Harpie hounding of Sir Tim Hunt is an ominous sign of what happens when hens rule the roost

Oh dear. Alf has a career dilemma to sort out.

For some time he has been obsequiously deferential to The Boss, in the hope he will be rewarded with a Cabinet job.

He will continue to do so until The Boss steps down.

But it’s in anticipation of this stepping down that Alf has a problem.

He recognises that when The Boss moves on, someone else will be our leader and Alf will have a new arse to lick to start currying favour with a new leader.

Mrs Grumble is urging him to start now and not wait till the leadership change has been made.

But deciding with whom favour(s) should be curried is the challenge.

Howie Tamati has an explanation for ballot box result: some voters didn’t bother playing the game

Alf’s good mate Paula Bennett shouldn’t lose much sleep.

But she should be ready for the United Nations to give her a call on a matter within her ministerial bailiwick.

The reason: the Mayor of New Plymouth is spitting the dummy after voters in his bailiwick rejected a council vote for a Maori ward.

Andrew Judd, the mayor in question, is now talking of  going to the United Nations with a complaint against the Government about the legislation governing the process whereby our indigenous persons can seek special voting privileges.

Exactly what this has to do with the United Nations is anyone’s guess.

Moaning Minto makes a mad demand to house poor people at public expense on posh properties

 

Let the loony lefties take over and this will become part of the country’s social housing stock.

The NZ Herald  has gone all soft and pappy today, telling readers if they want a state house or “social housing” with a view, forget it.

Beautiful views are banned in a draft new Government policy, the Herald bleats. Double garages and decks are out, too.

The tone is thoroughly disapproving.

But the draft policy makes a lot of sense to Alf. Anything contrary would be a daft policy.

If a property has a beautiful view, the buggers who live in it should pay for it. Not taxpayers.

It sounds like housing officials have the good sense to agree.

How many critical tweets does it take to extract an abject apology from a twit? Just ask Phil Twyford

Let’s chalk this one up as another wimpy Labour surrender to the forces of political correctness, if not feminism.

According to the NZ Herald, Phil Twyford has apologised on Twitter after Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett bailed him up as sexist for making a cat claw gesture at her in Parliament.

Alf must have had his head down in his heavy portfolio of paper work at the time, because he missed Twyford making the gesture to indicate Bennett was catty after some howz-yer-father about answers to his questions about housing.

Whatever happened during the exchange, it somehow finished up on Twitter.

The twittering Twyford – challenged about his cat claw gesture – was initially unrepentant, tweeting in response to one questioner that it was “entirely appropriate.”

If you go with Gower, you are backing Bennett and bypassing the blokes who hanker to be next leader

“When I say this big, I’m not talking about her poll support.”

Patrick Gower admits he is a plonker who got it wrong last time. And Alf reckons he has got it wrong this time.

Last time he predicted Crusher was a likely National leader to succeed The Boss.

This time he is putting his money on Paula Bennett.

Alf trusts he is not putting too much money on Paula.

This by no means is meant to reflect unkindly on our splendid Minister for Social Development. When it comes to the crunch – or the crush – pretty well anybody in the National team would make a better prime minister than anyone the lefties or greenies could throw into the ring.

But it does seem Gower has a thing about Rubenesque sheilas with a bit of beef and solid thighs.

Backing sterilisation will bring more blue votes (probably) than urging help for mum with a record

So how long will this go on for, and how many state-run children’s homes will be needed to cope with the consequences of Oriwa Kemp’s fecundity?

Oh – and by the way – will the aforementioned Oriwa Kemp ever get a chance to demonstrate that maybe she can bring up her children without the need for state intervention?

Those are among the lofty questions tackled over the Grumbles’ breakfast table this morning, while we ploughed our way through the Sunday newspapers.

Oriwa Kemp, if you don’t happen to know it, was banged up for a while for cruelty to Rotorua toddler Nia Glassie.

The blot on Aaron’s copybook means he has missed out on Paula’s patronage

Poor old Aaron Gilmore should be kicking his own butt. Hard.

He only had to keep his nose clean and we Nats would have rewarded him with a nice job somewhere whenever he decided to give up politics.

That’s what we did with Dr Jackie Blue, who recently was appointed the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner.

Aaron didn’t keep his nose clean, of course, and he is quitting in unhappy circumstances.

Alas, he therefore shouldn’t expect to be rewarded with a job like…

Parents who don’t normally treasure your kids, please pay attention: this weekend is for you

Oh, Gawd. Alf had been preparing to take refuge in the Eketahuna Club while Children’s Day was celebrated tomorrow.

But he had better get moving now and take refuge today.

He knew Children’s Day is officially marked on Sunday 3 March. Forewarned was forearmed.

But his colleague and good friend , Paula Bennett, has just advised him (here) the entire weekend will see communities get together across the country to celebrate children and positive parenting.

Does this make Paula the Minister of Sexual Violence – or should we find another title?

There’s the agricultural sector, and the tourism sector, and the energy sector …

And dozens of other sectors.

They tend to get their own Ministers, such as the Minister of Agriculture (later expanded to Minister of Primary Industries), Minister of Tourism, Minister of Energy and Resources.

And so on.

Except that Steven Joyce came along and became the Minister of Most Things, which wiped out one or two jobs.

Let’s go back in time with Anton, to the idyllic days when Maori kids were never beaten

Uh oh.

Alf thought his good friend Paula had done a damned good job with that White Paper on Vulnerable Children (see here).

Not so.

One of our special citizens points out (here) that it does not address the priority needs of Māori children.

The special citizen in this case is Anton Blank, Executive Director of a Māori child advocacy organisation (which, curiously, is not clearly identified in his media statement).