Lorraine Skiffington’s $750,000 fee expectation puts an alluring glister on the consultancy business

Alf is seriously considering a change of occupation.

He is keeping his considerations very private, of course, because support for a politician is apt to erode if constituents get the idea he might be thinking of a career change to make more money.

Those constituents would be tempted to view such ambitions as avaricious, greedy and grasping.

But Alf happens to be mindful that a bloke of his maturing years should be salting away a few bucks for his retirement.

So where can a bloke get plenty of bucks for salting away in his retirement?

In the consultancy business.

The hobbling of The Hobbit – or how to drive a movie project to some other country

How do you kill the goose that laid the golden egg and turned our capital into Wellywood?

Very quickly, when you bring in the bloody trade unionists.

NZ Actors Equity has allied itself with Australia’s Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance , which has called for a boycott of The Hobbit films.

Other actors’ unions around the world are supporting that call.

Crazy.