All about Alf

Alf Grumble is the long-serving, hard-working and much-admired MP for Eketahuna North, in the Northern Wairarapa.

He was re-elected at the 2008 general election with a majority bigger than Winston Peters’ ego and his majorities have been getting bigger every election since then. In this neck of the woods, he is as popular as the late Keith Holyoake, the former Prime Minister who farmed not far from here.

He became a blogger (and a bloody good one, too) a few years back because our news media didn’t (and still don’t) give him or his wisdom the time of day.

Alf offered before the 2008 election to buy radio hack Barry Soper a beer in the bar at Bellamys, in the hope he might get a mention in a news bulletin. But Soper – weaned on Speights – declined (actually, he told Alf to bugger off).

It was an instructive rebuff. Alf realised that wooing the Press Gallery had become Mission Impossible. There had to be a better way to get his words across to constituents…

He’s saving on beer money, too.

He tells more about his blogging urges in his widely lauded very first post.