Last night I was listening to Graham Maybury on the radio. While I used to listen to him every single night when I was a kid (seriously, every night from when I was about 9 years old to when I was about 17) I haven’t listened to him much since. I became a convert to BBC World Service instead.

Anyway, last night I was listening while having a shower. Right at that time, Graham recounted a wonderful story which I will try to paraphrase here.

Kim Beazley Snr used to call Graham from time to time, but would never identify himself. But Graham came to recognise his voice, although never said anything at the time. One time, Kim Snr rang in response to a situation where a woman had had her ring go missing after attending hospital.

Kim said that he had heard listeners ring in and say she was stupid for wearing the ring to hospital. He had heard listeners ring to say the hospital was responsible, and security should be improved. He had heard numerous excuses, accusations and anger. But not once had he heard anybody call through and say the real problem: there was a thief in the hospital.

Graham told the story much better than I did there, and I am not doing it justice. But in some way that shows both the wisdom of Kim Snr and one of the problems we as a society have today – always looking for the wider, endemic problem as opposed to focusing on the root cause.

Anyway, what made that story all the more meaningful is, of course, that Kim Beazley Snr is Hannah’s Pop. I have known him for some years now and while age is now taking its toll, it’s wonderful to occassionally be reminded of what a great, lovely, wonderful man he is.