Is dam a dirty word? Certainly not when its promoters intend building it on Maori land

Breaching the Eder dam…that will teach the buggers for not compensating the local iwi.

One of the hits from the musical “South Pacific” was titled “There Is Nothing Like a Dame”.

If Rodgers and Hammerstein had ventured further south they might have changed it to “There’s Nothing Like a Dam”.

Building dams in this country involves a costly process just to get the consents and opponents of the applications can lead the applicants a right old song and dance.

The song and dance sometimes can be halted if the dam builder compensates Maori for the mischief being done to them culturally and what-have-you.

Brendon Burns – all the news that’s fit to print

You’d think a bloody journalist could keep his blog up to date. Or maybe Brendon Burns can’t find much news that’s fit to print on his side of the House.

Burns became a Labour member of Parliament last year after a career including 12 years in the Parliamentary Press Gallery (much of it for The Press) and editorship of The Marlborough Express for seven years.

With credentials like that, it should be reasonably easy to maintain a blog.

But obviously not if you (a) want it to be readable while (b) using it to push the party line.