Well its been an interesting couple of weeks - but better is coming...

Well I know without being told that it is a while since I contributed anything to the world wide fund of misinformation, rumour and bigotry. So it is time I remedied that...

It is not the outcome of our elections – Auntie Helen “won”; there has been a bigamous marriage (or is it civil union) between Winnie the Pooh, Uncle Peter (Piglet) Dunne and Auntie Helen. Winnie has said he is being consistent and is not going to sleep in the marital bed, and ignores the fact that he has already achieved his major promise to his electorate – of having the toll road to Mount Maunganui paid for by the government. Peter the Piglet has his cuddle in the form of Transmission Gully motorway funding. I wonder if he owns property on the Kapiti Coast – the prices there are rocketing already.

The full Cabinet has been announced - and there have been the obvious prognostications of doom and despondancy with Winnie the Pooh being given the Very Important Job of Foreign Affairs. Given his “refusal” to be part of the merry threesome in the marital bed one can but wonder at the subtlety of Auntie Helen’s hint.

Interesting that one of his first ambitions is “to build bridges with the US”. Good luck Winnie. Given your success with the Mount expressway, a bridge should be a piss in the wind. Just make sure of which way the wind is blowing.

There is a report that NZ is the third least corrupt place after Iceland and Finland. Well I guess that is good to know. I might dispute its restriction to financial corruption – there are other aspects that I might take issue with. That is not the foremost in my mind either. The Truth Laid Bear had better take a look at the pork barrels wandering around Wellington to see where his attention might be better focussed.

The news today that Taranaki (otherwise known as Mt Egmont but I prefer Taranaki because it is more “personable”) is overdue for eruption by some 200 years and when (not if) it does it would potentially cover the whole of the North Island with ash. Start swimming if that gets the bowels moving. There was another report at the same time that “fear” triggers more heart attacks than high blood pressure. Mostly (apparently) it is the fear of having a heart attack that causes the problem. Taranaki just adds another dimension.

No. The news of the day, and in my opinion it will be NOTD for some time to come, revolves around a kiwi doctor serving with the RAF.

Michael Kendall-Smith has already served two tours of duty in Iraq. He was posted to a third tour in Basra. He has refused to comply with the order on the grounds that the war is not legal.

Now there is one heck of a lot of water to flow under this bridge. There is one very log floating downstream at the moment – one which I shall be trying to track in the next few days. It is a report from the British Attorney General to the effect that Britain has never declared war on Iraq. From there onward the initial news items become a little confused, such as the report that appeared in the Sunday Star Times -


Effectively this has the potential to put Tony Blair and the whole process associated with Britain’s support of the Bush expedition to Iraq under the legal microscope.

In my opinion the charges will not proceed. Kendall-Smith will get a discharge. It might be “without comment” on his service to avoid counter-suit but is unlikely to be “honourable”.

Why is this most likely? Simply because the British Government can not afford to have the Attorney General being produced in Court to effectively prosecute the Government. Not even in a military court – where a charge like this will most likely be heard. The rights of Kendall Smith to call the A-G as a witness will take some while to unravel for a start.

It might also lead to the A-G having to go back to his day job. His position on the Iraq war is almost certainly giving Blair the taste of raw alum in his mouth, and a similarly strong alum enema as well. Having the ultimate in pursed lips dragged out into public would not add to Blair’s current popularity.

But before that happens – what prospect there be for the interplay between accused, prosecution, civil and military law, and the politics involved...

Can the British government permit Kendall Smith to go without challenge? No. Probably not. For the simple reason that it will allow far too many other servicemen to “opt out” of Iraq service on the grounds that “war has not been declared”.

Can that be remedied? It will look a bit more than funny if Britain declares war against a country that it “defeated” two years ago... As Jeff da Maori would say, “Not even au”.

What a delicious dilemma.