I can’t believe that you look back and say “I was unkind to people” … you’re not an envious person, you’re not a hateful person, you’ve got – one assumes – plenty of money. So why do you sit there and beat yourself up thinking that you’ve hurt people?’

Poor John Mangos. There he was on Sky News Australia presenting the interview programme Viewpoint last November. His interviewee was the great John Laws, who had a new book to promote and yet another spectacular controversy (this one involving his comments about Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s Carson Kressley) to defend. Things seemed to be going smoothly, with Mangos asking Laws about the ‘ugly’ tall poppy syndrome; declaring that Laws, for all the criticism he has attracted, hadn’t exactly made a hash of his life; giving Laws yet more airtime to propagate his views on David Flint, Alan Jones and Media Watch; and looking suitably aghast at the mention of death threats. Then Laws began quietly reflecting on his faults, saying that he could have been a better husband and father and kinder to the people around him.