Et tu mate!

The PM is right to call the current fracas over the use of the word mate a “storm in a teacup". Though he has not been averse to bandying the word around, in a rather old-fashioned sort of way which rather hails back to the 1950's to support his need to appeal to that generation.

The construction of the concept of 'mateship' smacks rather of Year 11 Modern History essays than of present day reality. What has happened in the last decade is that almost everyone (except those of us who bristle) drops the word "Mate" on the end of every conversation...and to what avail?
Having had association with a Supreme Leader who used to call everyone "Mate" it seemd to jar quite a lot? I never returned the greeting, and often muttered under my breath "You are not my mate!"
Was it any more than the innocuous "How are you going?"which my former Speech Lecturer Musgrave Horner found deeply offensive. He would never allow the question to be answered matter of factly...he would have screamed at the use of the word "Good"so common these days.....and he would take you by the hand and boom "EXTRAORRRRRDINAIRRILY Well!!!" and you would never do it again.!
He was right in a way to not let perfectly fine words lose their power. And he failed to understand the sociologist's point....that words are not so much about their meaning as about their value. In the end it is value that counts, mate!
I liked Bill Haydn's point that in the NSW Right of the Labor Party you knew when someone was going to stab you in the back because they slapped you on the shoulder and called you Mate!
In Shakespearean terms: Et Tu Mate!