Last week I had a rare insight into the highs and lows of a sports team chasing success and glory when I stayed three nights with the Bay of Plenty Boxing team at the Boxing New Zealand National Championships held in Rotorua. Early morning on day one... Read More

When economies go to the pack, or as I like to say, 'correct themselves”, politicians, on the whole, start to interfere even more in the economy. If the worn-out lines oft refered to are, 'capitalism has failed,” 'we need to regulate more,”... Read More

It is very disappointing to see Paul Holmes backing an escalation of the War on Pleasure. And disappointing but not surprising to see John Key sticking his oar in as well. The two of them seem to think retaining the prohibition on methamphetamine, while... Read More

Coincidence is a funny thing, in the week that Google released its new communication system called Google Wave, Samoa suffered from a tsunami. My commiseration's and best wishes to the people of Samoa. Of course there was another smaller wave which... Read More

With the sad news coming from Auckland about finding the poor wee girl, my first post today will be about something life affirming, and joyous - Art & Poetry. My children and I visited the Tauranga Art Gallery on Saturday to see the Rembrandt... Read More

Firstly, commiserations to the Otago boys on their exit from the Champions Trophy. From past experience of playing Otago sides I know they would have been beavering away in the Edgar Centre down there in the cold of the Dunedin winter. It is a huge... Read More

Pause for a moment, I am going to praise Gordon Brown. You see he's about to announce a privatisation programme. Yes you read right. Privatisation, eight months out from an election; it is worth about £3 billion of assets in the first phase,... Read More

ACC Blow Out Key said that all aspects of ACC need to be looked at: finances, investments, payouts, level of funding, and a 'pushing out' of the full cover legislation to 2019. It's pretty damn clear what has happened; bureaucrats, bludgers, politicians,... Read More

Going to the movies is one of my favourite things to do. So 'Fashion Month' seemed an appropriate time to see the acclaimed documentary The September Issue. September is the most important month in northern hemisphere couture. The autumn/winter collections... Read More

'What happened to global warming?” asks, guess who - the BBC. What happened to global warming? 'This headline may come as a bit of a surprise says the BBC's climate correspondent Paul Hudson, so too might the fact that the warmest year... Read More

'I can assure you that the government has investigated the evidence on the science of climate change from a number of different sources and I can appreciate that there are many different perspectives on the matter. However, the government is convinced... Read More

I don't think our presence would have altered the outcome of the decision on the proposed new bus terminal, but you never know without hearing the submissions. Procurement, the way council goes about obtaining services, has been a controversial topic... Read More