Commodus succeeded his father. Trump was helped out with a cool million to get his real estate business going. Commodus laid stress on his unique status as a source of god-like power, liberality and physical prowess. Innumerable statues around the empire were set up portraying him in the guise of Hercules, reinforcing the image of him as a demigod, a physical giant, a protector and a battler against beasts and men. Trump hotels.

“not naturally wicked but, on the contrary, as guileless as any man that ever lived. His great simplicity, however, together with his cowardice, made him the slave of his companions, and it was through them that he at first, out of ignorance, missed the better life and then was led on into lustful and cruel habits, which soon became second nature.” – Cassius Dio on Commodus

I have been watching Bill English over the past few years. And while it is true that he comes at things from a financial point of view, he is not lacking in humanity. He has observed that it is better for the country to look after its children. He has advocated social housing. And while he might be slightly centre right, whatever that means, I have watched a man become more mature, wiser and more compassionate. For Hoskings to speciously call him a man without a pulse, and to seek to interfere in an important political process is not only beyond his remit, it his beyond his capacity for analysis.

Mikael