I know his reputation for being querulous and unpredictable. That he is unbidden to individuals but not values... yadayadayada... however he's coming across more and more as simply ill-tempered... like we need more of that!

Well, I certainly think Mr. Trotter would rather quickly rediscover his taste for "middle-class process"…

In the seven years I spent as a trade union activist/official, I saw and heard some pretty hair-raising things.

Like the time I watched a senior Christchurch union official expertly shake-down a hapless employer for…

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I had no idea just how laden with innuendo kids books were until that momentous eve

Been meaning to say this...gidday Sacha, Ireland St flat, right? Hope things are well, and I still use your recipe for welsh rarebit.

Innuendo and kids stuff...well the drug references in Puf…

invented trotting clubs (who do not own race courses) that use the money as prizes on stake races to move the cash on to livestock owning club members.

Like a sort of farm-team version of BAE-gate.

And with the revelations of The Hollow Men, and now this, it seems reasonable to ask whether the racing industry has anything else it would like to tell us. Because the big money that swings around there seems like a malign influence on the body politic.

More money is…

That's what you need as the councillors all work on knee jerk reactions if they feel they're threatened/supported, a bit of rabble rousing (just remeber to look after yourself too).

Minister responsible for large hadrons

Only if we're the licker cabinet, prehaps. :)

And we shall collectively be the liquor cabinet! :)

Could I be the Minister responsible for large hadrons collisions? I think I have some expertise there — or at least an interest. :)

I assume this provision applies in Akld City as much as in Waitakere.

I will still spend the day trying to save a 70yrish old English Oak tree that is outside my lounge window on the border of our property

That sounds very Arthur Dent, Sophie. I suggest you drees for the occasion in a dressing gown.

(I know a planner who might…

Should we discussing such irrelevancies on the day the world ends?

Should we discussing such irrelevancies on the day the world ends?

No — we should be getting down to the Large Hadron Rap!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

Ohhhhhh yeaaaah.

I felt the same way over the Sarah Palin thing.

A whole heap of people who'd never heard of her only days before formed extraordinarily vehement views about her very very quickly.

Um, Rob, with all due respect my vehemence towards Palin was based on the yawning void of, oh,…

I think too many conclusions have been hurdled at breakneck speed.

I felt the same way over the Sarah Palin thing.

A whole heap of people who'd never heard of her only days before formed extraordinarily vehement views about her very very quickly.

Minister for 42 Below, perhaps?

Only if I can be Minister for Absinthe.

I feel personally equipped to be an advocate for wine

I've often been an advocate for vodka. Minister for 42 Below, perhaps?

I'm going to let all the hysteria pass by and hope for something sensible to emerge; am I dreaming?

Me too Sofie and Paul. I think too many conclusions have been hurdled at breakneck speed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/sep/06/celebrity2

A propos of nothing, does anyone else remember those "I've been Thinking" books Richard Prebble used to publish? For some reason the came out just before a general election.

Oh yes I certainly do; they turned up uninvited in the letter boxes of every Wellington resident lawyer, accountant or auditor…

The line that this was all some nefarious Labour/Clark plot has not been supported by today's evidence – in fact, the opposite.

That was certainly my reading of DPF quotes.

*But*, I still think the most interesting aspect of this is, as Russell has stated, the implications for funding of…

We've always known that National were as dirty as hell

Are "we". I really must have missed that expose.

a) Mike Williams brokered the deal between Peters and Glenn?

b) Clark is somehow implicated in this?

Glenn had every incentive to dish the worst of dirt on Labour today. But he has said only that Peters approached him for a donation,…

I'm going to let all the hysteria pass by and hope for something sensible to emerge;

I am with you Paul.

Glenn says that without a personal approach he would not have made the loan.

If Wayne was using Winston's cellphone, that presupposes that Owen's cellphone had the number saved??

Personally, I'm tempted to demand a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the liquidity of Russell Fairbrother and Michael Cullen's lunches. It would be funny, if it wasn't quite so serious. Then again, the whole idea…

Just had confirmed from a second source indirectly that Mike Williams was on Owen Glenn’s boat – not months ago but only a few weeks ago. Williams has confirmed this it seems.

The story is he was visiting donors in London (imagine the fuss if National’s President…

how do you 'deposit' a bombshell?

Almost exactly the opposite way you'd insert a steinie.

how do you 'deposit' a bombshell?
One News Win Peters Story

and from kiwiblog:

My God how desparate. Russell Fairbrother is suggesting he was acidentially talking to Wayne Peters who had borrowed Winstons cellphone and sounds like him!!

Cullen also pushing the notion that someone else answered Winston’s…

Russell Fairbrother is suggesting he was acidentially talking to Wayne Peters who had borrowed Winstons cellphone and sounds like him!!

but whether X's new hairstyle is going to go down well with Y demographic

I vote purely on hairstyles. If Brian Tamaki ran I would vote for him. Good head of hair, good head of hair.

Minister for Racing was a role Bolger offered to Muldoon in 1990, a role outside Cabinet, of course. Muldoon turned him down, calling it an insult.

And so we come the full circle.

Muldoon gets ultimate insult.

Finds his loyal allies in caucus and throws toys out of cot.

And…

First, Rich, nobody is stopping you talking about whatever the hell you want. (And anyone around here who tried to "thread Mom" or direct discussion tends to get told to naff off, so I'm not stopping you.)

In that case lets talk about flying cars :-)

I'm not so much…

Simon – not sure how to break this to you, but Jimmy Stewart and Katherine Hepburn are, erm, dead.

Don't be silly. I saw them last night.

This committee hearing belongs to the world of newsreel cameras and hats labelled "Press". Peter Williams is Gregory Peck.

From memory we didn't ahve a Minsiter for Racing before 1996 – when they have Tau Henare the job.

There may have been a minister of racing in the 50s; not sure.

Minister for Racing was a role Bolger offered to Muldoon in 1990, a role outside Cabinet, of course.…

...Stewart as Winston, in a plot twist to stun us all.

Your money's not here. It's in that trust. And that trust. And that trust.....

There may have been a minister of racing in the 50s; not sure.

...Stewart as Winston, in a plot twist to stun us all.

(also starring Katherine Hepburn as Helen Clark...

Simon – not sure how to break this to you, but Jimmy Stewart and Katherine Hepburn are, erm, dead.

I was astounded at Peters' galling hypocrisy in stating that NZ First had…

We should have a Minister for Pokies

As opposed to a Minister for Porkies, a Cabinet post for which every politician of the two major hues is unquestionably well-qualified. I suspect most of the pollies of the minor hues are also adequately trained to be competent holders of this particular…

We should have a Minister for Pokies, as well, just to even up things.

We do. That Minister is also known as the Minister of Internal Affairs.

The job is to be an advocate for racing.

You mean like the Minister for Courts? I thought that was just 'cause judges are wankers?

Really? According to the 2005 Briefing to the Incoming Minister it was responsible for $424 million of GDP, or about 0.37%. $130 million of that is export sales, but that's nothing large.

I'm clearly out of touch... compared with racing in NSW, which claims to be responsible for 40,000 FTE…

Now where did I put that white paper...

There isn't a minister for retail

There is one for consumer affairs ... is that close enough?

WRT the comment upthread, I feel personally equipped to be an advocate for wine.

Who did take over from Jonathon Hunt anyway?

Technically, it's a Minister for Racing. The job is to be an advocate for racing.

WRT the comment upthread, I feel personally equipped to be an advocate for wine.

Also, this process stuff is boring. Is there any chance we could discuss *policies* (such as ACT having come out firmly on the side of climate change denial) or is does that take too much effort?

First, Rich, nobody is stopping you talking about whatever the hell you want. (And…

I want to…

why do we have a Minister of Racing?

Technically, it's a Minister for Racing. The job is to be an advocate for racing.

I might be wrong, but hasn’t the racing portfolio traditionally, if unofficially, been linked to the sport & rec portfolio in the past?

The real reason for having a racing minister is so the biggest Good Old Boy in the Cabinet can spend his time at the races.

And because once upon a time it was important, rather than being a bunch of sad old farts remembering that they used to be.

'Cause it is a hugely significant economic activity... and many other industries effectively do have their own Ministries e.g. Fisheries.

Racing is, by NZFirsts probably high estimate, 1.3% of GDP.

Industries that have Ministers:
Agriculture
Education (mostly provision)
Sports, Fitness & Leisure (mostly provision, I guess)
Energy
Fisheries
Forestry
Tourism
Communications…

'Cause it is a hugely significant economic activity

Really? According to the 2005 Briefing to the Incoming Minister it was responsible for $424 million of GDP, or about 0.37%. $130 million of that is export sales, but that's nothing large. Racing clubs have only 27,000 members, and its chief social…

>10 years in prison

Prison doesn't work. It should be kept for violence and the most heinous fraud, not political fiddling.

I'd suggest a ban from seeking election for individuals, a ban for parties from contesting elections (although I guess they could just reform) and disenfranchisement of electorates (like Tauranga)…

I know it has been asked before, but why do we have a Minister of Racing?

'Cause it is a hugely significant economic activity... and many other industries effectively do have their own Ministries e.g. Fisheries. Plus it's also because it's pretty heavily regulated. I don't know the figures in…

it seems reasonable to ask whether the racing industry has anything else it would like to tell us. Because the big money that swings around there seems like a malign influence on the body politic.

Not least millions of dollars in direct payback for their genorisity, negotiated by the minister…

... the less well-known corollary is that when you suspect the answer isn't going to be to your liking (or will come back to bite you in the arse), you don't ask the question at all.

A not unfair assessment.

"O he started to climb out of the hole. He pulled with his front paws, and pushed with his back paws, and in a little while his nose was in the open again ... and then his ears ... and then his front…

There was an investigation into the way MFish allocated quota, especially scampi quota, a few years back. Vela was alleging that there was corruption within MFish because Siminovich Fisheries ended up with…

Glenn, as we’ve noted here before, was saying some strange, and palpably untrue, things at the time. But if he drops her in it — and he might — the few days' dawn of the Morgan poll will be over.

Well, it's the old question of at what point 'plausible…