1/ - Some reactions from a nobody. I've now read all the Palace Letters. Looking forward to going back and reading the various newspaper articles and journal chapters that Kerr so assiduously provided to the Palace.

2/ - It is very hard to imagine that Charteris and the Palace weren't aware of what Kerr would probably do. The discussions about reserve powers and how to handle the deadlock lead to only one conclusion for me. Jenny Hocking said today that it's alarming and it is.

3/ - The letters are chatty. Kerr's neediness is obvious. It's almost Trump-like. Insecurity and grandiosity ooze through the letters. Kerr's compusion to make his mark in history, to prove his importance, is never far from his thinking.

4/ - There's also a clubbiness to the letters. They're like men at an elite club, heaping praise on each other. At one point Charteris or Moore says he's just spent hours with the prime minister. They preen constantly over their proximity to power.

5/- Most of all, though, for me, there's a sense of transactional business always going on. The Palace needs (and gets) plausible deniability. In the end, they don't really care about Whitlam or Fraser. Kerr gets cover and, he hopes, kudos for resolving a difficult impasse.

6/- The Palace acknowledges they are a constitutional monarchy. They must take the prime minister's advice or they're finished. But they know how to massage that reality, how to delay and obfuscate. We can assist you, Sir John, just don't drop us in it.

7/- In the end, though, for the Palace, Kerr is dispensable. He must not embarrass them. After November 11, they discuss with him the best way to resign. In today's statement from the Palace, he is simply "Kerr", a speck, against a thousand years of monarchy.

8/- The tragedy of Kerr shines through. At times during the terms of Whitlam and Fraser, the letters display quite astute and perceptive judgement of people. His political assessments can be sharp. But he doesn't have the strength or character to put his job on the line.

9/- Whilst the Palace indulges Kerr, they surely hold him in contempt. He is cut adrift as soon as possible. Like everything else in these letters, it's done politely and obsequiously, but clinically.

10/ - The letters need to be read again. They need to be digested and placed against the weight of the evidence, especially the bits Kerr never mentions. (Justice Mason, you *do* have a duty to history.)

11/- Maybe I've got it all wrong...