pick and stick. The Queensland State of Origin selection policy. It only applies when they win. Lose one game and they panic and virtually pick a brand new side.
Number 5. The unsinkable ship. Yep, that’s what they called the Titanic, the journalists of the time. One exclusive you wish you never had.
