Is the world still out there?

Do you think our building owner might be skimping slightly on the window-cleaning budget? (Luckily this was taken yesterday; today they were finally scrubbed clean after months of waiting).

MPs departing Parliament

With the recent news that increasing numbers of MPs, chiefly from the governing National Party, will not be standing for re-election in 2014, here's a summary of the members who have already left Parliament during this current term, the ones who have already announced that they will retire in 2014, and some possible additional retirees who have been mentioned in the media.

Departed since 2011 election (sorted by departure date)

Paul Quinn (National)
MP 8 November 2008 to 15 December 2011. Provisionally returned to Parliament on election night 2011, following the counting of special votes Quinn was not returned. 

Dr The Rt Hon Lockwood Smith (National)
14 July 1984 to 14 February 2013. 28th Speaker of the House 2008-13, Minister of Education 1990-96. Appointed as High Commissioner to the UK in March 2013. 

Charles Chauvel (Labour)
1 August 2006 to 11 March 2013. List MP who departed to work for the United Nations in 2013.

Hon Parekura Horomia (Labour)
27 November 1999 to 29 April 2013. Minister of Maori Affairs 2000-08, and MP for Ikaroa-Rawhiti 1999-2013. Died at home in Tolaga Bay in April 2013, aged 62. The first MP to die in office since Rod Donald in 2005.

Dr Jackie Blue (National)
17 September 2005 to 20 May 2013. List MP appointed as Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner from June 2013.

Aaron Gilmore (National)
8 November 2008 to 26 November 2011, 19 February 2013 to 27 May 2013. Controversial list MP who resigned in May 2013. 

Hon Lianne Dalziel (Labour)
12 October 1990 to 11 October 2013. Minister of Commerce 2002-04/2005-08, ACC 2001-02. Left Parliament to run for the Christchurch mayoralty. Sworn in as Mayor on 24 October 2013.

Announced they are not standing for re-election in 2014 
(sorted by date first entering Parliament)

Ross Robertson (Labour)
Electorate MP since 1987, currently for Manukau East, age 64.

Hon Bill English (National) - to List
Deputy PM and Minister of Finance since 2008, former Leader of the Opposition 2001-03, electorate MP since 1990, currently holds Clutha-Southland, age 52. Retiring from electorate MP duties to move onto party list at 2014 election. 

Hon Tariana Turia (Maori)
Minister for Community & Voluntary Sector 2002-04, 2008-present, Disability Issues 2009-present, for Whanau Ora 2010-present. MP for Labour 1996-2004, for Maori Party 2004-present. Currently MP for Te Tai Hauauru since 2002, age 69. Retiring from politics at 2014 election.

Hon Phil Heatley (National)
Minister of Housing 2008-13, Fisheries 2008-11, Energy 2011-13; MP for Whangarei since 1999, age 46. Reshuffled out of Cabinet and lost ministerial rank in January 2013, and chose to retire in 2014.

Paul Hutchison (National)
Electorate MP since 1999, currently for Hunua, age 65.

Hon Chris Tremain (National)
Minister of Internal Affairs 2012-present, MP for Napier since 2005, age 47. Opted to retire in 2014. 

Chris Auchinvole (National)
MP since 2005, currently a list MP, age 68.

Hon Kate Wilkinson (National)
Minister for Labour 2008-12, Food Safety 2008-13, Conservation 2010-13. MP since 2005, initially a list MP, but since 2011 MP for Waimakariri, age 56. Lost ministerial role in January 2013 reshuffle, and chose to retire in 2014.

Hon Pita Sharples (Maori)
Minister for Maori Affairs 2008-present, MP for Tamaki Makaurau since 2005, age 72. Retiring from politics at 2014 election.

Katrina Shanks (National)
List MP since 2007, age 44.

Cam Calder (National)
List MP since 2009, age 61.

Rumoured to be considering retiring / going onto party list

Hon Annette King (Labour)
Minister of Health 1999-2005, Police 2005-08, MP 1984 to 1990 and 1993 to present, currently MP for Rongotai, age 66.

Lindsay Tisch (National)
Electorate MP since 1999, currently for Waikato, age 66.

John Hayes (National)
MP for Wairarapa since 2005, age 65.

Eric Roy (National)
MP 1993 to 2002 and 2005 to present, currently MP for Invercargill, age 65.

Shane Ardern (National)
MP for Taranaki-King Country since 1998, age 53.

See also:
NZ: Parliament - Former MPs 2006-present
NZ: The role of campaign spokesperson, 22 October 2013
NZ: Leaving the House, 13 November 2008

A thrilling turn for the epistolary

Although Lost in Showbiz doesn't really care to have the effluent of Fleet Street in the house, it is dimly aware that Steve Coogan's been in a bit of a bate with newspapers of late. The temptation to throw the baby out with the bathwater must be immense – and yet, if only the comic and actor would heed the wise words of Andreas Whittam-Smith, former editor of the Independent, who once observed that to write an open letter was an act of journalistic madness.

Last weekend, you may be aware, Coogan opted to respond to a column by the Observer's David Mitchell by writing him an open letter, also published in that newspaper. Mitchell consequently wrote an open letter of reply to Coogan, which was itself published in the Observer – at the very same time at which his frequent comic partner, Robert Webb, was engaged in another, unrelated act of open letterdom somewhere across town. Webb was displeased by something Russell Brand had written to readers in the edition of the New Statesman the latter guest-edited last week, and has written an open letter to Brand about it all, which is published in this week's New Statesman.

What a thrilling turn for the epistolary public life has taken! In fact, it is to be hoped that by 2019, all political debate in this country will be framed by various comedians writing frothingly cordial letters to each other.

Even now, some funnyman or funnywoman could be dipping a fountain pen in to the special open-letter ink, and preparing to join this esteemed fray, like the various unreliable narrators of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. "My dear Vicomte MacIntyre …" "I received your letter, Madame de Millican, but suggest on that contrary that …" "Would you do me the immense courtesy of having a word with yourself, Chevalier Carr?"

- Marina Hyde, 'Calling all comedians: stop writing tetchy open letters to each other', Guardian, 31 October 2013

[Brand has since replied to Webb's reply. Free publicity for all concerned, I guess]

See also:

Comedy: David Sedaris - Entertaining house guests, 29 September 2013

Comedy: Alan Partridge picks his pop playlist, 1 August 2013

Comedy: Mitchell & Webb - Homeopathic A&E (sketch)

100 years on - The Battle of Featherston Street

Today's Dominion Post reports on a small parade in Wellington to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Featherston Street, the most violent episode in the fraught industrial dispute known as the 1913 Great Strike.

In 1913 violent street clashes occurred in Wellington when rural anti-union sympathisers deputised as 'special constables', who were better known as 'Massey's Cossacks', clashed with stone-throwing watersider sympathisers. On this day 100 years ago this erupted into the Battle of Featherston Street, in which the mounted 'Cossacks' made repeated charges to break up unionist sympathisers and succeeded in reclaiming the wharves to allow strike-breaking labour to access the facilities. Ultimately this defeated the watersiders' strike and resulted in the failure of the 1913 strike. But as the history texts point out, 1913 was a pivotal year for New Zealand workers, because six of the strike leaders (Bob Semple, Peter Fraser, Paddy Webb, Bill Parry, Dan Sullivan and Michael Joseph Savage) went on to become Ministers in the first Labour government in 1935, and of course two (Savage and Fraser) became Prime Minister.

These famous photos were taken at the height of the Featherston Street clashes, showing the impromptu cavalry formations and the billyclubs carried by the specials. It is worth pointing out that despite the violence of the 1913 strike, there were fortunately no fatalities.

Charging the strikers (via NZHistory)

Fleeing the charge (via NZHistory)

The editorial in the Dominion of the following day (6 November 1913) unsurprisingly takes the side of the employers, arguing that the radicalism of the strike was harmful to the national interest:

The employers have no desire for industrial trouble. They are anxious to co-operate in the most friendly way with their workmen for their' mutual advantage and for the public convenience and welfare. They want some adequate of good faith in order that business may be carried on without sudden interruptions and unnecessary friction. They believe that the machinery of the Arbitration Court is the best means available for obtaining this security. It may not be a perfect method, but it would be fair to both parties and also a protection to the great third party to all industrial disputes—the general public. The crisis which has now disorganised the industrial life of New Zealand has made it quite clear that, however the present trouble may be settled, permanent peace cannot be restored until the sober-minded and law-abiding section of the workers, who really form the vast majority, take the control of the labour fighting machine out of the hands of the revolutionary extremists.

As for the conflict in Featherston Street, the Dominion was firmly on the side of the Cossacks, who were pelted by bystanders with debris and rocks, like an occupying army:

The conduct of the mounted specials under these trying and dangerous circumstances was such as to win for them the admiration and respect, of every decent minded citizen who witnessed it. Their pluck and endurance were magnificent. Almost invariably they were attacked from behind or from some point of vantage where their cowardly assailants knew they were beyond reach of immediate punishment. When, as was imperatively necessary from time to time, they charged the rioters, they sent them scattering in all directions for shelter, from which they emerged when all was clear again to resume their dastardly tactics.

A different perspective was offered by the workers' paper, the Maoriland Worker, in its next weekly issue published on 12 November 1913:

The "Evening Post" records that a "hail of road metal" greeted the specials as they galloped into Featherstone [sic] Street. This is not quite accurate. Still, it is a fact that the people were thoroughly aroused by the dastardly conduct of the invaders, and a good deal of stone-throwing took place. "There were times when the only chance a man had to save his own life was to stop his cowardly assailants with a stone," said one resident who was interviewed by "The Worker." Near the Government Railway Department Offices, where the mass of people was greater, and therefore more completely at the mercy of the bludgeon-wielders, one of the worst of the attacks by the "specials" was made. Exasperated by the conduct of individual scabs, as well as by the outrages along the line of march, the people retaliated,with stones, sticks, bottles — indeed, with any weapon to hand. The whole army of horsemen suddenly wheeled around and galloped furiously upon the people, who as soon as they had recovered from the effects of the rush, fusiladed the enemy with every available missile. Repeated charges were made by the perpetrators of the lawless law, and men, women, and children were either struck at or savagely bashed with the batons and axe-handles wielded by the scabs.

See also:
History: The end of six o'clock closing, 9 October 2013
History: 120th anniversary of NZ women's suffrage, 19 September 2013
History:  The bleakest day in NZ history, 12 October 2012

TV flashback 1986

As the past two instalments of my Listener TV flashbacks have been popular, I thought I'd split the difference. After a glimpse at the viewing fare on offer on 15 April 1981 and 15 April 1991, the best option seemed to be to split the difference. So here then is a snapshot of the television on offer on the two Television New Zealand channels broadcasting on 15 April 1986.

Listener cover, 15 April 1986

The Listener's cover story highlights the premiere of a new television live-action adaptation of Stephen Ballantyne and Bob Kerr's graphic novel Terry & the Gunrunners (clip). This popular series is a reminder of New Zealand's now-waning proficiency in producing kidult dramas - back in the 1970s and 80s this was a niche in which TVNZ excelled. The politics page also ends with a brief nod to the biggest story of the day, the cowardly French secret service bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland in July 1985:

Do French spies Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart know something we don't? Seeking a splash of colour in their drab prison lives, each has taken out a subscription to the Listener. Not for the usual year, but for six months only. Are they planning on going somewhere later this year?

It seems they did have travel plans - in June 1986 the New Zealand government was heavied into accepting a payout from France in return for allowing the two agents to depart their New Zealand jail and reside for three years on the French Pacific island, Hao Atoll. France breached the agreement, and both agents were back living in France before the three years was up. 

C128 ad, Listener 1986

The standout advertisement from the April 1986 Listener was the full-page ad for the Commodore 128 home computer, the stepping stone between the hugely popular Commodore 64 and the imminent Commodore Amiga. According to the ad, the 128 offered peerless computing flexibility:

Using the Z80A microprocessor the 128 transforms into a business computer running CP/M Plus version 3.0, the latest version of the most popular business operating system for 8-bit micro computers. Famous programs such as dBase II, Wordstar, Calc-star and all of the most used applications together with many specialist packages; 80 columns. The C128 CP/M mode reads various 5 1/4" CP/M disk formats.

ONE - 15 April 1986

3.00 Sesame Street - 'Today presenting the letters H and Q, the number 3, and wearing glasses - relax, you're not alone. Also Te Whakapiri Maori with Jimmy McLean and Anahera Bowen'.

4.00 After School - with Olly Ohlson

4.05 Hans Christian Andersen Fairy-tales: Little Ida's Flowers

4.30 Video Dispatch: 'Lloyd Scott presents news & current affairs for younger viewers, with reporters Vicki Wilkinson-Baker, Kerre Woodham and Hannah Wallis'.

5.00 The Flintstones - Hanna Barbera's stone age cartoon (1960-66, 166 episodes)

5.30 Dr Who - Frontier in Space (2/6, from 1973) - 'Accused of being Draconian spies, Jo and the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) are taken back to Earth' (BBC, 1963-89, 2005-present, 798 episodes) 

6.00 Happy Days - ever-repeated 1950s comedy (1974-84, 255 episodes)

6.30 News

7.30 Then Again - 'Annie Whittle asks the question: "Whatever happened to...?" Following up the forgotten files are Kevin Milne, Judy Callingham, Caroline McGrath and Warwick Burke'.

8.00 Family Ties - Michael J Fox-featuring family sitcom (1982-89, 176 episodes)

8.30 Miami Vice - Swish Floridians popularising white dress jackets* (NBC, 1984-89, 111 episodes) -  'Tale of the Goat: Tubbs gets an inside look at voodoo worshipping which covers up big business'.

9.30 Return to Eden - Australian drama featuring Rebecca Gilling (miniseries 1983, 22-part series 1986).

10.30 Brass - ITV 1930s 'oop north soap satire - 'There's a gathering of clans in Utterley village, which will settle old scores in a final reckoning (Final)' (1983-84, later revisited by Channel 4, 1990).

11.00 News

11.05 Mackenzie - BBC drama series from 1980 including supporting role from Tracy Ullman.

12.05 Closedown

TWO - 15 April 1986

3.30 The Mary Tyler Moore Show - Ground-breaking CBS comedy (1970-77, 168 episodes)

3.55 Eight is Enough - Over-fecund family comedy (1977-81, 111 episodes)

4.55 Country Calendar - TVNZ's perennial rural magazine show (1966-present)

5.15 Small Wonder - Robot family comedy (1985-89, 96 episodes)*

5.45 News

5.50 Te Karere - Maori news (1983-present)

6.00 Sons & Daughters - Australian soap. 'An unexpected arrival at Fiona's property augurs well for her future' (1981-87, 972 episodes)

6.30 The Young Doctors - Australian soap. 'Life at the Albert Memorial Hospital' (1976-83, 1396 episodes)

7.30 Who's the Boss? - Sitcom. Spawned the 2nd-best misheard lyric ever** (1984-92, 196 episodes)

8.00 Wild South - NZ wildlife doco, on Lake Ellesmere's swans.

8.30 Tuesday Documentary: Conquest - celebrating the history of the world's space exploration programmes.

9.30 Eye Witness News - 'The latest news and background stories with Angela D'Audney in Auckland and Lindsay Perigo in Wellington'.

10.00 Freud - 6-part BBC serial on the life, work and ideas of Sigmund Freud, with David Suchet in the title role.

11.05 Mission Impossible - CBS thriller (1966-73).

12.00 Closedown

* Having left acting in 1991, Small Wonder's Tiffany Brissette, who played V.I.C.I. the android, is now a nurse in Boulder, Colorado.

** Hold me closer, Tony Danza. 

See also:

TV: Jan Hammer - Miami Vice Theme

TV: Justine Bateman - Interview (1983)

TV: Dr Who - Frontiers in Space (clip)

Use careful watch, choose trusty sentinels

The man who failed dismally as a lookout when he nodded off while his three mates burgled the Te Ngutu Golf Club has received community work. Police were alerted to the burglary and arrested the group who broke in and were busy stealing golf clubs.

Sickness beneficiary Jason Teremoana Rangi, 28, of Hawera, appeared in the New Plymouth District Court yesterday and admitted he was involved in two burglaries on the night of October 10. The court heard he had no previous convictions and lived with his parents.

Judge Max Courtney said Rangi was acting as a lookout for the others "albeit not a very good one" because he went to sleep in the car. However, he was a party to the burglaries, and therefore equally as guilty as the others.

The police summary says on October 10 the four, who were intoxicated, had first burgled a house in rural Kaponga, taking a large number of items from a freezer in the garage. On the way back to Hawera, one mentioned money kept at Te Ngutu Golf Club on Katene Rd.

Rangi stayed in the car but fell asleep while the other three broke into the pro shop and began stealing golf clubs. Police arrived and caught the trio in the area next to the pro shop.

- Lyn Humphrey, 'Nod costly for lookout', Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 2013

See also:

NZ: Canny vandals take note, 27 August 2013

NZ: Hold the front page!, 20 May 2012 

NZ: A sunny day over Taranaki, 27 August 2011