As the political giants depart, the pygmies play together...

The departure of the two political giants leaves a multitude of pygmies in Parliament. Helen Clark and Michael Cullen will not be replaced for many a day. While its off to New York and the United Nations for Helen, it will be to Post Bank for Mike, to join the man Labour put up as head of Post Bank early in Labour's tenure, former PM Jim Bolger.

National has shown its hand early as it proceeds to kick the state sector hard in its slats. What next? And who replaces these state employees?

John Key may well be an affable bloke, but I think he is politically naive - he is being manipulated left, right and centre by Bill English and his buddies. Just how long will he last before he departs to take up a position in the World Bank or something similar?

Harawira cooking with gas now - latest criticisms right on...

Harawira cooking with gas now - latest criticisms right on the mark...

MP Hone Harawira last night pleaded for moves to fix impoverished housing in Northland, contrasting Government inaction with the "middle-class shock" over leaky homes. The Maori Party also said the criticism he received after calling Australian Prime Minister John Howard a "racist bastard" last week might have been right. "Maybe I should have been firing my bullets closer to home". It might, he said, respond to the desperate needs in those homes where there was no bathroom, where a long-drop toilet hid behind a shabby wooden floor, where the wind whistled through paper-thin walls and ill-fitting windows and doors, where there was no heating or hot water cylinder, and where the only tap that worked was a cold one. Of course the Government needed to move heaven and hell to look like they were doing something – ANYTHING to appease home owners burnt by the incompetence of a greedy housing boom that didn’t bother to question building practices, however people in poverty living in sub standard housing has no one bothering to lift a finger. Point well made Mr Harawira.