A Week of It Art And Gossip Special

Friday, 27 May 2005, 4:38 pm
Column: Kevin List

A Week of It Art And Gossip Special

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Due to it being a recess week at Parliament this week’s column is an Art and gossip special. Last evening A Week of It visited Master Stonemason Carl Gifford and his amazing stone creations at 'Carlucci Land', where they put the happy in this slightly dank but beautiful part of Wellington – Happy Valley. Mr Gifford’s creations have never visited Venice but are certainly a blimmin’ bit more exciting than the recent Bridget Riley (UK) exhibition at the Wellington City Gallery. And just because Mr Gifford has received never receieved a cent of government funding doesn’t mean that he would refuse it. If anyone wants to help chip in to keep Happy Valley looking spanking you can get in touch with Carl through www.stonewallco.net.nz.

Now... onto the gossip...

Recent comments regarding large scale downsizing of the public service/bureaucracy by National Finance spokesperson, John Key have set off a war of the media diarists. In the red corner Mr Jordan Carter of the Hobbs campaign and in the blue corner, recent (Prime) TV star, Mr David P. Farrar. A recent press release from Ms Hobbs’ office urging Mr Blumsky to come clean on where he stands on impending cuts to jobs in Wellington should National be the next Government got this response from Mr Blumsky.

"I am ambitious for Wellington Central. Certainly we want a strong public service, and the majority of public servants are doing a very valuable job.”

Sadly Mr Blumsky refused to state which public servants weren’t (in his opinion) doing a good job so I guess until he does all public servants will have to be a bit wary.

Facing a stream of invective regarding Mr Blumsky's and civil servants jobs on his mighty and powerful media diary kiwiblog, Mr Farrar questioned why anyone would fight for jobs, which aren’t necessary. A week of It can’t wait to find out where Mr Farrar and Mr Blumsky think these unnecessary jobs are – Immigration Service perhaps, SIS maybe, Police Headquarters, Ministry of Defence or maybe the Maori Television Service?

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That doyen of the art of political spin Sir Humphrey seems to have been drinking too much coffee lately. His alter egos at Sirhumphreys in New Zealand have been ganging up on any poor soul that dares to question the mighty United States and its foreign policy or indeed anything at all that doesn’t agree with the hard working pinstriped Sir Humphrey’s world view. When your media diary is so important that it is single-handedly bringing down the Clark Government you can’t waste a second. One of the most self-important postings recently stated to one ‘time waster’:

“Next time you comment, make sure you know what we're talking about. Otherwise you are simply wasting our time.”

I guess when you enter details at 4:22am on a regular basis reading twenty or so words of an alternate viewpoint could get in the way of winning the upcoming election and correcting the alleged left leaning media bias rampant in Aotearoa.

Sir Humphrey’s media diary is evidently Mr Rodney Hide’s favourite blog (that is according to the Sir Humphreys - and Rodney himself said they looked great a while back). A Week of It finds Sir Humphrey’s exceptionally entertaining but not for the reasons Mr Hide does. We urge everyone to take the time to have a gander at Sir Humphreys. Just try and avoid the comments section, unless like a small lonely 'Tie' fighter you want to feel the wrath of the Death Star’s anger.

NBR Sources Prove Shaky Over Hide And Tamihere Friendship Rumour

There's a new media diary in town. The liberal intelligentsia at the National Business Review have decided to espouse their socialist vision for utopia at NBR Blog (http://www.nbr.co.nz/blog/). As well as allowing an insight into some of the best business brains in Aotearoa there will also be mindless tittle tattle to keep the average punter both informed and amused. A recent story had John Tamihere and Rodney Hide meeting in a Wellington bar and facing off in a way not dissimilar to the final scenes of Gladiator. However the endgame wasn't an effete Roman nobleman left bruised and bleeding on the tarmac of the Colosseum.

According to the NBR blogs, Mr Tamihere and Mr Hide had a most convivial time. Not so say A Week of It's highly paid and exceptionally reliable sources. They paint a picture of an red faced and exultant Mr Hide arriving at the Boulcott Street Bistro fresh from a battle of the wits with Kim Hill. In that same bistro was one Mr Tamihere busily solidifying business networks with a gaggle of business editors down for the next day's budget.

Mr Tamihere was quickly approached by Rodney Philip Hide - Mr Tamihere was cornered - hemmed in on all sides like a badger facing a Yorkshire farmer with gallons of petrol. Other sources say Mr Hide had a gin and tonic although this seems unlikely as Mr Hide is supposedly a teetotaler. The upshot was a broadside from Mr Tamihere aimed at Mr Hide and ACT and questioning just what Mr Hide had achieved for business during his time in Parliament. A Week of It understands Christmas cards are unlikely to be exchanged by either man this year.

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Keeping A Week of It's ear to the political carpet is likely to see one's head stood on. Nonetheless recent ear to ground digging has resulted in hearing murmurs of ructions at a Select Committee. A small sub-committee (the committee's name is a secret to protect the guilty) was hearing evidence when the rest of the gang (Members of Parliament) belonging to that committee wanted to pop in and join their friends. Out popped an official to bar these intrepid elected officials.

Evidently there was a bit of a barny resulting in one Labour MP believing that the official was maybe being a little too officious. In fact the MP considered that the official was standing in the way of the democratic process, as well as their coffee and biccies. A Week of It understands that the ructions from this incident are still reverberating around the hallowed halls (middle floors) of Bowen House.

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ENDS

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