Re-examining the mettle of Alamain – how white supremacists sullied a waka jumper’s reputation

Alf’s memory banks have been stirred by news of the death of Alamein Kopu, a member of Parliament from 1996 to 1999.

Ms Kopu, a Rotorua great-grandmother, had been on the dole before entering Parliament on the Alliance list after the 1996 election.

But she found Jim Anderton’s mob hard to live with and raised a furore by quitting the Alliance and becoming an independent MP, thereby exposing one of the frailities of the MMP system and its use of party lists.

A sobering experience after all those parties – Gilbert Myles finds himself before a judge

Alf proposes a Parliamentary Hall of Infamy for MPs and former MPs who finish up on the wrong side of the law.

He is pleased to observe this morning that Gilbert Myles is jockeying for a position.

That’s good. He could run the show.

In a court report today, the Herald describes him as “a former National MP”, but the bugger couldn’t stomach The Mother of All Budgets delivered by the admirable Ruth Richardson back in 1991.

He went on to join anything that looked like a party until the good people of Roskill had the good sense in 1993 – from memory – to biff him out.

We should worry more about political parties that plot in China than KiwiRail wagons built there

But should we vote for political parties that plan their campaigns in Beijing?

Alf had thought – and hoped – the Alliance Party was a spent force.

Not so. The buggers have popped up to rail against wagons for KiwiRail being made in China.

Presumably the surviving remnants of the Alliance are unable to recognise a more ominous Chinese threat: a new political party which is doing its plotting in Beijing.
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The Alliance seems to be ignoring the new party. It prefers to bray its support for a bunch of union trouble-makers who are looking for ways of frustrating KiwiRail.

We learned earlier this week that railway wagons built in China and bound for New Zealand’s railway network may not be unloaded, if the Maritime Union carries out its threat.

Damn – today’s warbling tells us there’s still life (but not much sense) in the Alliance

Great news for ornithologists with a political bent. The Lesser Warbling Alliance is not extinct.

A member of this strange species was heard warbling – about whales, of all things – this morning.

Conservationists probably will clamour to protect the wee rascal, but Alf regards it as a pest.

He did not have his shotgun handy by his bed. Otherwise he would have had a go at silencing the bugger before it flitted off.

Alliance invitation won’t precipitate a stampede

Remember the Alliance Party?

It was an ill-assorted bunch, philosophically, once led by Jim Anderton and with a few MPs in Parliament until it came spectacularly unglued. Among the consequences, Anderton formed the Progressive Party (by which time he had been a member of the Labour Party, the New Labour Party, the Alliance Party, and maybe some parties Alf has forgotten).

But Anderton has made as much progress as he intends making with the Progressives. Come to think of it, it was bugger all progress – mostly, he and it have gone backwards.

Hence his track record is one of leading the Alliance into a break-up and the Progressives into retreat, making a glorious mockery of the party names in each case.

But Alliance Party co leader Kay Murray sees an opportunity to pick up new members, now that that the Progressive Party will no longer be contesting elections.

She says the Alliance Party would welcome any Progressives and others who do not wish to take Jim Anderton’s advice and join the Labour Party.

“To all accounts the Progressive Party is winding up. Progressive members who do not feel at home with the Rogernomics style, right wing economic policies of Phil Goff’s Labour Party will find themselves more at home in the Alliance.”

Two observations:

First, if every member of the Progressives but Anderton accepts the invitation and joins the Alliance, it will probably double the Alliance’s membership, lifting it to – ooh, about six people at a guess.

Second, if Phil Goff is promoting Rogernomics-style right wing economic policies, then Genghis Khan was a Vienna Choir boy.

Why it’s wrong to be over-protecting our privates

The principal of Christchurch’s Rangi Ruru girls school, Julie Moor, needs re-educating. Preferably, at charm school.

She was clearly miffed to be questioned by news media about aspects of a Law Commission paper about private schools.

“A private school is a private business, isn’t it, at the end of the day. That’s my statement. There is no therefore. I’m just saying at the end of the day, it is actually a private business,” Moor said.

Hmm. Maybe she is willing to forego whatever public money is coming her school’s way.