Gozu wrote:Yeah, nice. Perhaps next time you could ask Downer about that $300m in the AWB scandal. As the great PJK once called him "the idiot son of the aristocracy".
Yes well I would take PK's assessment as accurate of course - that arrogant French clock collecting suit, who pretended to care about the workers, while he did renovations to his house at Rose Bay without council consent and didn't do his tax returns for 2 years...
Alexander is actually, a pleasant guy and good-humoured, an Economics graduate, and, while not the quickest or most aggressive wit in the business, not stupid.
Aristocracy??His great grandfather came from England in 1838.
His grandfather went to St Peters, and later became a lawyer, then was Premier of SA on two occasions.
His father was educated at Geelong Grammar School and at Oxford University, where he graduated in economics and political science. He practised as a barrister in Adelaide before joining the Australian Army in 1940. He served in Malaya and was a prisoner-of-war for three years. He was elected to the House of Representatives for the rural based Division of Angas. He was Minister for Immigration from 1958 to 1963.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downer_familyBoth the Knighthoods in the family - father and gradfather - were awarded for political service as was common practice in those days - but were not heriditary.
None of that makes
any of the family aristocracy!