So what does the pugnacious Winston Peters have in common with the skipper of the Graf Spee?

The Graf Spee...it was sunk not by the enemy but by its captain.

Finding no news of worth in the Sunday papers today, Alf picked up a copy of a speech by Winston Peters to browse through while breakfasting.

It was optimistically titled The Road Back and was delivered to the NZ First Tauranga Electorate.

The road back to where, exactly, was not stated.

And nope. Peters did not deliver the speech in a telephone booth. He hired the St Johns Church Hall, but Alf does not know how many members of the party faithful turned up for the occasion.

Clark, the UN and a credibility conundrum

Helen Clark’s credibility is a magical thing, we have learned in recent weeks.

It’s one thing at home; it’s another overseas.

Or maybe it was one thing during an election campaign, and it became something else when she came out the loser.

Alf makes these observations after Clark was officially nominated to become head of the United Nations’ Development Programme.