But what is most corroborating of both my judgement and also Howard cynicism in an ironic way is this: As I patroled the line between the prison buses, cops and festival of activism (caught by Daily Telegraph photo record on their web later that day) with flag as cape, it became clear there were only a handful of nasties in a crowd of 5-10K. What followed was hours of peacemaking - bribing a homeless guy with $5. Pandering to the ego of a nutter with pic posing with a reverend. Chatting to the nervey coppers that the sit in would leave any minute now …, any minute now … any minute now and finally did.

With all these things its the biffo that becomes the lead and it’s near impossible to prevent. And this was Howard’s pretty fair PR gamble. Well I remember patroling the tail end of the march as red raggers dawdled and whined about the cops cramping their style. Riot experience at Bondi came in real handy. I gave one of those soliliquys pretty sure ASIO have got it on tape along these lines - ‘Howard is on the skids, he could be gone by tomorrow. Don’t give him any help. It’s not the police we need to worry about. They are just pawns in Howard’s dirty game.’ Or something like that. One genius accused me of working for the police, after 6 activist arrests over the years. Derr. There should have been a riot according to cynical Howard as a balancer for the 300K rally in Feb 2003 to prove to GW et al the No War crew were ratbags.

But Gandhi won, Howard miscalculated. No riot, almost a leadership spill in the govt, certainly a lasting impression of Howard more concerned about his haughty profile than the worries of the people like climate and mad bad Iraq war.