Roger Federer copped bad luck after he swore quietly during an epic match, not in English but in Swiss German so as not to cause offence. The result; a complaint and penalty from the umpire for it transpired the lines-woman lived in Switzerland.

Matthew Hooton is one of our very best political writers. In a recent Herald article on the likelihood of NZ First surviving the next election, he trotted out the fact that no minority political party in a coalition has ever survived the next election. In so doing, he overlooked one salient factor. That is that such past coalitions have always been with last term governments in which they and thus understandably, their minority Party partners have been swept from office.

“Who?,” I hear you ask.

McLauchlan who has died at 89 was an Auckland newspaper columnist who knocked out low sales social and other New Zealand history books decades back, and all credit to him for this untypical print journalists’ zeal.

Having watched all of the debates (and over the duration periodically changed my mind) I’ve finally settled on my dream team from the current field of largely no-hoper hopefuls. They’re Amy Kloburchar with Pete Buttigeig as her running mate. Why? Simple? They’re the smartest and least cliché dependent.

Get used to the consequences as lip-service conferences and diverse combatting efforts are simply toying with the issue at government level. Boris has succeeded with his undertaking to get the next global climate conference in Glasgow later this year. 30,000 delegates are scheduled to hit the city although God only knows where they’ll all stay. It’s the tourist off-season so most will probably take the 45 minute commuter train trip from Edinburgh.