The indiscreet Papadopoulos

There is something delightfully comic about the scene reported on by The New York Times in which the glamorous-looking George Papadopoulos, former foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump, whispers into the ear of the Honourable Alexander Downer, former Australian foreign minister with a nice taste in fishnet tights, during a drinking session in a posh London bar, that the Ruskies have thousands of emails linked to Hillary Clinton which would dish the dirt on Trump's rival for the presidency. Let me explain the fishnet tights quickly. Downer, in the 1990s, posed for charity in fishnet tights and high heels, and the photograph went round the world and back again, like a boomerang. Good for him I say. But here he is again, this time as Australia's High Commissioner in London, standing in a bar with Trump's Judas-in-the-making, in May 2016, and suddenly out comes Papadopoulos with the little gem about Ruskie mischief. Papadopoulos had picked up the info from an academic in London allegedly with links to Moscow. Papadopoulos is obviously the type who cannot keep a secret. Perhaps he had read about Downer wearing fishnet tights and thought he was a good guy to tell about the Ruskie secret. Downer is an Honourable by birth - his father was a baronet - and he is an all-round good chap. I played cricket against him once in Australia during a wonderful journalists' cricket tour in 1997. He turned up and batted rather well. Anyway, the point is, Papadopoulos and Downer probably made good drinking companions. But the indiscreet Papadopoulos probably never realised the risky game he was playing. Perhaps too many gin and tonics. Downer, being a loyal servant of the Australian government, reported the indiscretion to his superiors. They kept it to themselves for a couple of months until suddenly out of the blue, WikiLeaks starts publishing emails which put Hillary in a very very bad light. Such as the ones from the chairwoman of the US Democratic National Committee which showed an underhand plot to undermine the campaign of Hillary's then rival for the presidential canditure, Bernie Sanders. The leaked emails were courtesy of the Ruskies. Two and two were put together in Canberra, and the Australian government tipped off the FBI who began a secret secret investigation. Ony four words are needed to sum up the result of all this whispering and secrecy: Trump won, Hillary lost! So, in a nutshell, based on "facts" as we now know them, Hillary's chances of winning the election were spoiled - I'll say no more than that - by Moscow, WikiLeaks, Papadopoulos, Downey, Canberra and the FBI. Wow, that's quite a combination. It doesn't prove collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign, but it's a wonderful story.