A charming host

Sydney Morning Herald editor Alan Oakley has come in for plenty of flack for sacking Mike Carlton as one of the paper's Saturday columnists but he showed last night he is not a small minded fellow. The radio star was one of the golden oldies that Oakley invited to the dinner last night at the old Parliament House to mark the retirement of that real star of the Saturday Herald Alan Ramsey. I am pleased to report that while the weekly musings are disappearing there is every likelihood of a book from the political journalist that the politicians love to hate.