It’s good to see that John Howard can sometimes spot the bleeding obvious.  It took a while, though.  And you have to admire his mental agility.  On 26 May he was saying “I am aware that the majority of people are probably opposed to this” but selling it is “the right decision”. 

Then yesterday morning it was “All Change”; it seems a lot of people are against selling the Snowy, so we have decided not to.   I guess you have to be the right people.  While he’s in this democratic mood, he might just manage to hear the voices of the 76 legal luminaries who have signed an open letter to him pointing out that the detention of David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay is “an affront to international legal standards”.  The signatories of the letter include Former New South Wales Attorney-General and Supreme Court Judge John Dowd and three other former judges.  Perhaps that’s what John was talking to George about on the phone last night! 

The letter, along with the report sent to the International Commission of Jurists on the legal status of Hick’s detention, can be found here .