Seeing eye to eye with Hone – coalition with the Maori Party is bad for re-election prospects

And if anyone with the wrong whakapapa turns up for the consultation, tell them to piss off.

Alf imagines he and Hone Harawira could sit down over a beer at the Eketahuna Club and have a good old chin-wag, real friendly-like.

They have a remarkably similar concern: the Maori Party’s role in the coalition government.

Hone’s thinking is reported at Stuff today –

Many Maori believe the Maori Party has lost track of who it represents and is too wrapped up in its coalition with National, Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira says.

Alf agrees, but would express it differently: many of his constituents think the National Party has lost track of who it represents and is too wrapped up in its coalition with the Maori Party.

One of the more bizzarre consequences was the signing of the UN nonsense about indigenous rights and the bollocks uttered in support of the signing.

Three cheers for the councillor from Howick – he talks sensibly about the folly of flying a Maori flag

Alf was cheered by the news that Manukau City Council has rejected a proposal to fly a Maori flag at its offices on Waitangi Day.

He has made no secret of his opposition to the flying of a flag that symbolises Maori separatism.

The Manukau council’s policy and activities committee – or a majority of it – seems to agree. It met yesterday to discuss the issue for the third time in two years and voted not to fly the flag on civic flagpoles.

This flag has divided Maori and the Cabinet – so how is it going to unite the country, Boss?

Should we salute it...or cut it down?

John Key – apparently jet-lagged before he even takes off for Copenhagen – is suffering under the delusion this flag celebrates cultural diversity, is a symbol of unity and will enhance the country’s race relations.

Key and Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples announced yesterday it will fly on the Auckland Harbour Bridge, at Parliament and at Premier House, the PM’s official residence, on Waitangi Day.

But Alf sees the flag as a symbol of Maori separatism and of racial divisiveness.

Maori are divided about the decision reached by the Cabinet.

The Cabinet was divided, too.

It might help (but not much) if Alf could understand what the flag represents.

Go for their sticks – that should nobble the sovereignty mob

Give ‘em an inch and they want the full bloody mile.

That’s how Alf sees things after a bunch of elderly Maori sovereignty campaigners declared their intention to extend their civil disobedience campaign from targeting judges’ homes to Prime Minister John Key’s Auckland home.

The group, led by Ngapuhi elder Tass Davis, plans to start the month-long campaign within two weeks. It will include “occupation-style sit-ins” at Auckland courthouses and private homes of judges.

Mr Davis, a 75-year-old former Auckland police constable, said there would be no attempt to force entry to Mr Key’s property they would wait until he was at home before acting. “We are non-violent. We will not use any force.”

Age does not seem to have mellowed the bugger.

And the PM’s decisions to promote Maori interests by – for example – throwing them a few buckets of your money and mine to talk about such lofty matters as a Maori flag obviously has simply driven Davis and his mob to push for more.

Mr Key was now a target because he paid “lip service” to Maori issues.

“Mr Key obviously thinks a few seats at the Cabinet table are enough to keep Maori off his back. I’m here to tell him he is sadly mistaken. Perhaps if we are camped outside his front door he might listen a little more to our concerns.”

The action’s aim was to force the Government into serious discussions over demands for Maori self-determination.

Disarming the mob, fair to say, won’t be too challenging for the forces of law and order. Taking away their walking sticks should do the trick.

Taxpayers fund gabfests about – flags!

Alf had an apoplexy on learning that the great majority of New Zealanders have been cut out of publicly funded consultations on a matter of huge significance to our sense of nationhood.

The headline on this news at Stuff informed him: Maori meet to decide on national flag.

A national flag?

If we are talking about a national flag, all New Zealanders should be taking part. Especially when this implies the flag we now fly – featuring the magnificent Union Jack – will be replaced.