Chris Trotter has got his mojo back
But not such good news about a couple of others
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Thursday 24 October 2013
Jim Mora, Michael Deaker, Chris Trotter
But not such good news about a couple of others
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Thursday 24 October 2013
Jim Mora, Michael Deaker, Chris Trotter
PART ONE OF TWO
In the lead-up to this show, host Jim Mora said they would be discussing “the ethical question of drones versus poison gas”. No sign of any such discussion in the first half of the program; instead, they talk with Brian Gaynor of Milford Asset Management about the National Government’s catastrophic (for the National Government) failure to flog off the publicly owned Meridian Power for more than the lowest possible price. Michael Deaker has no patience for Bill “Double Dipton” English‘s ridiculous claim that Labour and the Greens have “sabotaged” the flog-off and that the poor will suffer. Deaker slams the hapless Double Dipper’s rhetoric as “crass”.
.….4:30 news…..
After the news and weather, the gorgeous harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel play for twenty seconds or so. This is to introduce the next topic, some study that has found what music is best for soothing hurt feelings. Pop music is best, apparently, then classical (Beatles, Stones), then rock, then “indie”. Best tunes to lift the spirits of the depressed are “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, “Angels” by Robbie Williams and “Easy” by the Commodores. That’s odd, because whenever I hear Robbie Williams, I want to kill myself. Unless Robbie Williams himself were to be in striking distance, of course.
JIM MORA: What would our Panelists like to talk about? Michael Deaker on the program, along with Chris Trotter. Michael, what’s on your mind today?
Michael Deaker has a pleasant chat about how well behaved today’s Otago University students are. Contrary to what Family Fist and the S.S. Trust keep saying, kids are getting better. He scorns the dishonest nostalgia about the policeman in the old days who used to give kids a clip over the ear. “We had a bobby on a bike when I was a kid, but he was an old buffoon who everybody laughed at.”
MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha! Michael Deaker on the Panel! Chris Trotter with him! Chris, what have you been thinking about?
CHRIS TROTTER: Yes, well, I’d just like to draw your attention to the sentencing of TOPEC. The judge did not fine them! And even one of the families lamented the actual dealing out of justice. We do seem to give a pass to these sorts of organizations which we wouldn’t give to anyone else. Three young people died there. Then there were the five young people who died in the central North Island a few years before that. The people running these places should have faced the closing of their operation. I just wish New Zealanders were as absolutely keen on building the intellectual ability of their kids as they are on the physical. These outdoor activities like shooting down chasms and abseiling—-I’ve NEVER SEEN what that does for anybody apart from scaring them witless. It’s extreme and dangerous and should be closed. The judge says he wasn’t going to fine them. Well, I think you should have, Judge! There is a price everyone pays. I think we’re too fond of giving a pass to such organizations.
After some recent ethical lapses by Trotter, this was a welcome speech. This was the Chris Trotter we expect to hear: clear, forthright and moral. Obviously, if he was in this frame of mind, he was not going to say anything depraved or idiotic in the Gas versus Drones discussion.
There would, however, be more depravity and moral idiocy on display during the next five minutes than you’d find at an ACT Party fundraiser, a Destiny Church march or a S.S. Trust rally. It came from a couple of people, one of them a professor of legal ethics…..
END OF PART ONE.
