IMAGINE the scenario. You are clinging to the hope of governing after a tight election which has left no party with a majority. You have to deal with a minority party whose demands are high and whose loyalty is swinging in the breeze. It’s a make or break moment, after a week of tense negotiations you have come up with a package that wins over the minority leader who is being courted in equal fashion by your rival for power. It’s possibly the most important letter you’ll ever write and it’s going to have to win the affection of a man who has been uncomfortably in the spotlight for a week, weighing up the future of the state and his own party. So you’d think you’d spell his name right, surely? Not so. The Note admits it is easy to miss the fact that Nationals WA leader Brendon Grylls has that devilish ‘o’ in his first name. But, both Allan Carpenter and Collin Barnett addressed their momentous letters to that other guy in rural politics, Brendan Grylls. Maybe it was the pressure or even (and here’s one for conspiracy theorists) a deliberate mistake? But who plays those mind games these days? At least they both erred, cancelling their mistakes out as the Nats chief weighed up the detail in each offer.
