Quotation for Today, Monday August 23
There’s a famous Tom Scott cartoon from 1984 that every MP should study, for the salutary purpose of inserting themselves, with all their manias and conceits, into it. It shows Sir Robert Muldoon waking up in a balloon- and streamer-strewn bed and asking his wife, “Did I say something about a snap election last night?”
Act’s Heather Roy, like Chris Carter just a few weeks before her, will be having a similar Morning After shock right now. Like Carter, she honestly thought her calculated undermining of her leader would a) succeed, b) be widely acclaimed, and c) lead to a timely promotion for her. It didn’t seem to occur to her that, in fact, the result would be d) loss of job, e) further marginalisation from the action, and f) a strengthening of Rodney Hide’s leadership, such as it is.
Expecting to come out of that Tuesday caucus meeting wreathed in smiles, she was instead bundled off on stress leave “to reflect”. However, she is far from the only person to emerge from this exercise looking a complete chump.
Jane Clifton in her column in the new issue of The Listener, not yet on online. A good column by Clifton, well worth reading.
Homemade Laksa
Today Mrs Smith attempted, very successfully, a version of that excellent Singapore/Malaysian dish Laksa.
Tasty, flavoursome and spicy, mmm. The recipe came from a friend and was well worth doing. we used fish and prawns, rather than fish-balls and prawns.
To be PM or not PM?
Will taking office be a poisoned chalice? Is Gillard likely to be rolled?
Caption Contest
from NZ Herald
Pithy and amusing captions, please
Rodney (through gritted teeth) : Say robust for the nice photographer Heather
Cartoon for Today, Sunday 22 August
Al Nisbet - Sunday Star Times - 22 August
Exit polls lift for ALP
The Australian is reporting exit polls showing a return to Labor, perhaps sufficient to return Julia Gillard to office.
Adam’s Losers of the Week
The NZ Herald in an editorial discusses the Super City today, it looks in particular at the mayoral candidates.
The piece concludes:-
The generally humdrum run-up to the Super City is the more regrettable in that the new structure has generated public interest. There have been very good attendances at many of the mayoral debates.
Obviously, many people see the October 9 election as a watershed in Auckland’s governance. They deserve candidates with ideas, vigour and independence.
It is a shame that, in the main, they will have to settle for less.
As a ratepayer in Auckland, Adam considers that along with his fellow ratepayers he is the loser, when he looks at the bunch of what he considers yesterday’s men and mediocrities vying to become Mayor of the Super City.
Adam’s Losers of the Week – Auckland Ratepayers.
