July 01, 2004

MERLIN VALIDATED

Television tapeworm Merlin Luck has joined the cashed-up compassion circus:

After speaking alongside former prime minister Malcolm Fraser on asylum seekers yesterday, Big Brother evictee Merlin Luck said he now felt recognised as "a valid voice" on the issue.

He spoke at a breakfast function for the AM Club, a regular speakers' forum organised by businesses including the Hilton Hotel and 3AW held at Hilton on the Park in East Melbourne.

"Today helped to assert me as someone who can discuss these issues and can be seen as, not a spokesperson, but as a valid voice on the issue rather than some punk who put some tape on his mouth and held up a sign and said 'Yeah, dude, free the refugees'."

Which is exactly what Merlin did. Anxious to present Concernin' Merlin in the best possible light, The Age's Andra Jackson rewrites his family history:

Luck, whose family came to Australia as migrants from Germany when he was four ...

Wrong. As Merlin himself told Green Left Weekly:

I came to this country from Germany when I was four years old and then we overstayed our tourist visa – as so many people do – so we lived illegally in Australia.

Posted by Tim Blair at July 1, 2004 03:19 PM
Comments

Merlin habt die Hauptrolle auf deutsch Scheißepornofilme. Er ist voll davon.

Posted by: Adolf at July 1, 2004 at 03:40 PM

"A valid voice", yeah right!!!

He probably would be if Australia had any refugees and they were held illegally, but we don't.

Nope, sorry Merlin, you're just another lefty fuckwit without a clue and who refuses to accept the truth when presented with it.

My advice Merlin, Fuck off back to Germany as soon as possible.

Posted by: scott at July 1, 2004 at 03:58 PM

looks like Merlin Muck's extended his 15 minutes of fame to 17 minutes...

Posted by: roscoe.p.coltrane at July 1, 2004 at 04:07 PM

Merlin ans Malcolm- now there's a meeting of the minds. How much were they paying to sit through that mindless babble?

Posted by: Habib at July 1, 2004 at 05:07 PM

It's good to see Tim Blair isn't being negative and attacking anything not according to his wisdom this time. I can't see anything directly attacking any left causes here, and instead a nice link to a positive article on some good works.
Kudos to you Mr Blair, for as your headline indicates this Merlin person has been vindicated by association with such luminaries as Mr Fraser and Mr Frasers good works, in a number of social areas that can only be admirable.
After all the article above doesn't actually refute the assertion of vindication, even with the little (I'm sure meant playfully), dig about the tape on the mouth thing. Of course only a child, a fool or rabid right wing yes man wouldn't detect the self irony in Merlins comment about being a punk with tape on his mouth and certainly anybody but a very petty person would not take the point that Merlin is getting some more 'establishment' attention rather than the media 'circus' thing which is what previous complaints I believe were about. Good on you Mr Blair for expanding on how Merlins is getting real credability.
I'm also sure that the very minor picking on whether his family was legal or not was just Tim Blairs studious attention to detail, after all he was only 4 years old at the time, and should really be judged on his compassion at this time rather than being blamed for the 'sins of the father'. To re-iterate, again, just Mr Blairs attention to journalistic detail, not a weak attempt to distract or snipe the actual issues that Merlin and Fraser and the organisation mentioned in the linked article are involved in.
Please keep up this positive article run Mr Blair, I see so much petty, whiny, abusive and ill thought out commentary by hominemophiles in the comments section, which is a pity. So many articles being negative and attacking the person, their appearence, minor habits etc rather than the issues....
There are so many intelligent forums out there and it is good to see that this one is moving in that direction with Mr Blairs guidence.

bs

Posted by: bemused spectator at July 1, 2004 at 05:14 PM

Tapeworm - LOL

I read some of his drivel, I just wish he'd kept the tape on.

Forever.

Posted by: kae at July 1, 2004 at 05:19 PM

dear 'bemused'. 3/10 for effort. must try harder next time.

Posted by: roscoe.p.coltrane at July 1, 2004 at 05:27 PM

*sigh*

BS, I promise to type slowly so I won't lose you on this. Lets look at the "issues" of this matter shall we?

Merlin has demonstrated a strong concern for what he terms as 'refugees' in Australia, all asylum seekers remaining in detention are now in their nth round of legal challenges to claim refugee status. That status in Australia is detrmined against UN statutes describing what a refugee actually is. Incidently, Australian judicial standards for refugees are now much softer than the UN stadard.

All remaining detainees have failed to meet this standard.

What gets in my craw and others no doubt is the freely available legal resources made available to assylum seekers for endless appeals, at the expense of the taxpayer.

Let's take a look at our mate Merlin. Yes it is a given that you can't hold a 4 year old boy to the actions of his parents, that being the flagrant disregard for Australian law. I do have a problem with being lectured to by a non-citizen, who choses not vote and retains his German citizenship to access EU and German passports to 'make travelling in Europe easy'.

All I can say about Malcolm is that I'm glad he made it to the do with his pants on

Posted by: Antipodean at July 1, 2004 at 05:39 PM

You beat me to the pants thing Antipodean - curse you!

I think they both should have held up their appropriate signs:

Merlin:

Free th refugees.

Malcolm

Find m trousers.

Posted by: Rob at July 1, 2004 at 07:02 PM

It would be nice, Adolf, if you could actually write correct German.

Posted by: goetz von berlichingen at July 1, 2004 at 07:43 PM

Anyone know whether he came from East or West Germany? Did the East German government really let its citizens holiday in Australia? Or did they claim refugee status from the ever-so-scary West Germany?

Posted by: Jorge at July 1, 2004 at 08:08 PM

They never claimed refugee status. They came on a holiday and overstayed their visa like thousands of western europeans do each year. They probably got amnesty when it was being offered in the 80s.

I really doubt East Germans were allowed to holiday here. They had this big wall thingo that kept them inside...ask the other big brother contestants.

Posted by: yobbo at July 1, 2004 at 08:37 PM

We should hope this Merlin fellow keep in the press.

The idea of a non Austrlalian berating us on refugees, and making it a big topic again, would help the conservatives' election chances so much you would think he must nearly be a put up job.

Posted by: wpc at July 1, 2004 at 09:21 PM

My advice Merlin, Fuck off back to Germany as soon as possible.

Noooo, don't foist that idiot on us, please. Can't you send him to Nauru or someplace?

Posted by: PW at July 1, 2004 at 10:31 PM

Ach, Goetz - how vould you like it, schtuck down here in Hell, being tormented und schtuff ?

Remember, I vas Austrian, not cherman ...

Anyway - that was generated by www.freetranslation.com - go bitch to them mr picky-picky!

Posted by: Adolf at July 2, 2004 at 03:16 AM