Apparently there is an election coming ... there are lots of signs up all over the place, assailing our eyes with their visual pollution.  And the polliticians have gone into high gear dri ving around, door knocking and tearing strips off each other like a pack of rabid dogs.

The sad thing about it is that this year especially there really doesn't seem to be much point.

The truth of the matter is that for the next five or more years the things that will probably impact the lives of kiwis the most are Global Warming and the Global Recession.  The telling point here is Global ... in reality, which party is in government over this period is actually going to be largely irrelevant.

It is a bit of shame for poor old John Key that the first election he fights in will be one in which it really won't matter if he wins or not.

after a long long break - it is time to start using this blog again ... watch this space

It seems to be all over the news in any media you choose to observe at the moment. The great and dramatic scandal of Don Brash and his illicit affair. He has only just reappeared in the public eye today after a couple of days retreating to his home where he was desperately attemping to salvage his marriage.

It seems to me that the real question out of this whole shebang is not "did Don do the dirty" nor is it "will this wreck his political career"... the true question arising out of this debacle is "just how low has journalism in NZ sunk that this is news AT ALL"

Don't get me wrong here ... I am not a Don Brash fan. Frankly the thought of the man taking up the position of Prime Minister of NZ gives me the willies .... The National Party was so desperate for a new direction after their catastrophic loss way back when that they would have taken a stuffed dingo (aussie accent and all) rather than stick with their losing formula of the day. Frankly I think that desperation made them make a bad decision. Don Brash, for all his public persona as the Govenor of the Reserve Bank was (and remains) a complete political novice.

With all that said, I really must step up on his side and say what he is for the most part saying... his private life is just that. Private.

He should not be asked to account for his peccadilloes, real or imagined. They have no relevance to his ability to do his job (regardless of the fact that he is not much good at it).

Let me state it as clearly as possible...

The 'story' of whether or not Don has had an affair IS NOT NEWS!!!!! It does not deserve even the briefest of mentions on any news program on any media in the nation. Any journalist that has mentioned it even in passing should hang their head in shame at having betrayed the very principals of journalism that they so laughably claim to serve.

Let's be honest here. Don Brash is old. He is ugly. And he is, worst of all, a Banker. Frankly the fact that he has managed to have an affair at all should be heralded as a triumph of kiwi ingenuity over apparently insurmountable odds. The fact that he has managed to get into this position twice rather confirms what most of us already knew - Don had little appreciation of the feelings of other human beings. However the fact that he has, despite his already listed and rather substantial personal challenges managed to get to a state of extra maritally dipping his wick TWICE also suggests that he has something on his side. Presumably either he is hung like a horse or he has a penchant for ocularly impaired women.