Unmitigated tosh was talked by diverse commentators, mostly with a personal employment interest in the matter, with advice that TV3 is to close its spasmodic news service, plus the ending of some TVNZ shows such as “Fair Go”. The death of democracy was the ridiculous common theme.

There’s no better example of an overstaffed government Department with time on its hands and thus becoming “creative”, than the Health and Safety mob and their ludicrous road cones excesses. Nowhere else in the world does this occur, nor was it ever deemed necessary in New Zealand hitherto.

Nearly two years ago, in July 2021 when the Labour government was riding high in the polls and the nation had lost its head and was acclaiming Jacinda as the second coming, I wrote on this site the article reproduced below. Understandably it was treated as wishful fantasy. In the event it was spot on.

The above heading appeared on the Stuff website in two places, shortly after midnight this morning. Good lord, I thought, not Thailand too, half a day after Taiwan.

The media carry-on about the thwarted yacht race (surely the most boring spectacle in all of sport) ignores a simple reality.