was not was

Alexander Downer stands down.

Does anybody with more time - and fortitude - on their hands care to do a trawl to get some Downer quotes on the uselessness of the UN during the Howard era.

They weren't keen on the UN were they, as I recall.

Nicosia's a nice place, I once had to go to a dentist urgently there. They can put a temporary filling in the with the best of them.

Anyway it'll keep Downer out of sight out of mind for a while, after all Cyprus has been dvided since 1974. From the linked report we can see that Downer indeed "paid some attention" to Cyrus, he appointed two Liberal Party hacks. That must've taken all of 5 minutes, what an incredibly insightful and effective foreign minister he turned out to be.

Oh, that didn't take very long, did it?

Spare me.