So claimed the Herald in a heading on it’s web-site in an item which would be a shoo-in for the fiction-writing award of the year.

So what shock move by the Queen did the Herald reveal? Had she converted to Islam, strangled then fried an ostrich, run rampantly shouting obscenities, naked down Pall Mall in a drunken binder, smashing awe-struck tourists over the head with a dildo? Sadly, nothing interesting like that.

What so-called “shock move” she’d done in fact was absolutely nothing at all. Instead the writer speculated that she could dissolve Parliament, the operative word being “could”. The odds of her doing that are massively less than her doing the naked streak down Pall Mall.

Just to balance things up shame-wise, Wellington’s Stuff web-site came to the Herald’s rescue with a non-story almost as bad as the Herald’s fictitious Queen effort.

In a Council organised public meeting about the city’s transport problems a 17-year-old schoolgirl asked Councillor Chris Calvi-Freeman why the public should have faith in councillors to get it right?

Surely most reasonable people would find that a smidgeon rude at a meeting called to deal with the issue. Instead, the Councillor pointed out his experience in the area, adding, “he’d been involved in transport governance since before she was even a twinkle”.

A few hours after I posted the item last week on the Colin Craig-Jordan Williams courtroom stoush, lo and behold Justice Kit Toogood issued his judgement on the costs debate regarding Craig’s battle with Cameron Slater. He found against Craig describing him as “self-obsessed, lacking self-awareness and insight and, to a degree, hypocritical.”

If Craig has an ounce of common-sense he will pay regard to those wise words. The issues he continuously pursues are ancient history, relating to the 2011 election. No-one cares and while initially highly entertaining, are now wearingly tiresome. He should drop further litigation and get on with his life.

People make mistakes. That’s normal human behaviour. If employees do then their employer accepts liability. That’s a daily event and naturally includes our largest employer, the government.

In all of its multitude of hats the State is constantly paying out damages, even to crims in prison who have endured a wrongful act. No-one questions the appropriateness of these compensatory payments.

Readers of the below Open Plan Offices item may say that’s all very well but what about say factory-workers when it comes to working conditions. That’s a tougher call but if I owned a factory-based business I couldn’t help myself and would try and come up with ideas to enhance the working environment, and I know what I’m talking about.

I say that as I estimate I’ve owned over 1000 industrial buildings since I bought my first in Lower Hutt back in 1962. Over the subsequent years I’ve owned industrial buildings across New Zealand but by far the most in Sydney.