I've been a bit busy in recent days and have only just seen Reg Little's forensic assessment of Australia's end-of-empire dilemma. What a brilliant piece. It deserves to be read very widely and to generate debate and discussion.

We do indeed have to go back to the end of Rome to find relevant markers from which to draw lessons on how we deal with the end-game of the Anglo empire. The fact that it was a frightful mess is disconcerting. What's even more uncomfortable is that some of the political and military plays we've seen in our own "end of era" bear remarkable similarity to the dysfunctional collapse of Rome.

There may still be time to avoid the worst, if indeed we can again interest ourselves in history and in understanding the real imperatives that face us on our way forward.

Some of Rome's outposts fared quite well through their imbroglios, after all.