From Purgatory, Christopher Pearson does one last fix

Older Alligator readers will recall Christopher Pearson, the bibulous South Australian editor of the Adelaide Review, former student Maoist, retired homosexual, John Howard speechwriter, Latin mass Catholic, and now presumably, resident of Purgatory.

Christopher fancied himself a mentor to young political types, by which he meant he spotted wavering lefties and tried to coax them over to the cultural Right.

He may have reached out from beyond the grave for one last raid, with the defection of South Australian state Labor MP Jack Snelling from his party to refound SA happy-clappy outfit Family First, with Tom Kenyon, also a Labor MP. Both are from the SA’s Shoppies faction, but Snelling also has the distinction of being a beneficiary of Pearson’s estate.

Pearson had befriended him a few years before his death at age 61, and Snelling would appear to have travelled rightwards since. He was written into Pearson’s will from the latter’s sickbed, getting fifty per cent of the estate – which, after Pearson’s debts were cleared amounted to $125,000.

What Christopher would make of him restarting a protestant outfit does not bear thinking about. Is that a cry of pain from the mountain of sorrows.